U.S. to deploy biometric airport checks by 2008

Millions of Britons leaving United States airports face mandatory fingerprinting under new security guidelines. The Guardian’s Del Milmo reports that passengers who travel to and from the United States will have to present their index fingers as well as their passports at check-in from the end of next year. Michael Jackson, the deputy DHS secretary, said the procedure would apply to all passengers and airlines — including British carriers — flying out of the United States as the country accumulates a large amount of information on every person traveling through America. Four million Britons visit the United States every year. Jackson said: “What we are trying to say is that it’s not enough to give biographical data. We will need biometric as well as biographical data.”

Under current regulations, EU airlines flying to the United States have to supply thirty-four separate pieces of passenger name records (PNR) to DHS. The arrangement has already casued much tension between the EU and the United States, with European authorities especially irritated with the fact that American authorities could now ask for credit card and e-mail account access.

A number of European flights have also been forced to turn around mid-air after U.S. authorities barred certain passengers from entering the country — including the British singer Yusuf Islam, (formerly known as Cat Stevens).

Jackson said that DHS was willing to supply the electronic fingerprinting kit to airlines in the initial phase of rolling out the scheme. Speaking at the IATA airline industry conference in Vancouver, he said some larger airlines would be able to adapt existing check-in kiosks to scan passengers’ index fingers.

Jackson also said that the most “catastrophic” threat to the airline industry was a rocket-propelled grenade attack similar to the one that nearly downed an Israeli airliner in Kenya five years ago. The shoulder-fired missiles narrowly missed a plane carrying more than 200 tourists as it took off from Mombassa.

Jackson said that another attack on the scale of September 11, 2001 was inevitable: “It is to me vividly clear that terrorists will provoke another 9/11. It is not clear whether it could be in aviation … but it would be silly not to understand that we will have many more September 11s in the lifetime of ourselves and our children. It is a long-term struggle.”