Blame Canada: Homeland Security Interested in Collaring the Travelling Public

July 8, 2008 – 10:56 am

Did you know that the U.S. Government is “interested in” putting a leash on the traveling public? According to a story over at the Washington Times, Department of Homeland Security has stated their interest in the “immobilizing device” that, when used, would allow the flight crew on a plane disable a passenger through, essentially, shock therapy.

The bracelet, called an Electro-muscular Disruption device, would be issued at a passenger’s check in at the ticket counter. The bracelet would include electronic data such as a boarding pass, checked luggage information and GPS tracking. The darker aspect of it is that it would allow an airline crew member to issue a radio signal that would kick the device into “shock and awe” mode, disabling the passenger for a period of time. Supposedly, the idea is to prevent terrorism. Presumably, the next step would be a more “efficient” security screening process at the TSA checkpoints.

If you’re a natural cynic like me, you might be able to imagine more nefarious uses inside and outside of air travel as the technology “proves itself”. For instance, an autistic kid could be subdued using such technologies. Maybe a wife “disables” her husband because she doesn’t feel like arguing anymore. Or a credit card company disables a cardholder for being 60 days late on their payment. The possibilities are endless in a society that has proven it’s inability to exercise restraint over time.

I did a WHOIS search on the company proposing this technology to the US Government and discovered that the domain lamperdlesslethal.com is registered to Barry Lampered, a known law enforcement consultant in Canada and has an extensive record in “minimal force” policing.

While I respect Canada and I have many Canadian friends, I’m not sure their brand of socialism should be something we strive for in the United States. Edit: Not that I believe that all Canadians believe in this. In fact, I tend to think they don’t. To appease my Canadian friends, such as Paul Short in comments, the title of this post is meant to be tongue-in-cheek. Relax guys!

On a related note, how many of you saw I, Robot (or better yet, read the book)?

Added: For those like me who wonder how this sort of thing would work from a tech perspective, my guess is that there would be some kind of blowfish public/private key pairings combined with RFID (depends on if the issuance of such bracelets really stayed limited to air travel or if the bracelet became more of a requirement, a la national ID card). On checkin, the bracelet would be scanned much like a hotel room key is granted room access and the public-private pairings would designate a “trust” between the pilot (or whomever) and the passenger allowing a master/slave relationship (pardon the pun).

For the really conspiratorial, I give you Revelation 13:18.