It's 10:00 p.m., do you know where all your citizens are?

Paul Brennan, at University College London, is leading work on the EU-funded "Optag" system. This system would "combine high resolution panoramic video imaging with radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to enhance airport security, safety and efficiency." "It would work," Brennan says, "if each passenger were issued with a tag, which could allow location to about one metre accuracy. The video and tag data can be merged to give a very powerful surveillance capability."

In an article entitled "How Tagging Passengers Could Improve Airport Security," this ominous personal surveillance system was described as "essential to future security efforts."

Brennan indicated that Optag RFID chips would not store any personal details. The report itself contradicts Brennan's disclaimer.

The article notes: "They [RFID tags] emit a unique ID which is then cross-referenced to the passenger information already on the system--maybe the name and flight number of the passenger. Perhaps in the future that would be extended to things like biometric data." Within the first few sentences, the promise that the chips "would not store any personal details" has already been broken. The tags would be used to monitor movement of people around terminal buildings.

Who determines whether someone seems "to be a security risk"--government? In whose opinion or view? Here in the United States, the present administration has dramatically demonstrated a proclivity toward eliminating personal liberty with wire-tapping, torture, gun confiscation in New Orleans, and restrictions at airports.