Follow us on social

Screen-shot-2021-08-18-at-4.55.02-pm

Not the first time our allies' biometric info got into 'the wrong hands'

When the US military was done using the Sunni 'Sons of Iraq' they literally turned their iris scans over to the Shia government.

Analysis | Middle East

The Intercept is reporting that the Taliban have seized U.S. military biometric devices which hold iris scans, fingerprints, and other data that can identify individuals who worked with American forces and other coalition partners. In other words, the very people who have targets on their backs and are already scrambling to get out of Afghanistan today. 

The report, written by Ken Klippenstein and Sara Sirota, does not say how the devices (called HIIDE, or Handheld Interagency Identity Detection Equipment) were taken, but one U.S. military contractor knows what an incredible breach this could be, and how big the database is. “We processed thousands of locals a day, had to ID, sweep for suicide vests, weapons, intel gathering, etc.” the contractor explained. “[HIIDE] was used as a biometric ID tool to help ID locals working for the coalition.”

The Department of Defense did not respond to the Intercept’s request for comment.

The military was initially using the devices to screen terrorists and create a trove of names and info that they had planned to share with U.S. law enforcement agencies, according to the article. But we know their use went way beyond that, collecting personal data on innocent Afghans. While it is unclear whether the Taliban would have the proper tools to ultimately use the devices to access the database, an Army special forces veteran who spoke with the Intercept expressed concerns that they could get outside help. “The Taliban doesn’t have the gear to use the data but the ISI do,” the former Special Operations official said, referring to Pakistan’s spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence. 

“I don’t think anyone ever thought about data privacy or what to do in the event the [HIIDE] system fell into the wrong hands,” Welton Chang, chief technology officer for Human Rights First, himself a former Army intelligence officer, told the reporters. “Moving forward, the U.S. military and diplomatic apparatus should think carefully about whether to deploy these systems again in situations as tenuous as Afghanistan.”

This is a bit disingenuous. The U.S. military knows what happens when this information gets into the “wrong hands.” After it had used up the so-called “Sons of Iraq,” or “Sunni Awakening,” for the "surge" in 2007, the U.S. military handed over all of the biometric info for those allies to the Shia government of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki. 

At the time, U.S. Army Lt. Col. John Velliquette called the information, “a hit list if it gets in the wrong hands.” 

Reportedly, Maliki pledged to assimilate the Sunni fighters into his ranks. But after the U.S. left, he did the opposite, swiping Sunni men off the streets, disappearing them into jails, and driving them into economic desperation. The growing Islamic State presence was able to exploit the situation, and the rest is history. 

Given that this was 14 years ago maybe memories are short, but not likely. Losing control of these HIIDE devices, if true, illustrates a systematic, blatant disregard for the people the U.S. military is ostensibly there to help. Simply put, this isn’t the first time we’ve left partners out to dry.


US Marine gets an iris scan from an Iraqi civilian in Fallujah, Iraq, in 2005. (USMC/public domain)
Analysis | Middle East
Trump and Keith Kellogg
Top photo credit: U.S. President Donald Trump and Keith Kellogg (now Trump's Ukraine envoy) in 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

Trump's silence on loss of Ukraine lithium territory speaks volumes

Europe

Last week, Russian military forces seized a valuable lithium field in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, the latest success of Moscow’s grinding summer offensive.

The lithium deposit in question is considered rather small by industry analysts, but is said to be a desirable prize nonetheless due to the concentration and high-quality of its ore. In other words, it is just the kind of asset that the Trump administration seemed eager to exploit when it signed its much heralded minerals agreement with Ukraine earlier this year.

keep readingShow less
Is the US now funding the bloodbath at Gaza aid centers?
Top photo credit: Palestinians walk to collect aid supplies from the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled/File Photo

Is the US now funding the bloodbath at Gaza aid centers?

Middle East

Many human rights organizations say it should shut down. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have killed hundreds of Palestinians at or around its aid centers. And yet, the U.S. has committed no less than $30 million toward the controversial, Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

As famine-like conditions grip Gaza, the GHF says it has given over 50 million meals to Palestinians at its four aid centers in central and southern Gaza Strip since late May. These centers are operated by armed U.S. private contractors, and secured by IDF forces present at or near them.

keep readingShow less
mali
Heads of state of Mali, Assimi Goita, Niger, General Abdourahamane Tiani and Burkina Faso, Captain Ibrahim Traore, pose for photographs during the first ordinary summit of heads of state and governments of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) in Niamey, Niger July 6, 2024. REUTERS/Mahamadou Hamidou//File Photo

Post-coup juntas across the Sahel face serious crises

Africa

In Mali, General Assimi Goïta, who took power in a 2020 coup, now plans to remain in power through at least the end of this decade, as do his counterparts in neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger. As long-ruling juntas consolidate power in national capitals, much of the Sahelian terrain remains out of government control.

Recent attacks on government security forces in Djibo (Burkina Faso), Timbuktu (Mali), and Eknewane (Niger) have all underscored the depth of the insecurity. The Sahelian governments face a powerful threat from jihadist forces in two organizations, Jama‘at Nusrat al-Islam wa-l-Muslimin (the Group for Supporting Islam and Muslims, JNIM, which is part of al-Qaida) and the Islamic State Sahel Province (ISSP). The Sahelian governments also face conventional rebel challengers and interact, sometimes in cooperation and sometimes in tension, with various vigilantes and community-based armed groups.

keep readingShow less

LATEST

QIOSK

Newsletter

Subscribe now to our weekly round-up and don't miss a beat with your favorite RS contributors and reporters, as well as staff analysis, opinion, and news promoting a positive, non-partisan vision of U.S. foreign policy.