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NATO Eyes Biometric ID Cards for Afghanistan, Faces Major Obstacles

by Amar Toor on September 24, 2010 at 04:05 PM

iris scan in afghanistan
In an effort to exert greater control over militant groups in Afghanistan, several governmental ministries, in conjunction with NATO forces, are now hoping to issue biometric ID cards to over 1.65 million Afghan citizens by May. Local and foreign forces have already begun compiling biometric files on policemen, criminals, insurgents and normal citizens, and are currently collecting information from an estimated 20 to 25 Afghans each week. A nationwide ID system, NATO officials argue, would help control movement of militant groups within the country, and prevent the Taliban from infiltrating the national army.

"The system allows the Afghans to thoroughly screen applicants and recruits for any potential negative past history or criminal linkages, while at the same time it provides an additional measure of security at checkpoints and major facilities to prevent possible entrance and access by malign actors in Afghanistan," NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan commander Lt. Gen. William Caldwell told Wired.


Afghanistan, in fact, already has two separate biometric databases. One database, compiled by NATO and U.S. forces, contains data from detainees and "persons of interest." The second is managed by the Afghan government, and contains data exclusively from national soldiers and police recruits. The only problem, however, is that there's very little synergy between the two. NATO officials could capture an insurgent, for example, and the Afghan government would never enter his information into its database.

In order to implement the national ID system, officials have enlisted 1,000 locals to gather their countrymen's biometric information. That data will be systematically entered into the Afghan database, where the government already has the information of nearly 250,000 people. If all goes according to plan, then, NATO is hoping to reach its goal of 1.65 million entries by May. But the chances of that actually happening -- let alone being effective -- are dependent upon a variety of political and social factors.

President Hamid Karzai, for example, has yet to officially sign off on the initiative, and his administration has taken steps to shut down similar biometric projects in the past. Even if NATO and various Afghan ministries manage to convince Karzai to approve the plan, the information could potentially get into the wrong hands, and be used to incite even more sectarian violence. While U.S. forces reported no such data abuse after implementing a similar biometric system in Iraq, Afghanistan's myriad warring factions, as we all know by now, tend to play by their own rules.

Tags: afghanistan, AfghanistanWar, biometric, HamidKarzai, iraq, IraqWar, military, NATO, NatoTroops, personalinformation, politics, privacy, taliban, war

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