Photos by Mamta Popat / arizona daily star

More Photos (1):

Other articles by Aaron Mackey:

Shelton looking for vast changes from within UA UA scope sheds new light on black hole UA law school plans talks by Supreme Court justices New dig on Mars may help explain what causes deep cracks on surface UA's Toni Massaro to quit as law dean, return to teachingBlog: UA law school dean stepping down 90 days on Mars Blog: 'Red Army' leader named top UA Wildcat fan UA bike thefts drop UA's new provost taking an active day-to-day role

Employment Information
Vail School District
Recruitment Coordinator Engineering
CIMETTA ENGINEERING & CONSTRUCTION
QUALIFIED PARTY (MSHA & OSHA CERT) Health Care
Sonora Behavioral Health
CD Therapist General
CHULA VISTA LANDSCAPING
LANDSCAPE CREW LEADER Dental
DENTAL ASSISTANT Administrative & Professional
La Paloma Family Services, Inc.
Licensing Specialist Trades/Construction
Koedyker & Kenyon
Stucco Piece Crews and Stucco Hourly Crews

SIERRA VISTA — High-tech identification technology developed here is helping military personnel in Iraq distinguish between friend and foe.

Using a combination of fingerprinting, eye scans and facial-recognition software, a device created at Fort Huachuca is allowing troops patrolling Baghdad streets to know almost instantly whether they've come across an insurgent.

While it may sound like a gadget straight out of the latest spy movie, the device, known as HIIDE, is the product of roughly 10 years of research conducted at a special military intelligence lab about 75 miles southeast of Tucson.

It's one of the latest tools being used by soldiers and Marines as they search for ways to identify and neutralize enemies who don't wear uniforms and actively seek ways to deceive military personnel.

In the past, insurgents may have given phony names or forged documents to military personnel to try to evade capture or get access to secure areas. But with the device,soldiers and Marines are able to use personal identifying information, such as the shape of a person's iris or fingerprints, to identify individuals and check their information against a database of known insurgents.

While papers can be doctored, such detailed identifiable information — known as biometrics — can't be easily altered, said Kathy DeBolt, chief of Fort Huachuca's Language and Technology Office, which created the device.

Since the invasion of Iraq, the Marines and the Army have been using some form of biometric identification to build dossiers on people. The dossiers are then stored in a database.

That system, known as a Biometrics Automated Toolset, relies on a laptop, a digital camera, a fingerprint scanner and an iris reader to upload and store information into a database.

But with HIIDE — which stands for Handheld Inter- agency Identity Detection Equipment — the same tools are able to go mobile.

Packed into a device that looks like a Polaroid camera with a rubberized exterior are a series of optical sensors and a fingerprint scanner.

The device, which weighs roughly 3 pounds and costs $10,000, can be uploaded with up to 10,000 files from the database of individuals.

The setup allows Army or Marine squads on patrol to store a list of known insurgents in a particular area and cross-check the information against people the unit comes in contact with, said Mike Groves, a lead test engineer on the device.

Once information is taken from individuals, the data can be run through the list stored on the device. Within a minute, the device can say if there's a match.

"The information comes almost immediately," Groves said.

The device is quickly becoming a hot item in Iraq; close to 7,000 HIIDEs are being used, DeBolt said. Combined with biometric systems developed earlier, the device has played a crucial role in disabling bombing networks, she said.

In one case, forensic technicians were able to use a fingerprint found on a bomb fragment to identify a man whom troops had detained on another matter.

The then-unknown fingerprint was stored on the database and showed up as a match when troops came across the man later.

The man led officials to several other insurgents who were either captured or killed, DeBolt said.

"Using biometrics is becoming a way of life for the military," she said. "It's the only true way to identify people."

Squads in Iraq are entering hundreds of people in the database each week, with a total of more than 1 million Iraqis and other persons of interest in the system, DeBolt said.

The database is divided into two general classes: red light and green light.

Most of the entries receive green lights — they're usually civilians living in an area known for insurgents.

The people tagged with red lights range from people with whom officials want to speak to leaders of al-Qaida, DeBolt said.

On average, the military is finding one insurgent or other high-value target each day.

Because of biometrics' effectiveness in Iraq, officials are looking at ways to expand the program to other areas, such as border security and national intelligence programs.

But such moves wouldn't come without controversy, DeBolt said.

Already, civil-liberties groups have raised concerns about what biometrics might mean for the privacy of U.S. citizens.

While it's illegal to develop and keep such dossiers on American citizens — unless the person is a known terrorist — the technology will have to be vetted and decisions will have to be made about how and when such information should be used, if at all, DeBolt said.

Regardless of the future of biometrics in domestic security, the technology has made an impact in Iraq, DeBolt said.

The technology has forced insurgents to change their tactics and has flushed them out of Baghdad, she said, increasing the capital city's security.

"Identifying the enemy is the first step to neutralizing them," DeBolt said. "With biometrics, they can't hide anymore."