[IP] forget "your license, please"; now it will be "your DNA, please"

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

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Begin forwarded message:

From: Jim Warren <jwarren@well.com>
Date: February 5, 2007 4:05:39 PM EST
To: Dave Farber <dave@farber.net>
Subject: forget "your license, please"; now it will be "your DNA,  
please"

One small step for man; one [more] giant step for Big Brother.   
(Or ... if you don't have anything to hide, you shouldn't mind giving  
your DNA.  And you don't need a lawyer; you shouldn't object to  
having your home searched; etc., etc.)
- --jim

http://www.legitgov.org/index.html#breaking_news

U.S. Set to Begin a Vast Expansion of DNA Sampling 05 Feb 2007 The  
Justice Department is completing rules to allow the collection of DNA  
from most people arrested or detained by federal authorities,  
officials said, a vast expansion of DNA gathering. The new forensic  
DNA sampling was authorized by Congress in a little-noticed amendment  
to a January 2006 renewal of the Violence Against Women Act, which  
provides protections and assistance for victims of sexual crimes.


http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/05/washington/05dna.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

U.S. Set to Begin a Vast Expansion of DNA Sampling

By JULIA PRESTON
Published: February 5, 2007

The Justice Department is completing rules to allow the collection of  
DNA from most people arrested or detained by federal authorities, a  
vast expansion of DNA gathering that will include hundreds of  
thousands of illegal immigrants, by far the largest group affected.

The new forensic DNA sampling was authorized by Congress in a little- 
noticed amendment to a January 2006 renewal of the Violence Against  
Women Act, which provides protections and assistance for victims of  
sexual crimes. The amendment permits DNA collecting from anyone under  
criminal arrest by federal authorities, and also from illegal  
immigrants detained by federal agents.

Over the last year, the Justice Department has been conducting an  
internal review and consulting with other agencies to prepare  
regulations to carry out the law.

The goal, justice officials said, is to make the practice of DNA  
sampling as routine as fingerprinting for anyone detained by federal  
agents, including illegal immigrants. Until now, federal authorities  
have taken DNA samples only from convicted felons.

The law has strong support from crime victims' organizations and some  
women's groups, who say it will help law enforcement identify sexual  
predators and also detect dangerous criminals among illegal immigrants.

"Obviously, the bigger the DNA database, the better," said Lynn  
Parrish, the spokeswoman for the Rape, Abuse and Incest National  
Network, based in Washington. "If this had been implemented years  
ago, it could have prevented many crimes. Rapists are generalists.  
They don't just rape, they also murder."

Peter Neufeld, a lawyer who is a co-director of the Innocence  
Project, which has exonerated dozens of prison inmates using DNA  
evidence, said the government was overreaching by seeking to apply  
DNA sampling as universally as fingerprinting.

"Whereas fingerprints merely identify the person who left them," Mr.  
Neufeld said, "DNA profiles have the potential to reveal our physical  
diseases and mental disorders. It becomes intrusive when the  
government begins to mine our most intimate matters."

...<SNIP>...



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