The Washington Post reports: "A microchip that can be implanted under the skin to give doctors instant access to a patient's records yesterday won government approval, a step that could transform medical care but is raising alarm among privacy advocates.

The tiny electronic capsule, the first such device to receive Food and Drug Administration approval, transmits a unique code to a scanner that allows doctors to confirm a patient's identity and obtain detailed medical information from an accompanying database.

Applied Digital Solutions Inc. of Delray Beach, Fla., plans to market the VeriChip systems -- the chips, scanners and computerized database -- to hospitals, doctors and patients as a way to improve care and avoid errors by ensuring that doctors know whom they are treating and the patient's personal health details.

Doctors would scan patients like cans of soup at a grocery store. Instead of the price, the patient's medical record would pop up on a computer screen. Emergency room doctors could scan unconscious car accident victims to check their blood type and medications and make sure they have no drug allergies. Surgeons could scan patients in the operating room to guard against cutting into the wrong person. Chips could be implanted in Alzheimer's patients in case they get lost.

'In hospitals today, many deaths occur because people aren't able to communicate timely enough their medical information or because of wrong information,' said Scott Silverman, the company's chief executive. 'With VeriChip, you'll be able to have accurate information even if a patient can't talk. It's a way to modernize our antiquated system of medical records.'

The approval was immediately denounced by privacy advocates, who fear it could endanger patient privacy and mark a dangerous step toward a Big Brother future in which people will be tracked by the implants or required to have them inserted for surveillance, identification and other purposes.

'Once the technology is out there and is available, it raises the very real possibility that people in a position to require or demand it will begin to do that,' said Katherine Albrecht, who has campaigned against such devices. 'It would obviously be possible to inject one of these into everyone. In the post-9/11 world, we are already racing down the path to total surveillance. The only thing missing to clinch the deal has been the technology. This may fill that gap.'..." (Imagine! Total surveillance. Big Brother is on the way - Revelation 13:15-18)

WorldNetDaily.com reports: "A little-known federal agency is planning a new monitoring program by which the government would track every car on the road by using onboard transceivers.

The agency, the Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office, is part of the Department of Transportation. According to an extensive report in the Charlotte, N.C., Creative Loafing, the agency doesn't respond to public inquiries about its activity.

According to the report, cutting-edge tracking technology will be used by government transportation management centers to monitor every aspect of transportation. Under the plan, not only will movement be monitored but it also will be archived in massive databases for future use.

The paper reports a group of car manufacturers, technology companies and government interests have worked toward implementing the project for 13 years.

States the Creative Loafing report:

The agency's website says its purpose is to 'use advanced technology to improve the efficiency and safety of our nation's surface transportation system.'..." (More on Big Brother - Revelation 14:9,11; 15:2; 19:20; 20:9)

Wired.com reports: "Some federal and state government officials want to make state driver's licenses harder to counterfeit or steal, by adding computer chips that emit a radio signal bearing a license holder's unique, personal information.

In Virginia, where several of the 9/11 hijackers obtained driver's licenses, state legislators heard testimony about how radio frequency identification, or RFID, tags may prevent identity fraud and help thwart terrorists using falsified documents to move about the country.

Privacy advocates will argue that the radio tags will also make it easy for the government to spy on its citizens and exacerbate identity theft, one of the problems the technology is meant to relieve.

Virginia is among the first states to explore the idea of creating a smart driver's license, which may eventually use any combination of RFID tags and biometric data, such as fingerprints or retinal scans.

'Nine of the 19 9/11 terrorists obtained their licenses illegally in Virginia, and that was quite an embarrassment,' said Virginia General Assembly delegate Kathy Byron, chairwoman of a subcommittee looking into the use of so-called smart driver's licenses, which may include RFID technology.

The biometric data would make it harder for an individual to use a stolen or forged driver's license for identification. The RFID tags would make the licenses a 'contact-less' technology, verifying IDs more efficiently, and making lines at security checkpoints move quicker.

