Biometrics and security in Iraq | Tech news blog - CNET News.com

Biometrics and security in Iraq Tech news blog - CNET News.com: "As state-level officials and other critics push back hard against the federal Real ID mandate here at home, the U.S. government is reporting success abroad with a biometric ID system it has installed in Iraq. The automated biometric identity system being used by the Iraqi government now holds more than 350,000 sets of fingerprints, photos and retina scans, and 'we increase the database by 4,000 or 5,000 each week,' Army Lt. Col. John W. Velliquette Jr. said in a teleconferenced briefing this week. Velliquette runs the fingerprint and retina scanning center in Baghdad's International Zone. Iraqis are expected to assume full operation by next summer. The system is used to verify the identity of members of the Iraqi police and military, prisoners and prison guards, and authorized gun owners. (The guns must be kept in homes; they're not to be carried out in the streets.) It's also used to identify criminals and suspects in criminal cases, Velliquette said. 'We will get criminal hits; we get 10 to 20 a week from the minister of Interior.'"