The idea that computerized face recognition may have helped avert the al- Qaeda terrorist attacks was perhaps the most ambitious claim circulating about biometric identification technologies in the aftermath of September 11. Along with the enormous flood of imagery of the day relayed in the news media were the out-of-focus surveillance-camera images of two of the alleged attackers. The recorded video image from the airport in Portland that appears to show Mohammad Atta and Abdulaziz Alomari passing through airport security is a familiar part of 9/11 iconography. It is virtually impossible to reference this image without also invoking the claim that facial recognition technology could have identified the men in the image as wanted terrorist suspects. Already existing commercially available technology, according to this regretful yet strangely hopeful assertion, “could have instantly checked the image against photos of suspected terrorists.” Technologies that use digital readings of the face to identify individuals could have saved the United States from the worst terrorist attack in its history.