Because information on RFID tags can be picked up from many feet away, licenses would not have to be put directly into a reader device. If there was any suspicion that a person was not who he claimed to be, ID checkers could take him aside for fingerprinting or a retinal scan.

States need to adopt technologies that can ensure a driver's license holder is who he says he is, said Byron.

Federal legislators may also require states to comply with uniform 'smart card' standards, making state driver's licenses into national identification cards that could be read at any location throughout the country. The RFID chips on driver's licenses would at a minimum transmit all of the information on the front of a driver's license. They may also eventually transmit fingerprint and other uniquely identifiable information to reader devices..." (God sees everything everywhere - Jeremiah 16:17; 23:34; Hebrews 4:13. The Antichrist [I John 2:28] will have to use technology to track mankind during his reign. It's now with us. Christ's Return is near)

Silicon.com reports: "The government will now issue standalone compulsory biometric ID cards as part of changes to the draft ID card bill issued by Home Secretary David Blunkett - despite growing public opposition to the scheme.

The cards will be issued with passports but will not be incorporated into either the existing passport or driving license as previously proposed, with a standardized online verification service used to check card details against those held on the National Identity Register (NIR).

The changes are part of the Home Office's response to a Parliamentary Home Affairs select committee report by MPs in July, which broadly backed the ID card scheme despite some major reservations and criticisms.

'I will now bring forward legislation to bring in a compulsory, national ID card scheme,' said Blunkett in a statement.

A new executive agency incorporating the UK Passport Service and working with the Home Office's Immigration and Nationality Directorate will now be set up to deliver and run the ID card scheme.

But a summary of findings from the Home Office's consultation exercise highlights the fact there are still serious concerns about the ID card scheme from bodies ranging from privacy groups to the Confederation of British Industry over the scope, security and management of the project.

The Law Society, for example, raises the question of whether it will prove too costly to pursue individuals who incur a £2,500 fine for refusing to register for the ID cards.

Initial government research into the public's views on ID cards found 79 per cent in favor or very much in favor of them, with only 13 per cent against and eight per cent unsure. More recent research, however, included in the consultation summary shows support has dropped significantly with only 31 per cent now in favor, 48 per cent opposed and only eight per cent supportive in principle even with reservations about the Bill..." (The Mark will become global when the world's final dictator takes charge of the masses of humanity - Revelation 13:1,7)

The EU Observer reports: "EU citizens will be obliged to have their fingerprints in their passports in the future.

Member states agreed at a meeting in Luxembourg that a second biometric identifier, fingerprints, must be included in all new passports and other travel documents.

This follows a decision in June where member states decided that EU passports must include facial images.

The aim is to make passports and other travel documents more secure and establish a more reliable link between them and the holder.

The biometric data gathered will be stored on a 'chip' embedded in the new passports, Personal details and the biometric data will be held on national databases and on a EU-wide database of European Register for issued passports - the latter will be on the Schengen Information System (SIS II) and be accessible by law enforcement agencies, according to Statewatch.

While fingerprints will be obligatory in new passports 3 years after the technical specifications are in place, facial images will be required 18 months after adoption of the regulation.

The UK, Denmark and Ireland have a 'legal exemption' in the EU treaties regarding this area of judicial co-operation and are not bound to follow the regulation.

Denmark - together with Germany - has however indicated that it intends to start issuing biometrically enhanced passports from the end of 2005 in order to comply with the requirements of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the requirements of the US Visa Waiver legislation.

Finland and Austria have tabled technical reservations to the regulation, but the problems are expected to be overcome.

Since 1 May, these type of decisions are subject to qualified majority voting in the Council - in co-decision with the European Parliament.

The five biggest EU countries said in a statement at the end of talks earlier this month that they hoped to introduce fingerprint measures for passports issued in their countries from 2006..." (The European Union is where the international numbering system begins - Daniel 7:7,8,20,23,24. It's all so near. We are living in momentous days.)