My Way News - Dodd Seeks Boost on Surveillance Bill
AP reports: "The Senate is considering whether to shield the telecommunications companies from the roughly 40 pending civil lawsuits alleging violations of communications and wiretapping laws. The White House says if the cases go forward they could reveal information that would compromise national security."

Washington Post - Spurred by Gratitude, "Bomb Lady" Develops Better Weapons for U.S.
The Washington Post reports:

Duong's most recent innovation, the Joint Expeditionary Forensics Facilities (JEFF) project or "lab in a box," analyzes biometrics. It will be delivered to Iraq at the beginning of 2008, the Navy said, to help distinguish insurgents from civilians. [...] the military has been scanning the irises and taking the fingerprints of Iraqis, feeding a biometrics data base in West Virginia. [...] Each collapsible, sand-colored, 20-by-20-foot unit has its own generator and satellite link. If things go as planned, data will beamed to the Biometric Fusion Center to check against more than a million Iraqi fingerprints.

What a great use of biometric technology, if this helps to minimize civilian casualties, it will be more than worth it. I'm not really an alarmist on this kind of thing. I mean, it's not like they are implanting them with RFID chips, this technology is pretty old (fingerprints!) so I see this as just one more example of how the use of biometrics is being accelerated in this age of terrorism and war.

My Way News - Shell Station Customers 'Pay by Touch'
AP reports: "Ten Shell gas stations in the Windy City are testing biometric systems that let consumers walk up to the pump, scan their fingertips on a device and fill up their vehicles. The systems, also installed at Shell convenience stores, are directly linked to customers' checking or credit-card accounts for payment."

My Way News - Retailers, Creditors Clash on Security
AP reports: "Less than half the nation's biggest merchants appear to be complying with card industry security standards - which include encryption and other safeguards - despite a Sept. 30 deadline set by Visa USA, which plans to levy monthly fines up to $25,000 against merchant banks that noncompliant retailers rely on."

My Way News - NYC Mayor: Surveillance a City Necessity
AP reports: "Residents of big cities like New York and London must accept that they are under constant watch by video cameras, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Monday."

My Way News - Chicago Video Surveillance Gets Smarter
AP reports: "Chicago already has thousands of security cameras in use by businesses and police - including some equipped with devices that recognize the sound of a gunshot, turn the cameras toward the source and place a 911 call. But the new system would let cameras analyze images in real time 24 hours a day."

My Way News - Chip Implants Linked to Animal Tumors
AP reports on some interesting developments regarding implanted RFID chips:

When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved implanting microchips in humans, the manufacturer said it would save lives, letting doctors scan the tiny transponders to access patients' medical records almost instantly. The FDA found 'reasonable assurance' the device was safe, and a sub-agency even called it one of 2005's top 'innovative technologies.' But neither the company nor the regulators publicly mentioned this: A series of veterinary and toxicology studies, dating to the mid-1990s, stated that chip implants had 'induced' malignant tumors in some lab mice and rats.

This is interesting in light of Revelation 16:2:

The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the land, and ugly and painful sores broke out on the people who had the mark of the beast and worshiped his image.

And also Revelation 16:11:

and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done.

I'm actually not a fan of implanted RFID chips as the fulfillment of the Mark of the Beast, I think that nanotech RFID tattoos are a much more practical application. Perhaps those would still suffer from the same unfortunate side-effect as the human body would still be likely to interpret any RFID technology as tumor inducing foreign matter?

My Way News - Judge Strikes Down Part of Patriot Act
AP reports: "A federal judge struck down parts of the revised USA Patriot Act on Thursday, saying investigators must have a court's approval before they can order Internet providers to turn over records without telling customers."

My Way News - ATM Makers See Ties to Cell Phones, PDAs
AP reports: "Over the past two years, Diebold has won five U.S. patents for applications that enable mobile devices to interact directly with bank ATMs."

Torrent Freak - Congressman wants ISPs to be Copyright Police: With warrentless wiretapping sweeping the US, a leading congressman is proposing similar measures for the Internet. This isn't an attempt at "fighting terror" but instead a new measure to reduce so-called "piracy" by making the ISPs the police force.