[iwar] [fc:NASA.plans.to.read.terrorist's.minds.at.airports]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2002-08-19 06:16:06
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Date: Mon, 19 Aug 2002 06:16:06 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [iwar] [fc:NASA.plans.to.read.terrorist's.minds.at.airports]
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The Washington Times
&lt;A HREF="http://www.washtimes.com/"www.washtimes.com
&lt;/ANASA plans to read terrorist's minds at airports
Frank J. Murray 
THE WASHINGTON TIMES 
Published 8/17/2002

Airport security screeners may soon try to read the minds of travelers
to identify terrorists. 

Officials of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration have told
Northwest Airlines security specialists that the agency is developing
brain-monitoring devices in cooperation with a commercial firm, which it
did not identify. 

Space technology would be adapted to receive and analyze brain-wave and
heartbeat patterns, then feed that data into computerized programs "to
detect passengers who potentially might pose a threat," according to
briefing documents obtained by The Washington Times. 

NASA wants to use "noninvasive neuro-electric sensors," imbedded in
gates, to collect tiny electric signals that all brains and hearts
transmit.  Computers would apply statistical algorithms to correlate
physiologic patterns with computerized data on travel routines, criminal
background and credit information from "hundreds to thousands of data
sources," NASA documents say. 

The notion has raised privacy concerns.  Mihir Kshirsagar of the
Electronic Privacy Information Center says such technology would only
add to airport-security chaos.  "A lot of people's fear of flying would
send those meters off the chart.  Are they going to pull all those
people aside?"

The organization obtained documents July 31, the product of a Freedom of
Information Act lawsuit against the Transportation Security
Administration, and offered the documents to this newspaper. 

Mr.  Kshirsagar's organization is concerned about enhancements already
being added to the Computer-Aided Passenger Pre-Screening (CAPPS)
system.  Data from sensing machines are intended to be added to that
mix. 

NASA aerospace research manager Herb Schlickenmaier told The Times the
test proposal to Northwest Airlines is one of four airline-security
projects the agency is developing.  It's too soon to know whether any of
it is working, he says. 

"There are baby steps for us to walk through before we can make any
pronouncements," says Mr.  Schlickenmaier, the Washington official
overseeing scientists who briefed Northwest Airlines on the plan.  He
likened the proposal to a super lie detector that would also measure
pulse rate, body temperature, eye-flicker rate and other biometric
aspects sensed remotely. 

Though adding mind reading to screening remains theoretical, Mr. 
Schlickenmaier says, he confirms that NASA has a goal of measuring brain
waves and heartbeat rates of airline passengers as they pass screening
machines. 

This has raised concerns that using noninvasive procedures is merely a
first step.  Private researchers say reliable EEG brain waves are
usually measurable only by machines whose sensors touch the head,
sometimes in a "thinking cap" device.  "To say I can take that cap off
and put sensors in a doorjamb, and as the passenger starts walking
through [to allow me to say] that they are a threat or not, is at this
point a future application," Mr.  Schlickenmaier said in an interview. 

"Can I build a sensor that can move off of the head and still detect the
EEG?" asks Mr.  Schlickenmaier, who led NASA's development of airborne
wind-shear detectors 20 years ago.  "If I can do that, and I don't know
that right now, can I package it and [then] say we can do this, or no we
can't? We are going to look at this question.  Can this be done? Is the
physics possible?"

Two physics professors familiar with brain-wave research, but not
associated with NASA, questioned how such testing could be feasible or
reliable for mass screening.  "What they're saying they would do has not
been done, even wired in," says a national authority on neuro-electric
sensing, who asked not to be identified.  He called NASA's goal "pretty
far out."

Both professors also raised privacy concerns. 

"Screening systems must address privacy and 'Big Brother' issues to the
extent possible," a NASA briefing paper, presented at a two-day meeting
at Northwest Airlines headquarters in St.  Paul, Minn., acknowledges. 
Last year, the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional police efforts to
use noninvasive "sense-enhancing technology" that is not in general
public use in order to collect data otherwise unobtainable without a
warrant.  However, the high court consistently exempts airports and
border posts from most Fourth Amendment restrictions on searches. 

"We're getting closer to reading minds than you might suppose," says
Robert Park, a physics professor at the University of Maryland and
spokesman for the American Physical Society.  "It does make me
uncomfortable.  That's the limit of privacy invasion.  You can't go
further than that."

"We're close to the point where they can tell to an extent what you're
thinking about by which part of the brain is activated, which is close
to reading your mind.  It would be terribly complicated to try to build
a device that would read your mind as you walk by." The idea is
plausible, he says, but frightening. 

At the Northwest Airlines session conducted Dec.  10-11, nine scientists
and managers from NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif.,
proposed a "pilot test" of the Aviation Security Reporting System. 

NASA also requested that the airline turn over all of its computerized
passenger data for July, August and September 2001 to incorporate in
NASA's "passenger-screening testbed" that uses "threat-assessment
software" to analyze such data, biometric facial recognition and
"neuro-electric sensing."

Northwest officials would not comment. 

Published scientific reports show NASA researcher Alan Pope, at NASA
Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., produced a system to alert
pilots or astronauts who daydream or "zone out" for as few as five
seconds. 

The September 11 hijackers helped highlight one weakness of the CAPPS
system.  They did dry runs that show whether a specific terrorist is
likely to be identified as a threat.  Those pulled out for special
checking could be replaced by others who do not raise suspicions.  The
September 11 hijackers cleared security under their own names, even
though nine of them were pulled aside for extra attention. 

Copyright © 2002 News World Communications, Inc.  All rights reserved. 


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