The United States is developing a system that could
detect and track insurgents' vehicles in any urban area of a foreign country.
The Defense Department project calls for a command and
control system using thousands of sensors to track vehicles in any
foreign city. Officials said the sensors being developed Ñ termed Combat Zones That See Ñ would be able to
identify vehicles, drivers and passengers at any time and in any weather.
[On Tuesday, the United States issued an alert of an Al Qaida attack on
passenger airliners. The Homeland Security Department warned of the prospect
that Al Qaida was preparing five-man squads to commandeer civilian planes, Middle East Newsline reported.]
The Pentagon program undertaken by the Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency is meant to ensure that the United States can detect and
track insurgents in any city without the presence of U.S. troops.
Instead,
the Pentagon system being developed would allow a regional command and
control installation to track the insurgents for special operations forces.
The system would enable sensors to
relay an alert for any match of a face of a fugitive in a foreign city. The
software would be able to detect a wanted vehicle or insurgent.
The Pentagon has launched other projects meant to detect suspected
insurgents. In one program, DARPA has developed software that could scan
data bases of credit card, bank and official transactions for a pattern
meant to
resemble preparations for an insurgency attack.
Officials said the Combat Zones That See project would be introduced
gradually. The first stage, they said, would deploy a range of cameras and
other sensors linked to a command and control facility to monitor traffic
around U.S. military bases abroad.
In the second phase of the project the system would be
expanded to detect insurgency activities or suspicious behavior in a
foreign city in which U.S. troops operate. The officials did not identify
the city, but it is expected to be Baghdad or Kabul.
The project also envisions using existing video cameras in a city to
form a huge surveillance system. The Pentagon seeks to develop software that
can link thousands of cameras Ñ whether in stores, tunnels, bridges, banks
or government offices Ñ to a command and control facility.
