ACLU Seeks Information About Govt. Use of Brain Scanners in Interrogations

[Up2Late]

(Just when you thought it couldn't get any weirder, I found this Press Release at the ACLU website.):crazy:

ACLU Seeks Information About Government Use of Brain Scanners in Interrogations

(6/28/2006)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: [e-mail]

Group Says Technology Should Not Be Deployed Until It Is Proven Effective

NEW YORK-- In the face of suspicions that the government is using cutting-edge brain-scanning technologies on suspected terrorists being held overseas or at home, the American Civil Liberties Union today announced that it has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with all the primary American security agencies.

"There are certain things that have such powerful implications for our society -- and for humanity at large -- that we have a right to know how they are being used so that we can grapple with them as a democratic society," said Barry Steinhardt, Director of the ACLU's Technology and Liberty Project. "These brain-scanning technologies are far from ready for forensic uses and if deployed will inevitably be misused and misunderstood."

The most likely technology to be used for anti-terrorism purposes is Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), which can produce live, real-time images of people's brains as they answer questions, view images, listen to sounds, and respond to other stimuli. Two private companies have announced that they will begin to offer "lie detection" services using fMRI as early as this summer. These companies are marketing their services to federal government agencies, including the Department of Defense, Department of Justice, the National Security Agency and the CIA, and to state and local police departments.

"This technology must not be deployed until it is proven effective -- and we are a long way away from that point, according to scientists in the field," said Steinhardt. "What we don't want is to open our newspapers and find that another innocent person has been thrown into Guantánamo because interrogators have jumped to conclusions based on a technology no one understands very well."

Experts in the field say that the science to back up any reliable use of fMRI as a "lie detector" or "mind reader" simply does not exist. At most, correlations have been observed between certain brain patterns and particular, highly controlled behaviors produced in laboratory experiments. But experts note that these early experiments on a few American college students are a long way from real-world settings, involving individuals in widely varying situations and with widely varying cultures, intelligence levels and states of mind.

The ACLU's FOIA requests were filed yesterday with the Pentagon, NSA, CIA, FBI and Department of Homeland Security.

"These brain-scanning technologies have potentially far-reaching implications, yet uncertain results and effectiveness," said Steinhardt. "And we are still in our infancy when it comes to understanding the underlying processes of the brain that the scanners have begun to reveal. We do not want to see our government yet again deploying a potentially momentous technology unilaterally and in secret, before Americans have had a chance to figure out how it fits in with our values as a nation."

The ACLU’s FOIA request is available online at .

A video of an ACLU-sponsored forum featuring experts discussing the use of fMRI as a “lie detector” is online at .

(more links and info at link below)
<http://www.aclu.org/privacy/medical/26035prs20060628.html>

[6000eliot]

1. Jesus Christ! These people are absolute monsters.

[LunaSea]

2. Last time it was "voice stress" software,

they spent brazillions on that "lie detector" crap hawked by a conman with a "Phd" from a strip mall, and it's pretty common knowledge that flexing ones' "cheney" muscle will manipulate a polygraph, now you want to strap this on my head and see what I'm thinking? Well bring it on, I'll probably be thinking about porn....or how far up your ass this idea belongs.

You didn't buy this junk from Penn&Teller did you?

Tell the Pentagon I have Dowser rods with laser scopes on them just waiting for a fat contract.
They're ionized and polarized, and I'll throw in the word- nanotechnology if that impresses them.
.....assholes....

[Elidor]

10. hehe

:rofl:

[TomClash]

3. Doesn't our Government make Orwell proud?

No, actually it must make him turn in his grave.

:puke:

[Vidar]

4. These clowns have no idea how the technology works, but they don't care.

[Tsiyu]

5. Funny how they embrace science when it suits them

They want to be Little Gawds, in control of minds, genitals, paychecks.

This is what happens when you let sociopaths run things. They have no concept or idea of human nature, because they are not really human. Instead of using experience and reason and social skills to interact and communicate and interrogate, they have to rely on machines.

Sad, sad people. They aren't funding foreign intelligence, they OUTED A CIA AGENT working on global terrorism, and now they want to circumvent their incompetence by using a Magic Machine to do the work they should have done already.

Pathetic pricks.

[Jackpine Radical]

6. There isn't really good evidence that the old conventional lie detectors

work relaibly either. The National Academy of Sciences just published a position statement decrying their use in criminal matters a few years ago.

[bananas]

7. kick - one more vote needed

[Up2Late]

8. Please K & R, this is important and needs to hit the Greatest Page

:kick:

[LunaSea]

9. I'm thinking of a kick

kick

[bobthedrummer]

11. Background links

Unethical fMRI link
http://www.actionscript.com/archives/00000602.html

Brain computer interface
http://www.cyberkineticsinc.com/content/technology/platformtechnology.jsp

[Swamp Rat]

12. When they scanned my brain, this is what they saw:

:D




:hi: LunaSea!

[Up2Late]

13. LOL! That's good! Hey Swamp Rat, where ya been?

Hadn't see one of your posts for a while.

You been down in N.O. fixing things up?

[Swamp Rat]

14. I'm here

Yep, I'm in New Orleans working on my place every day and night, non-stop. I guess I should take another break from DU to finish my masters thesis.

:hi:

[Pachamama]

15. Creepy...what do these people not do?

:scared:

[Up2Late]

16. kick n/t

:kick:

[jbnow]

17. It might be fair

they use this on someone who they think is part of a plot of a coming terrorism act...So I'll make a deal.

They can use it under those circumstances if we can use it on them as we question this administration and congress. We deserve the truth. We need to get portable truth monitors and political leaders and policy makers should be required to wear it.

[LunaSea]

18. I like that idea.

If you swear an oath as a public servant, you'll get a special cap which reveals brain activity.

CSPAN of the future:

"Senator Smegma, several viewers noticed your amygdala lit up like a christmas tree when your young page bent over, and again when you spied that wallet on the floor, Can you tell us what you were thinking, Senator?"