The discovery of an alleged plan terrorist attacks in Europe due to its success, at least in part to a technology that allows law enforcement to
electronically identify a person's voice.
The technique "that some compare to fingerprints" can be a powerful tool against terrorism, officials believe. Law enforcement agencies are already studying how to create a database of
voices to help thwart future plots and the
Voice identification technology.
The alleged plot against European cities where the suspects talked of Mumbai-style shootings has caused a series of travel warnings and focused attention on the activities of al-Qaida in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, where they recorded the voices of several suspects.The British spy agency GCHQ used a voice identification program to help uncover the plan according to officials was as white Germany, Britain and France, where many prominent sites are under close surveillance and the
Voice identification technology.
"Advances in these types of technology have been key to thwarting plots and time to catch suspects," said a British official told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Voice identification technology
Police in southern France on Tuesday arrested 12 suspects in raids against suspected Islamic extremists, including three men allegedly linked to a network of recruits to Afghanistan.
In one case, nine suspected Islamic militants were arrested in the southern city of Marseille and its suburbs, and authorities seized at least two guns, officials said and the
Voice identification technology.
In another raid on Tuesday, two men were arrested in Marseilles and one in Bordeaux for alleged links with a Frenchman arrested in Naples last month, accused of having ties to a network recruiting Afghan fighters.
The German authorities, meanwhile, remained silent on Tuesday about the details of a U.S. attack in an area of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan, where Pakistani officials say militants killed five Germans and the
Voice identification technology.
U.S. officials believe that a cell of Germans and British were at the center of plan attacks in Europe. German public broadcaster ARD, citing unspecified sources, said Tuesday that four of the Germans killed in the attack in Pakistan were of Turkish origin.
Voice identification against terrorism
The creators of the
voice identification technology say it can be more useful than the use of fingerprints to combat terrorism."There is potential for a larger database of the voices of the criminals who of his fingerprints," said Germano Di Mambro, who heads the firm Porticus Technology Inc., based in the United States.Supporters of the technology mention other important cases of its successful application. The Colombian drug trafficker Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia, who used plastic surgery and various aliases to avoid capture, was captured in 2007 after the U.S. Drug Enforcement Compare your voice with a recording previously made by the Colombian authorities and the
voice identification technology against terrorism.
In a study presented in 2003 at a conference in Geneva, several experts warned that there was no scientific way to identify with certainty the
voice of a person.Frederic bimbot, one of the authors of the study, said the term "voiceprint" is misused, because it insinuates that the technique is as accurate as fingerprint identification.
"Not so," said the study, which noted that, unlike fingerprints, voices are very variable "changes according to age, health and emotional state. In reply to an email on Monday, bimbot said his opinion on the issue has not changed.
