John R. Houk
© January 29, 2017
Rachel Ehrenfeld writes
about the extreme vetting process that President Trump could use to quickly
detect if a person has terrorist designs against the United States. Ehrenfeld
has an idea based on some technology created in Israel yet commissioned by the
United States Department of Homeland Security.
Check out this quote from Ehrenfeld on the technology:
An effective way to find out the
applicant’s intentions would be screening through an efficient, unbiased, and
non-intrusive system. Such a system was developed by an Israeli company
with a grant from the Department of Homeland Security, which the Obama
administration refused to utilize.
The Suspect
Detection System (SDS) has
developed counter-terrorist and insider threat detection technology
named COGITO. This technology enables law enforcement agencies to rapidly
investigate U.S. visa applicants (and other travelers) entering the country,
insider threats among employees, etc.
COGITO technology is an
automated interrogation system that can determine in 5-7 minutes if an
individual is harboring hostile intent. The system interviews the
examinee with up to 36 questions while measuring the psychophysical signals of
the human body. The system has 95% accuracy and has helped security
agencies globally to catch terrorists and solve crimes.
I did a little looking into this COGITO technology. My
impression is the concept was initially developed for companies to use to vet
their new employees with something more efficiency than a lengthy lie detector
test. Evidently the COGITO technology can be streamlined for many psych detection
purposes including terrorism.
In the process of investigating “COGITO” I discovered it is
not an acronym for some scientific gizmo, rather it is an actual word. Here is
an interesting definition for “cogito”:
1: the philosophical
principle that one's existence is demonstrated by the fact that one thinks
2: the intellectual
processes of the self or ego
Origin and Etymology of cogito
New Latin cogito, ergo sum,
literally, I think, therefore I am, principle stated by René Descartes
Apparently SDS technology has taken a philosophical and
retrofitted it to a psychological examination of discovering – so-to-speak
– who a person is.
Here is the short version of the SDS COGITO technology that
can be employed:
Suspect Detection Systems Inc.'s
Cogito Data Center (Cogito DC) is a central knowledgebase and control server
that serves as a complete analytical back office to the Cogito Rapid
Interrogation System. Cogito DC will enable SDS customers to create a central
storage base of all examinee data. The interrogation system collects an vast
amount of data with each examination beginning with a scan of the examinees passport
or identification card. The system then scans unique biometric identification
information including fingerprint and iris (eye) imaging, and voice signature.
The Cogito DC knowledgebase then aggregates and analyzes the interrogation
results of all examinees. The system compares test results of potential
suspects from common backgrounds, which then enables interrogators to perform
intelligence analysis over the entire scope of collected metadata. (Cogito Data Center; SUSPECT
DETECTION SYSTEMS INC.)
And here is an excerpt from the longer version of the
technology behind COGITO:
General
The COGITO system is a
technology-based concept and solution for the detection of suspects harboring
malicious intent serves for detection of “Internal Threat” (employees of
governmental agencies and enterprises that have destructive intents), Police
interrogations and border security. The COGITO concept is derived
from extensive interdisciplinary know-how in security, polygraph testing and
field-proven security-related interrogation techniques.
The COGITO core technology is based
on proprietary software – an “expert system” that emulates an investigator’s
Modus Operandi by incorporating “soft decision-making” algorithms such as
“Neural Networks” and “Fuzzy Logic”. All hardware elements are best-of-breed
off-the-shelf third-party components. The technical solution is comprised of a
front-end, the ‘Test Station’, and a back-office where multiple-station and
multiple-site data is stored, managed and distributed.
COGITO presents a significant
conceptual breakthrough that can assist international aviation and homeland
security authorities in responding to increasingly sophisticated means of
international terrorism. This concept is based on several well-established
paradigms and assumptions.
Intent vs. Means
The COGITO concept focuses on
detecting terrorist (malicious) intent as opposed to detecting the means (i.e.
explosives or weapons). The value of detecting intent is based on several
well-founded and proven assumptions. As proven in the 9/11 and many other
terrorist attacks when entering a country, terrorists will not necessarily
carry weapons or devices on their person. This has been well demonstrated in
several international terror attacks. Moreover, terrorists with intent of
perpetrating a chemical, biological or atomic terrorist attack are all the more
not likely to carry such devices on their person while entering the United
States through an official checkpoint or border crossing.
