The Americans handed over the biometric data of their Afghan allies to the Taliban

The Americans handed over the biometric data of their Afghan allies to the Taliban

The Taliban movement that seized power in Afghanistan (a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation) got biometric devices containing fingerprints collected by Americans, eye scans and personal data of US Afghan allies. President Joe Biden was warned that he would have “blood on his hands” if this data was used by militants for revenge killings.

Photo: AP

Jim Banks, a Republican US congressman from Indiana, said that the Taliban had received biometric devices used by the US military.

As noted by

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9931869/Taliban-biometric-devices-containing-fingerprints-eye-scans-Afghan-allies.html

The Daily Mail, it seems that the politician bases his statement on a message that appeared on Monday in The Intercept, in which the military confirmed that such devices are in the hands of the Taliban.

Portable gadgets, known as HIIDE, used for identity identification, contain biometric data of many people from Afghanistan.

It is not yet clear whether the Taliban has gained access to the data collected by the Americans, but Banks warned that Joe Biden will have blood on his hands if the Taliban use this information to track down Afghans who collaborated with the United States.

Congressman Banks also expressed concern about the scenes in which the Taliban used American equipment transferred to the Afghan army.

Jim Banks, who represents Indiana in the House of Representatives, on Tuesday criticized Joe Biden for the fact that a significant number of weapons remained in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of US troops.

A Navy reservist who served in Afghanistan in 2014 and 2015, as a state senator, Banks said at a press conference on Capitol Hill that the Taliban received a large warehouse with weapons and equipment left by the United States.

But, he added, the most “incomprehensible for me and many others” was the biometric database, which was collected and stored on portable identity detection devices (HIIDE) to help identify local residents working with the coalition.

“The Taliban now has biometric devices that collect fingerprints, eye scans and biographical data of Afghans who have helped us for the past 20 years,” Banks claims. “This administration still has no plans to return this equipment or these accessories.”

The Intercept website described in detail the operation of biometric devices. An official from the Joint Special Operations Command and three former US military personnel told this website that the Taliban had received devices known as HIIDE (portable interagency identification equipment).

HIIDE devices contain identifying biometric data, such as iris scans and fingerprints, as well as biographical data, and are used to access large centralized databases.

A veteran of army special operations told The Intercept website that The Taliban may not be able to control these devices. But, he said, the Pakistani intelligence service ISI may have the skills to access the data. It is known that this special service works with the Taliban.

“The Taliban doesn’t have the equipment to use the data, but the ISI has such equipment,” the veteran said.

Annie Jacobson, who has written a book about the Pentagon’s data collection, told NPR in January that the Pentagon wanted to catalog millions of people, but it was unclear if they had succeeded. “The initial goal of the Ministry of Defense was to obtain biometric data of 80 percent of the population of Afghanistan,” she said. The target was about 25 million people. It is not known whether they have achieved this, because these statistics are jealously guarded by the Ministry of Defense.

A US military contractor told The Intercept: “We processed thousands of local residents a day, had to identify, search for suicide belts, weapons, intelligence gathering, etc.HIIDE was used as a biometric identification tool to help identify local residents working for the coalition.”

Congressman Banks said that “due to the negligence of this administration,” the Taliban also received 75 thousand cars; more than 200 planes and helicopters; 600 thousand small arms and light weapons; night vision goggles and bulletproof vests.

He added that the Taliban now has ” more Black Hawk helicopters than in 85 percent of the countries of the world.”

Many pointed out that most of the equipment was deliberately left by the Americans for use by the Afghan national forces. Moreover, it is not a fact that the Taliban can control planes and helicopters, and, of course, they did not have the skills to maintain them without the help of Pakistan or other countries.

In a viral video circulating on the Internet, you can see an American helicopter “Black Hawk” on the ground with roaring engines, which was claimed to belong to the Taliban, although it was impossible to see who was inside, and the helicopter did not take off.

The black hawks that the US government supplied to the Afghans were repaired outside the US. The army models of the UH-60A, as reported by The Drive, were deliberately not equipped with the latest technologies. However, the seizure of this arsenal by the Taliban was definitely a PR move for the Islamist group.

Banks ‘ critics have pointed out that the figures he gave are incorrect. The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, an office created by Congress to oversee spending in the country, reported on June 30 that there are 167 aircraft in Afghanistan, including 23 A-29 attack aircraft and 33 UH-60 Black Hawk military helicopters. Full data on how many planes or other military equipment were still there in mid-August, when the Taliban regained control of the country, is not given.

Источник www.mk.ru

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *