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World News and Prophetic Trends
Reviewing
Current World Conditions In Light Of Bible Prophecy
Report-1 - Mark Of The Beast Technologies
Big Brother gets under your skin Ultimate ID badge, transceiver implanted in humans monitored by GPS satellites
By Julie Foster © 2000 WorldNetDaily.comNew implant technology currently used to locate lost pets has been adapted for use in humans, allowing implant wearers to emit a homing beacon, have vital bodily functions monitored and confirm identity when making e-commerce transactions.
Applied Digital Solutions, an e-business to business solutions provider, acquired the patent rights to the miniature digital transceiver it has named "Digital Angel®." The company plans to market the device for a number of uses, including as a "tamper-proof means of identification for enhanced e-business security."
Digital Angel® sends and receives data and can be continuously tracked by global positioning satellite technology. When implanted within a body, the device is powered electromechanically through the movement of muscles and can be activated either by the "wearer" or by a monitoring facility.
"We believe its potential for improving individual and e-business security and enhancing the quality of life for millions of people is virtually limitless," said ADS Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Richard Sullivan. "Although we're in the early developmental phase, we expect to come forward with applications in many different areas, from medical monitoring to law enforcement. However, in keeping with our core strengths in the e-business to business arena, we plan to focus our initial development efforts on the growing field of e-commerce security and user ID verification."
Dr. Peter Zhou, chief scientist for development of the implant and president of DigitalAngel.net, Inc, a subsidiary of ADS, told WorldNetDaily the device will send a signal from the person wearing Digital Angel® to either his computer or the e-merchant with whom he is doing business in order to verify his identity.
In the future, said Zhou, computers may be programmed not to operate without such user identification. As previously reported in WND, user verification devices requiring a live fingerprint scan are already being sold by computer manufacturers. Digital Angel® takes such biometric technology a giant step further by physically joining human and machine.
But e-commerce is only one field to which Digital Angel® applies. The device's patent describes it as a rescue beacon for kidnapped children and missing persons. According to Zhou, the implant will save money by reducing resources used in rescue operations for athletes, including mountain climbers and skiers.
Law enforcement may employ the implant to keep track of criminals under house arrest, as well as reduce emergency response time by immediately locating individuals in distress.
The device also has the ability to monitor the user's heart rate, blood pressure and other vital functions. "Your doctor will know the problem before you do," said Zhou, noting peace of mind is possible for at-risk patients who can rest in the knowledge that help will be on the way should anything go wrong.
Indeed, peace of mind is Digital Angel®'s main selling point.
"Ideally," the patent states, "the device will bring peace of mind and an increased quality of life for those who use it, and for their families, loved ones, and associates who depend on them critically."
Referring to the threat of kidnapping, the patent goes on to say, "Adults who are at risk due to their economic or political status, as well as their children who may be at risk of being kidnapped, will reap new freedoms in their everyday lives by employing the device."
Digital Angel®'s developer told WND demand for the implant has been tremendous since ADS announced its acquisition of the patent in December.
"We have received requests daily from around the world for the product," Zhou said, mentioning South America, Mexico and Spain as examples.
One inquirer was the U.S. Department of Defense, through a contractor, according to Zhou. American soldiers may be required to wear the implant so their whereabouts and health conditions can be accessed at all times, said the scientist.
As of yet, there is no central DigitalAngel.net facility that would do the job of monitoring users -- the task will most likely fall to the entities marketing the device, said Zhou. For example, if a medical group decides to market Digital Angel® to its patients, that group would set up its own monitoring station to check on its device-users.
Likewise, militaries employing the implant will want to maintain their own monitoring stations for security purposes.
But for critics, military use of the implant is not at the top of their list of objections to the new technology. ADS has received complaints from Christians and others who believe the implant could be the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy.The Book of Revelation states all people will be required to "receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark." (Rev.13:16-17 KJV)
In an increasingly cashless society where identity verification is essential for financial transactions, some Christians view Digital Angel®'s ID and e-commerce applications as a form of the biblical "mark of the beast."
