The Problem With Names-Based Lists
From the White House summary of the Christmas bombing intelligence failures (summary_of_wh_review_12-25-09.pdf):
“A misspelling of Abdulmutallab’s name initially resulted in State Department believing he did not have a valid U.S. visa.”
I’ve been railing about this for a while. But if anything makes the case for moving to a biometric identity assurance system, this has to be it, no? It is 2010, and we’re literally still tracking people using methods appropriate to the 19th Century.
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How would that have helped?
a. UFA applies for visa
b. Submits to iris scan, finger-printing, visa approved.
c. Someone says UFA is a threat…
d. ???????
Biometrics are on file, but you just have info re a threat, what are you going to match on?