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Home Front: WoT
Officials Test Radio Tags at Canada Border
2005-08-09
WaPo. Registration required, I think, so posted in full.

ALEXANDRIA BAY, N.Y. -- Security officials gathered Monday at a Canadian border crossing to mark the first test of a radio frequency identification system to be used by foreign visitors.

If successful, radio "tags" carried by travelers will be the focus of a lawsuit by the ACLU and Human Rights Watch part of the standard registration process for those entering the United States.

The technology is like that used to speed passage at toll booths on many highways, said P.T. Wright, the operations director for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's US-VISIT Program.

Testing began last week at the Thousand Islands Bridge crossing from Canada. It also is being done at the Peace Arch and Pacific Highway crossings in Blaine, Wash., and two crossings in Nogales, Ariz.

The new technology could help relieve congestion at border crossings, while also helping authorities weed out potential terrorists, drug dealers and other criminals, officials say.

This is the second phase of US-VISIT, the screening system launched in 2004 at busy airports, sea ports and land crossings. The system requires scanning fingerprints and photographs of the visitor's face into a computer when someone who wants to enter the U.S. applies for a visa.

All foreign travelers using visas will also obtain their radio tags from U.S. Customs officials when they first register to enter the United States. The tag is embedded into their foreheads and runs at 666 MHz a document, which the traveler presents to enter or leave the United States.

The crossing points are equipped with antennas that read the tags for a secured and coded serial number linked to a database with the information provided by the traveler.

The antennas can read the tags up to 30 feet away and recognize many tags simultaneously, Wright said. Ideally, travelers will be able to flash them going by at highway speeds, he said.

The first phase of testing will have a simple focus - to make sure the antennas can read each chip, that the system correctly relays that information and successfully matches it with the government's databases.

In the second phase, which will begin next spring, border agents will use the system at their checkpoints to identify travelers.
Posted by:Jackal

#7  Just imprint them upon our guests
Laser tattooed barcodes
title="tattoo tomato" alt="tattoo tomato">
Posted by: 3dc   2005-08-09 19:59  

#6  All new American passports have these embedded as of this year as well.

"This is my big brother Sam, Sam I feel so safe with you up my ass all the time, isn't this great! You're such an awesome big brother"

EP
Posted by: ElvisHasLeftTheBuilding   2005-08-09 17:15  

#5  Oh beautiful, and so becoming to her face.

(MOOOOOOO)
Posted by: Redneck Jim   2005-08-09 17:14  

#4  Image hosted by Photobucket.com
Posted by: Anonymoose   2005-08-09 16:51  

#3  Them ear-tags they use on cattle would work about as well too.
Posted by: Hupolutch Whereger2897   2005-08-09 16:44  

#2  Sounds like stealing real tags would be ideal. No telling who or what is in the car as travelers will be able to flash them going by at highway speeds.
Posted by: john   2005-08-09 16:21  

#1  And the best part is that they only use 40-bit encryption, which means that with a good PC and the right hacker software, you can generate phony ones at a rate of about 1 to 5 a day. Within a year or two, pros should get that up to 200-500 a day per computer. Maybe the hackers should play up the "Haxors vs. The Antichrist" bit. Imagine trying to seat a jury after asking everybody if they believed in the Antichrist?
Posted by: Anonymoose   2005-08-09 11:41  

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