This is a fascinating book that takes one incident in Afghanistan and uses it to expose the Department of Defense's widespread use of biometrics in Afghanistan, how that affects one case of a lieutenant convicted of war crimes (rightly so it appears) whom President Donald Trump subsequently pardoned (relying on biometric evidence from the defense teams which seems to have been bogus). She then jumps off into a wider discussion of biometrics with a tentative discussion of how biometrics are coming from the battlefield to your local village. It ends up being a frightening glimpse into Big Brother alive and thriving in the United States.

"It would be years before these same military surveillance methodologies would eventually come home, to tag and track citizens in the United States," the author writes, but come they do and are in use at this moment with little to no legal oversight.

When a guy who is intimately familiar with how this technology was used in Afghanistan and is only referred to as Kevin H tells you, "What Palantir is capable of is straight-up Big Brother. People should pay attention. For real." It seems wise to listen to that guy. Of course the difficulty is that we cannot pay attention because the technology and its use is highly secret, even when used against American citizens.

An interesting read and a glimpse of the future, and it isn't good.

Eye opening introduction to the use of biometric data amalgamations to assist, circumvent, and/or instigate warfare. With cautionary warnings of the capabilities of these semi-privatized/government classified omnipotent entities and the dangers they pose to American and individual freedoms. All focused around the fast paced and gut wrenching story of one platoon’s deployment to Afghanistan. Where is our data being stored? How is it being collected? How do we know if it’s stored? Who controls it? Who keeps those controlling it in check? How is it being used against us? How is this post I’m now writing influencing systems create predictive threat assessments in domestic environments?

Mind blowing stuff! I have no words!

This is so different from any book I have read. Very thought provoking. I look forward to reading more of Annie Jacobsen’s books. Note: this reads like an in-depth research report, over 100 pages of citations and notes.

I love Annie Jacobsen and hate moving. The former has been helping with the later.

Anything she writes is incredibly well researched and delivered in engaging personal stories from a variety of involved individuals.