Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

October 3, 2008

George Orwell would have recognized the name of our Homeland Security Department as something perfectly suited to the dystopian society he described in 1984. But it?s doubtful that even his uniquely fertile imagination could have anticipated MALINTENT, a screening system that can supposedly read the minds of potential terrorists.

Currently undergoing tests in Maryland, MALINTENT employs a series of sensors and imagers that collect biometric information such as heart rate, body temperature, respiration rate, perspiration, and eye nictation. Although the technology?s success rate in trials remains classified, Admiral Jay Cohen, Undersecretary of Homeland Security for Science and Technology, describes the experiment as a ?home run.? The system is scheduled for deployment at airports within the next two years.

MALINTENT Project Leader Bob Burns insists that MALINT is intended ?to restore a sense of freedom? for air travelers. The only suitable term to describe that vision of freedom is ?Orwellian.?

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has set us free.