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RFID Tags To Track Foreigners, Identify Dead
An anonymous reader writes "U.S. security officials say they will use RFID technology at border posts with Canada and Mexico to track foreigners driving in and out of the United States. A Department of Homeland Security spokesman said wireless chips for vehicles would become mandatory at designated border crossings in Canada and Mexico as of Aug. 4. At the same time, British officials are considering using RFID chips to identify the dead in the wake of a disaster." From the British article: "...following the bomb blasts on the London Underground, the process of identifying some bodies - particularly on the deep-lying Piccadilly Line - became very difficult, with some families upset by the amount of time it took to confirm a relative had died. VeriChip advocates argue it could help in these circumstances. "
The article does not say that British officials want to use them - it says that corporation that manufactures the chips thinks it would be good idea!
If these are the same chips discussed a year or so ago, they get their power from the mag field of the reader.
Yeah, 'cause we all know that no other Administration has been secretive.
I work for an agency under Department of Defense as (among other things) the RFID go-to guy for the agency.
;-)
;-)
Passive RFID tags have a maximum range of about ten meters on their best day - to be able to read the things mostly error-free we're talking about ranges from one inch to one meter.
Also, passive tags need to be read by a handheld reader or passed through an RFID portal to be read - at the current level of technology they can't be read by satellites, honest
Active RFID tags have a range of 50 to 100 meters, but they're also battery-powered, huge and heavy. An active RFID tag is about 2"x3" and about ten inches long. Weighs about a pound and as I said, has a replaceable battery about the size of a AA cell. I don't think we could convince folks to wear them around their necks.
I can see how placing a tag on a body can keep the body from being counted twice - I don't see the advantage to tagging automobiles, though. If you're gonna have to get within three feet of the vehicle to read the RFID tag it seems to me you oughtta just record the VIN instead
we see things not as as they are, but as we are.
-- anais nin
There is a not so good guy that said
"Why of course the people don't want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally the common people don't want war neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country." --Hermann Goering
Sad, but he is right
Good thing all four of your car's tires already contain RFID chips.
9 /1/1/
http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/articleview/26
Enjoy your so-called "freedom".
But, I wish we could 'wall up' the borders, at least on the southern border...and help turn the flood of illegals coming across.
Actually the dramatic increase in illegals living in the US has been caused by implimenting your desires as stated above.
In 1996 the Clinton administration erected walls and other anti-crossing devices in the main crossing regions (such as San Diego-Tijuana.) Prior to that time, the quantity of illegals who would remain in the US was relatively small--instead, they would cross in the US to work for a few months, and then generally return back (once they made some cash. Life in the US tends to be too hard and expensive for illegals to want to remain permanently.) In any case, if they needed cash again, they would come back for a few months and return.
When they started closing the border, the blow to the head reality of economics kicked in. The only way in now is the really hard crossings, which many don't survive. Economic migrants got shit-scared...so
a.) they started flooding northward, afraid that if they didn't make it now, they may never be able to make it
b.) they stayed, because it's so hard to cross, and they didn't want to risk going back south and trying another migration northward
c.) having children on US soil becomes vitally important. Illegals with children who are US citizens are undeportable. (Oddly, the parents are still illegal...there's no easy way for them to become legal, and when Bush suggested asylum, Congress went mad.)
So, in essence, Clinton's attempt to appeal to the anti-immigration types dramatically increased illegal immigration. (Some say from 100k per year to 1 million per year.) Because people don't understand the issue, regardless of their political leanings, the obvious/workeable solutions will remain off the table.
Bottom line: im never going to USA or other similar country of "freedom". Ever.
You are not alone. A lot of Europeans have got the "not welcome" message. Not in so many words, but the border reception shows what the US thinks about them. If other countries did the same thing to US citizens at their borders there would be an outrage. So visiting the US as a tourist, or going to a conference that isn't absolutely necessary is just out of the question.
Well, living in NZ, I know that journalist friends don't dare admit to being journalists any more when trying to enter the US. This may be different for a big corporation like the BBC, but one freelancer I know tried to go to the US last year to make a radio documentary about someting to do with linguistics, said so at immigration, and was insta-deported. I guess being a journalist, no matter what kind of journalist, is only one step away from being a terrorist - who knows, they might, heaven forfend, tell foreigners about what life is like in the US (the horror!).
I guess the Iron Curtain just moved around a bit. Hope you like it there, guys.
"Actually the dramatic increase in illegals living in the US has been caused by implimenting your desires as stated above."
Sorry, but I am going to have to call this total bullshit. H. Ross Perot was absolutely, unequivocally correct when he stated that "...with the passage of NAFTA, Americans were going to hear a great sucking sound as jobs moved south." Every bit of the follow-on NAFTA provisions that would have helped "level the playing field", such as a guaranteed minimum wage, benefits, and proper environmental concerns were all ruled illegal by the WTO. Then Mexico defaulted on their World Bank and other foreign debt, which the USA (to avoid a revolution on our southern border) loaned/gave money to Mexico to bail them out. A number of the factories that moved to Mexico experienced some labor union organizing efforts, so the Mexican workers were fired and Chinese workers were imported. Others simply packed up and moved their factories to China.
The Clinton administration, in 2000, prosecuted over 300 American businesses for knowingly hiring illegal aliens. When Dubya took office, he pledged to MX President Fox that he would grant amnesty for illegal aliens, establish a worker visa program, and extend SS benefits to those granted amnesty. Even after 9/11/2001, Dubya continued to maintain the very same policy objectives (, including an open border). Post 9/11/2001, illegal immigration across (primarily) the USA's southern border increased by more than 33%. In 2003, the same year that the USA went to war in Iraq, the Dubya regime prosecuted only 13 employers for knowingly hiring illegal aliens, even though the number of illegal aliens within the USA jumped in five years from 14 million to over 20 million.
The Dubya regime likes illegal aliens. The jobs that American corporation don't offshore outsource, they are busy filling with L1-A and H1-B visa holders. The illegal aliens are filling the same function for low wage and blue collar jobs here. The purpose is (1) to destroy the labor unions, and (2) to force American wages low enough to compete with China and India.
The neo-Con(artists) that control the Executive and Legislative (and soon Judicial) branches of government continue to chip away at American civil liberties, proportedly to "fight terrorism". But they risk their political future AND their freedom by continuing to "play dumb" regarding the flood of illegal aliens across the USA's borders. The next major domestic terrorist attack will prove that their "war on terror" was a smokescreen. No terrorist would ever get away with using boxcutters to take control of a commercial aircraft again -- everybody now knows how to foil such an attack. Yet our borders and seaports remain largely unguarded, five years after "Saddam bin Laden" got the attention of our leaders. Their failure to act promptly and decisively to safeguard this country's safety and sovereignty in favor of business as usual for their business interests falls little short of treason.