Woodward Gives Talk on Identification Technologies
Professor John D. Woodward Jr., Professor of the Practice of International Relations at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, gave a February 26, 2016 special lecture to faculty and students at Waynesburg University on how the use of identification technologies can improve homeland security.
Specifically, Woodward explained how biometric technologies, or automated methods of human recognition based on a physiological or behavioral characteristic, can be used to reliably identify individuals and how the U.S. government can improve its current biometric efforts.
Citing the 9/11 Commission Report, Woodward related how the government used fingerprint matching to identify Mohamed al-Kahtani, the missing 20th hijacker of the 9/11 attacks. Khatani was supposed to be the fifth hijacker on United Airlines Flight 93 that crashed in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.
Woodward also explained how during his tenure as the Director of the Department of Defense Biometrics Management Office, the U.S. military, working closely with law enforcement, implemented and used biometric technologies like computerized fingerprinting to identify numerous foreign persons who posed a possible threat to coalition forces.
Professor James Tanda of Waynesburg University’s criminal justice administration department hosted the visit.