Stimulated Psycho Physical
Reaction (SPPR)
The COGITO method is based on
stimulating examinees with specific terrorism-related triggers using a “direct
contact, interaction, conscious, portal” approach:
The COGITO method postulates that specific words or questions can force
terrorist to generate a SPPR that is identifiably different than that of a
non-terrorist’s SPPR to the same words or questions. Based on extensive field
experience accumulated by Israeli security agencies, the only common
characteristic to all suicide bombers and “effective terrorists” is their
desire not to be caught by security authorities. The terrorist’s fundamental
motivation to successfully perform the terrorist act and not be caught by
security authorities clearly differentiates him from the innocent person not
harboring such intent. This identifiable motivation is known as the “terrorist
hunting–hunted syndrome” (THHS). In order to identify and isolate the
terrorist, one needs to …
READ THE REST ([COGITO] TECHNOLOGY; Suspect Detection Systems: Human
Psychophysiology Behavour Analysis)
On a personal level and at least a palpable negative
argument for this rather quick vetting process, I think this is something
President Trump should seriously take a look at! ESPECIALLY since
President Barack Hussein Obama rejected this technology as a foreign immigrant
vetting process.
Now for the Rachel Ehrenfeld article.
JRH 1/29/17
***************
Protecting America from ill-intended refugees
By Rachel Ehrenfeld @ American Thinker
January 28th, 2017 2:17PM
This is an updated version of
the article on American Thinker: Protecting America from
ill-intended refugees –
President Donald Trump’s executive order on “Protecting the Nation from Terrorist
Attacks by Foreign Nationals,” has been met, as anticipated, with
alarm by opponents at home and abroad. Some resent the new American president
and his actions to protect the country, as he promised to do. Others, like the
Muslim Brotherhood’s affiliated Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR),
protest the suspension of U.S. visas to Muslim refugees and travelers from the
radical -Islamic-terrorist prone countries Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya,
Yemen, and Somalia.
His executive order proclaims (emphasis added): “The United
States must be vigilant during the visa issuance process to ensure that those
approved for admission do not intend to harm Americans and
that they have no ties to terrorism. In order to protect Americans, we must
ensure that those admitted to this country do not bear hostile
attitudes towards our country and its founding principles. Section 2
of the active order states that the policy of the U.S. is “(a) protect our
citizens from foreign nationals who intend to commit
terrorist attacks in the United States; and (b) prevent the
admission of foreign nationals who intend to exploit United States immigration
laws for malevolent purposes.”
To prevent such individuals from entering the U.S., the
executive order requests the development of a uniform screening program, which
in fact would reinforce requirements that have been deliberately ignored by the
Obama administration.
However, radical-Islamic terrorists are not limited to the
countries list by the EO. There are unknown numbers of ISIS volunteers who
returned to Europe and other Western nations, which the new EO exempts. But
even if the screening is done by the book, and all necessary documentation has
been obtained and verified, and the applicant declares he holds no ill
intentions toward America and Americans, nothing available to the screeners
today would easily reveal that he or she is lying.
An effective way to find out the applicant’s intentions
would be screening through an efficient, unbiased, and non-intrusive system.
Such a system was developed by an Israeli company with a grant from the
Department of Homeland Security, which the Obama administration refused to
utilize.
The Suspect Detection System (SDS) has
developed counter-terrorist and insider threat detection technology
named COGITO. This technology enables law enforcement agencies to rapidly
investigate U.S. visa applicants (and other travelers) entering the country,
insider threats among employees, etc.
COGITO technology is an automated interrogation system that can
determine in 5-7 minutes if an individual is harboring hostile intent.
The system interviews the examinee with up to 36 questions while
measuring the psychophysical signals of the human body. The system has
95% accuracy and has helped security agencies globally to catch terrorists and
solve crimes.
According to the company’s website, the SDS allows the
screening of a large number of people in a short time. It “does not require
operator training. One operator can handle simultaneously ten stations.
It has a central management and database system that allows storing all
tests results, analysis, and data mining, and is deployed and integrated with
governmental agencies.” Using this system would eliminate the need to use
often biased U.S. Consulate employees. Moreover, the SDS uses an
automated decision-making system, which is “adaptable to a variety of different
questioning contexts, different cultures, and languages. The examination lasts
5 minutes when there are no indications of harmful intent, and 7 minutes to
ascertain it (with only 4% false positive, and 10% false negative).”
The COGITO is used in 15 countries including Israel,
Singapore, China, India, and Mexico. U.S. airlines operating in Latin
America are using COGITO to check their employees.
But last year DHS refused to use the SDS, claiming that it
“would constitute an intrusion on the privacy of those screened by the system”
and “[i]t may reflect on VISA applicants or Immigrant’s civil rights.”
However, foreigners applying for a U.S. visa are not protected by
American laws.
SDS capability to detect intent seems to fit President
Trump’s promise of “extreme vetting” of Muslim refugees from high-risk regions.
This and other similarly objective systems would not only assist in
making America safer but also be in keeping its policy and tradition of
accepting refugees who do not wish us harm.
~~~
*This is an updated version of the article on American
Thinker: Protecting America from
ill-intended refugees
____________________
Terrorism and COGITO
John R. Houk
© January 29, 2017
_________________
Protecting America from
ill-intended refugees
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