Mulling over Rene Laederach to Steve Asher 28 Jan 2004

Hi Rene!

SA> "With this e-government solution, Bosnia-Herzegovina is following the 
SA> international trend of integrating biometrics into ID cards," said Peter 
SA> Blaschke, segment manager government at Siemens.  

 RL> Is there a possibility that any such 'liberated' countries will get
 RL> biometric ID,  and thus Iraq would be next?

It had to be almost a certainty that the US-led coalition and/or the interim
Iraqi administration would introduce such an ID, and sure enough ....

=========================================================================

28 Jan 2004 22:35     
U.S. looks into new national ID system for Iraqis 

By Sue Pleming

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority 
in Iraq is looking into the creation of a new, computerized national
identity card system there, defense and other sources said on
Wednesday.  

A defense official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters the
Coalition Provisional Authority was in the early planning phase for a
new ID system but he stressed no decisions had been made on the format
and who would run it.  

(snip)

Questions are being asked about the merits of a U.S.-imposed national
ID system on the Iraqis who are desperate for a greater role in
running their own country.  

The source said the military was leaning toward issuing a sole-source
contract to an Alaskan company called Nana Pacific to handle the job.
Nana Pacific did not immediately return phone calls about the issue.  

(snip)

Full article at: http://www.reuters.com/locales/newsArticle.jsp?
type=worldNews&locale=en_IN&storyID=4233192
===================================================================

NANA Pacific is part of NANA ( www.nana.com ), a group of 28 companies
based in Alaska, apparently a native corporation involved in oilfield
services (surprise!), mining services, hospitality & tourism etc.



Cheers, Steve..

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