Army trades blankets for biometrics

Handing out food, blankets and clothing has been part of the American military mission in Afghanistan and Iraq since the beginning of those two wars. But charity now comes with a price. Soldiers of the 1-61 Cavalry Squadron in Zormat, Afghanistan gave out blankets and coats to Afghan men Friday, but only to those who first had their fingerprints scanned, their photographs taken, and their names, ages and other details entered into a database. It took almost four hours to digitally record these details from 119 men in the Zormat bazaar, who then received their blankets. The system is also equipped to record retinal scans, but those were not collected Friday. The soldiers doing the work said many Afghan farmers are so used to squinting in the sun that retinal scans are difficult. Many of the farmers also have little in the way of fingerprints after a lifetime working in the fields. Biometric information is also collected from all of those arrested. In some parts of Afghanistan, Taliban fighters may be released after pledging to lay down their weapons -- but only after all of the biometric information is recorded, so that any intelligence pointing to renewed insurgent activity can be used to track them down. Soldiers here say there are only about 8,000 names in the database so far. The system is reportedly also in use in Iraq and Saudi Arabia.