With its FAST program, the federal government is trying to read minds to fight terrorism

[marmar]

from In These Times:



Uncle Sam’s ‘Mal-intent’
With its FAST program, the federal government is trying to read minds to fight terrorism.

BY Michael Solomon


It’s called the FAST Mobile Module. It looks like an outdoor school trailer on wheels, complete with multiple screening rooms, three ramp entry lanes for greater “throughput” and state-of-the-art physiological and behavioral technologies that can detect an individual’s “mal-intent”–that is, intention to do harm.

The Mobile Module may one day roam the country, its high-tech sensors measuring heart rates, skin temperatures, body movements, breathing, pupil dilation and other physiological indicators to predict whether or not someone will commit a crime in the future.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) calls this program, established in 2008, Future Attribute Screening Technology (FAST). The goal is to “develop a prototype to detect deception and hostile intent in real time,” DHS Under Secretary of Science and Tehnology Jay Cohen has said. Internal DHS documents recently obtained by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) through the Freedom of Information Act reveal the program in greater detail.

A 2008 preliminary test of the technology on volunteers went like this: First, subjects were assigned one of three distinctions: no mal-intent, mal-intent without device, or mal-intent smuggle. “Mal-intent smuggle” meant the subject was to try to smuggle a “disruptive device” past the sensors without being “flagged” by the FAST Sensor Suit–a tall bed frame-like structure fitted with thermal cameras, heart monitors and other physiological sensors that tracks subjects as they walk past. ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/12408/uncle_sams_mal_intent

[snot]

1. Talk about "unreasonable search" . . .

[Autumn]

2. The Department of Homeland Security is a fucking joke

rec

[Solly Mack]

3. K&R

[saras]

4. Is the desire to outlaw the TSA "intent to do harm"?

How about the desire to give every molesting TSA agent to the horse that finished off Mr. Hands? I don't want to do any harm, I want the horse to do it.