OTTAWA - Journalists covering the war in Afghanistan are now required to submit to a biometrics scan before being accredited to travel with NATO units or visit military bases.
The data, including fingerprints and a retina scan, are used to verify identity and apparently checked against an archive of known terrorists.
The new policy, recently posted on the International Security Assistance Force website, has not been enforced on Canadian reporters, most of whom operate out of Kandahar Airfield.
A legal expert described the new security crackdown as "strange and offensive" and said the Conservative government needs to be asking tough questions of its allies before any Canadian citizen submits to such a procedure.
Michel Drapeau, a retired colonel and expert in access to information, said Ottawa should know where the data is being stored, who has access to it and how it will be used.
"We are in Afghanistan to defend our values and one of our quasi-constitutional values is the right to privacy," Drapeau said Tuesday.
"I would question why they're using that."
Journalists are in Afghanistan to be the eyes and ears of their countries and should not be required to figuratively "strip down to your bare whatever unless there is a demonstrated need," he said.
Drapeau said he would have fewer concerns if the database was being used in an administrative fashion, to catalogue identification in the event a journalist is killed. But experience of the last few years suggests it will have other uses, he said.
NATO officials in Brussels and Kabul did not respond to requests for comment.
A Pentagon publication in the fall of 2007 suggested that the U.S. military, which lent the first biometrics equipment to the alliance, holds on to the data. It does not guarantee that the information will not be shared.
Submitting to the biometrics scan is voluntary, but the accreditation instructions noted that "media who do not submit all required information will not receive a badge" and that "media interested in visiting any ISAF locations (or requesting embed with any ISAF troops) in Afghanistan are required to be accredited."
The policy applies to all NATO bases in Afghanistan and goes part of the way to explaining why the alliance stopped accrediting journalists and issuing them camp passes at Kandahar Airfield in early March.
Reporters were given visitor's passes, which limit their movements and make it difficult to leave and return to the base after independently interviewing local Afghans. The orange tags also require the Canadian Forces to escort journalists at all times -- a practice that is currently being ignored.
In the first week of March, an Italian photographer embedded with the Canadians and at least two other journalists were subject to escorts. The Canadian military has loudly protested the policy to the airfield commander, with no affect.
The Opposition Liberals and NDP, as well as the Canadian Association of Journalists, complained last week that the loss of accreditation opened the door to the intimidation of reporters who don't toe the line.
They also considered the visitor's pass system a disincentive to independent reporting of the increasingly bloody conflict.
If Canadian reporters want to avoid the restrictions of the visitor's pass, they'll have to travel to Kabul and submit to the biometrics accreditation.
The high-tech system was initially fielded in Iraq by U.S. forces handling prisoners at detention centres, but was quickly expanded and used to create identification cards for residents of the embattled city of Fallujah.
NATO first began experimenting with the technology in 2007, using equipment lent to the International Security Assistance Force by the U.S. The idea at the time was to screen local Afghans working at military bases.
In fact the Biometrics Automated Toolset is credited with catching several suspected insurgents in the Kabul area. Military units throughout the country routinely tap into the database.
While the U.S. has not forced the system on NATO, the Pentagon publication The Guardian noted American commanders were eager to see the technology put to use.
"An informal expectation exists within some U.S. ranks that NATO and ISAF should adopt U.S. policies and processes based on the U.S. experience," said the winter 20078 edition.
"NATO and ISAF welcome the U.S. experience with biometric systems."
An expanded screening program that included journalists was ordered late last winter.
