The U.S. Government is now investing 15 billion dollars to create dossiers on all visitors to
the U.S.
Original Source – GAO. 2004. Data Mining: Federal Efforts Cover a Wide Range of uses, GAO-04-548, May.
The U.S. Government is now investing 15 billion dollars to create dossiers on all visitors to
the U.S.
Original Source – GAO. 2004. Data Mining: Federal Efforts Cover a Wide Range of uses, GAO-04-548, May.
In March 2004 US Citizen Brandon Mayfield was identified as the primary suspect responsible for the Madrid Bombing by the FB, based on Fingerprint evidence. In April the Spanish National Police stated, in a written report that the finger print of Brandon was not a match. The following month, 6th May 2004, the FBI arrested Brandon Mayfield, 13 days later the Spanish police arrest the correct person, but the FBI did not fully release Brandon for five more days.
The detention was based on a single, imperfect finger print. The FBI had not see the original print, despite being given the opportunity by the Spanish police. Brandon was released on 21st May 2004, two days after the Spanish police had identified the correct suspect, Ouhane Daoud and 1 month after they stated Brandon’s fingerprint did not match
On the 13th March 2004 when the FBI first searched their database “AFIS” – Automatic Fingerprint Identification Search”, the result was negative, and they asked for a new, better quality image, which they received on the following day, on 14th March.
On 15th March 2004, 20 “matches” were found during the search – 20 were found as the search was programmed to limit show only 20 – i.e it could/would have many more, if it had not been limited to 20 people.
Brandon Mayfield was ranked number 4 on the search. Details of the 20 people identified in the search were extracted and background checks made. Brandon Mayfield has the following Bio:
American citizen born in Oregon and reared in Kansas. He lives with his wife and three children in Aloha, Oregon, a suburb of Portland. Mayfield was 38 years old, a former Army officer with an honorable discharge, and a practicing Oregon lawyer. However his faith is listed as Muslim.
The persons ranked number 1 to 3 were not arrested.
On April 13, 2004, the Spanish National Police provided a written report to the FBI concluding that Mayfield’s fingerprints did no match the scene of crime.
The FBI continued to investigate Brandon Mayfield, including bugging his house, etc, then on 6th May 2004 Bradon was eventually arrested, he was put in solitary confinement, his family was told the evidence was “100%” and leaks to the press about the guilt of Brandon were made.
On 19th May 2004 the Spanish Police correctly identified who the fingerprint belonged to, an Algerian called -Ouhane Daoud. However the FBI continued to detain Brandon until the 21st – when the story made the news. Even then Brandon was still placed under home arrest until 24th May, when the FBI finally released him.
This case, along with the case of David Asbury, shows how large amounts of data, and fingerprints in particular, can and are misused.
Links:
In late 2003 Khaled el Masri, a German citizen, left Ulm, Germany, for holiday in Skopje, in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
On 31 December 2003, he was stopped at the border between Serbia and Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
According to Khaled el Masri he was then detained the CIA in a hotel for 3 weeks, then on 23rd January 2004 he was transferred to Afghanistan on a CIA Boeing 737
Khaled el Masri states that he was then detained in solitary confinement for another 4 months In Afghanistan. He was later released with out charge.
Initially the case was denied by the German government (in November 2005). However, later evidence was provided that showed that he was detained and taken to Afghanistan.
This information included:
Then in December 2005 the US admitted the incident to the German Chancellor.
In September 2002, Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen, who had been living in Canada since 1987 was returning from a holiday in Tunisia via New York’s Kennedy airport. He was detained at JFK airport and and accused of having links with Al Qaeda and was arrested and detained for 13 days.
On 8 October 2002 Maher Arar was served with an expulsion order issued by the Immigration Court and then handed over the CIA. He was then transferred to Jordan on a private Gulfstream jet (which went via Rome, Italy). Maher Arar was then transferred into Syrian custody and held in a Damascus prison under the control of the Syrian security services.
Maher Arar was then tortured for a year, physical and psychological torture.
He was later released without any charge against him. He is now living in free in Canada.
On 5 February 2004 the Canadian Government set up a commission of inquiry , chaired
by Justice O’Connor to investigate the actions of Canadian officials in the Arar cas. In October the same year the O’Connor Commission confirmed that Arar had been tortured in Syria
In December 2003 a Newton Committee Report in the Anti Terrorism , Crime and Security Act 2000 (ATCS) (which is required by law) made several clear statements about the over use of powers by governments.
It stated that:
“Giving the authorities untrammelled powers to exercise against suspected terrorists may seem reasonable in the heat of the moment, until they are exercised against the wrong people (perhaps through mistaken identity rather than mischief) and those at the wrong end of them find that the procedures for redress are inadequate. The case of the 72-year-old British man held in a South African prison for nearly three weeks in an identity
mix-up by the FBI earlier this year illustrates the point in a non-terrorist context.
The report also states that:
“Nor do more extensive powers always lead to greater public safety. The East German Government may have had files on a quarter of their population, but it failed to predict or prevent its own demise.“
