Scattered details of a little-known U.S. government database containing the DNA of suspected terrorists were gathered and reported today in the Financial Times. See “Fears over Covert DNA Database” by Stephen Fidler.
The Joint Federal Agencies [or more often: Antiterrorism] Intelligence DNA Database (JFAIDD) is described in a 2007 briefing slide (pdf) as “a searchable database of DNA profiles from detainees and known or suspected terrorists.”
The JFAIDD contains 15,000 DNA profiles, according to a 2007 report of the Defense Science Board, with “a queue of 30,000 new samples in the laboratory and 400 [pending] requests for DNA profiles, searches, or comparisons.” See “Defense Biometrics” (pdf, at page 32).
The collection of the DNA samples was described in a 2006 Army document. “U.S. military units shall collect two buccal [intra-oral cheek] swabs from each person.” See “Biometric Collection, Transmission and Storage Standards” (pdf), U.S. Army Biometrics Task Force, July 24, 2006 (at pp. 21-22).
“The FBI has been collecting biological evidence from improvised explosive devices (IEDs) removed from Iraq and Afghanistan and databasing the mtDNA profiles from this evidence since February 2004,” the Justice Department said in its 2009 budget justification book for the FBI (pdf). “Only occasionally can these profiles be compared to reference samples from suspected terrorists or their maternal relatives.”
“Collecting DNA from detainees and obtaining the mtDNA profiles from these samples has the potential to provide excellent actionable intelligence in the Global War on Terror through comparison with evidence already analyzed…”
But “The FBI can process [only] two samples every three days using manual methods. Given this rate, the DNA Analysis Unit… cannot keep up with the collection of these samples and would likely lose valuable intelligence from the lag time required to analyze these samples.”
The Justice Department therefore requested funding to automate the DNA analysis process, to permit analysis of 40 samples a day, five days a week so as to keep pace with the anticipated delivery of “approximately 9,000 samples per year from detainees of the U.S. government.” See the 2009 FBI budget justification (at page 6-112).
Many of the projects that would deliver the energy to meet rising demand are in the interconnection queue, waiting to be built. AI can improve both the speed and the cost of connecting new projects to the grid.
Nearly one year after the Pentagon certified the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile program to continue after it incurred critical cost and schedule overruns, the new nuclear missile could once again be in trouble.
The decline of the coal industry in the late 20th century led to the dismantling of the economic engine of American coal communities. The AI boom of the 21st century can reinvigorate these areas if harnessed appropriately.
The good news is that even when the mercury climbs, heat illness, injury, and death are preventable. The bad news is that over the past five months, the Trump administration has dismantled essential preventative capabilities.