Base access in the blink of an eye?

Two years ago, a number of Iraqis who applied for the Iraq Police Academy were flagged as having characteristics that matched those of previously identified terrorists and insurgents. How? Biometrics–the ability to measure physiological or behavioral characteristics and compare them to scans stored in a database. In fact, in the fiscal year that ended last September, biometrics took about 400 "tier one high-value individuals"–snipers, bomb makers, insurgent leaders and the like–off the streets of Iraq and Afghanistan. The Biometrics Task Force, an Army agency with a Defense Department-wide mission, won't say how many were snagged in the past 12 months and won't give specific examples of how certain bad guys were caught, citing security concerns. But the group says its technology is evolving, is in high demand and has made solid gains in enabling the sharing of information across government agencies.