Gadget warfare: High-tech anti-terrorism

January 6, 1998
CNN
From Netly News Writer Declan McCullagh

For a country with no real military rivals, the U.S. still manages to find an amazing number of enemies. Terrorists top the list of anti-American villains, according to a Pentagon report released last month.

The 100-page document, called "Responses to Transnational Threats," describes how the military should respond to the threat of saboteurs and bombers aiming for violence, not victory. The solution, according to the Pentagon, is to develop a set of gadgets that would make even James Bond jealous.

Micro-robots

A spy camera scuttling through the underbrush? Yes, disguised as "an insect, a small pebble, or a stick." The report calls for the development of "micro-robots" that walk or fly and can beam video, audio and infrared signals back to their operators: "These sensors are covert in the sense that they are small and have a high probability of escaping notice." And when the military is finished with them, mom can use them from work to strategically keep an eye on the kids.

Sticky electronics

Think SpiderMan's spidertracers, only smaller. "Sticky electronics" adhere to a suspected terrorist's clothing, hair, luggage or vehicle and report his location. These almost microscopic gizmos tune in to satellite signals and transmit their exact latitude and longitude. "To conserve battery (and mission life) they would respond only when" activated by a radio signal, the Pentagon says. And if you're the suspicious type, sprinkle some in your spouse's underwear.

Bio-sniffers

Go lie down, Fido. Soon drug-sniffing dogs may be replaced by even more sensitive, digital noses. If suspects have been handling nukes, biological weapons or high explosives, the military hopes to be able to sniff substance traces from items like passports. "As future technology is improved, antigens might then be detected at national entry portals as trace contamination on emigration documents or passports, by urine analysis or by other means." Look for companies to use this as a more sensitive (if not more reliable) type of drug testing.

The Internet

he Net shouldn't be viewed as "a vulnerability." That view "loses sight of many potential benefits," the Pentagon explains. To the spooks, the Net "is an underexploited information-acquisition resource" that "allows for remote and anonymous participation in online 'chat' forums that might provide insight into dissident group activities." (Look out, alt.fan.militia!) The military also wants to create a "secure, transnational threat information infrastructure" -- at a cost of a mere $300 million.

Data mining

If you worried about the FBI's jones for access to your data, wait 'til you find out what the military hopes to do. The Pentagon wants authority to sift through private-sector databases in hopes of tracking down, say, the World Trade Center bombers before they strike. The plan is to incorporate "real-time data on international border crossings, real-time cargo manifests, global financial transactions and the global network carrying international airline ticket manifests." As new private-sector databases are developed, "the baseline system would be augmented so that the correlation and fusion process becomes more automated." But the benefits of invading everyone's privacy are dubious: It's hard to imagine the alleged Unabomber, for instance, showing up in computer files.

Smart software

Once you've got the databases, how do you use 'em? The military says the answer is "groupware" and "intelligent software agents" that "can be focused to search for a confluence of events in multiple databases or for goals over time." Consumer marketers will finally be able to determine the commonalities between the Hajj, Promise Keeper gatherings and Burning Man.

So would military budgets. In a world where even the Pentagon admits that the U.S. is the only remaining superpower, the defense community argues that terrorism threats justify their budgets. "Nothing will be more challenging to the protection of our citizens, soldiers and our way of life than the threats of weapons of mass destruction and terrorism," General John Shalikashvili, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Defense Special Weapons Agency last year. Perhaps. But even the gadgets and databases the Pentagon wants will never eliminate terrorism -- and could cost Americans plenty, both in taxes and reduced freedoms.