But Zhou dismisses such objections to the implant. "I am a Christian, but I don't think [that argument] makes sense," he told WND. "The purpose of the device is to save your life and improve the quality of life. There's no connection to the Bible. There are different interpretations of the Bible. My interpretation is, anything to improve the quality of life is from God. The Bible says, 'I am the God of living people.' We not only live, we live well."
Sullivan, responding to religious objections to his product, told WorldNetDaily no one will be forced to wear Digital Angel®.
"We live in a voluntary society," he said. According to the CEO, individuals may choose not to take advantage of the technology.
Zhou alluded to some Christians' objection to medicine per se, adding such opposition wanes when the life-saving, life-improving benefits of technology are realized.
"A few years ago there may have been resistance, but not anymore," he continued. "People are getting used to having implants. New century, new trend."
Zhou compared Digital Angel® to pacemakers, which regulate a user's heart rate. Pacemakers used to be seen as bizarre, said Zhou, but now they are part of everyday life. Digital Angel® will be received the same way, he added.
Vaccines are another good comparison, said the scientist, who noted, "Both save your life. When vaccines came out, people were against them. But now we don't even think about it."
Digital Angel®, Zhou believes, could become as prevalent as a vaccine.
"Fifty years from now this will be very, very popular. Fifty years ago the thought of a cell phone, where you could walk around talking on the phone, was unimaginable. Now they are everywhere," Zhou explained.
Just like the cell phone, Digital Angel® "will be a connection from yourself to the electronic world. It will be your guardian, protector. It will bring good things to you."
"We will be a hybrid of electronic intelligence and our own soul," Zhou concluded.
In the process of merging with Destron Fearing Corp., a manufacturer and marketer of electronic and visual identification devices for animals, DigitalAngel.net is scheduled to complete a prototype of the dime-sized implant by year's end. Company executives hope to make the device affordable for individuals, though no cost projections have been made.
ADS, DigitalAngel.net's parent company, received a special "Technology Pioneers" award from the World Economic Forum for its contributions to "worldwide economic development and social progress through technology advancements."
The World Economic Forum, incorporated in 1971 with headquarters in Geneva, is an independent, not-for-profit organization "committed to improving the state of the world." WEF is currently preparing for its "China Business Summit" in Beijing next month for the purpose of forging new economic alliances with the communist nation.
Revelation about 'Digital Angels'
© 2000 WorldNetDaily.com
"He causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred threescore and six." -- Revelation 13: 16-18 - KJV
I have always wondered about this passage in the biblical book of Revelation. How would people ever be made to accept such a "mark of the beast" or to accept the implantation of some sinister computer chip in their bodies? It sounded like science fiction.
If and when such a terrifying future scenario would begin to unfold, I figured -- when the "antichrist" and his operatives would try to mandate the mass acceptance of this "mark" -- there would be massive rebellion. Everyone would just say, "Hey, dude, didn't you ever hear of a little thing called the Bible? The Book of Revelation? So get out of my face, 'cause I'm not interested in obtaining eternal damnation. Have a nice day."
Ah, that was then. Little did I know the day would come when traditional Christianity would be under such severe assault, its basic precepts so maligned, its adherents so demonized that the nightmarish scenario predicted in Revelation could not only come about, but be welcomed with open arms.
Little did I know that the once super-secret Echelon surveillance network would be capable of monitoring any e-mail and phone conversation anywhere on earth, and that soon people's location will be trackable through their cellular phones.
And now, here comes the Digital Angel® -- the new, dime-sized implantable transceiver whose manufacturer, the NASDAQ-traded Applied Digital Solutions, intends its global use for the tracking and monitoring of humans. Emitting a homing beacon that can be tracked by global positioning system satellites, it is being marketed as the ultimate, tamper-proof means of personal identification. When implanted in your body, the device is powered electromechanically through the movement of muscles, and it can be activated either by the "wearer" or by a monitoring facility.
"A few years ago there may have been resistance, but not anymore," Dr. Peter Zhou, chief scientist for development of the implant and president of ADS subsidiary DigitalAngel.net Inc. told WorldNetDaily.com. "People are getting used to having implants. New century, new trend."
In a spine-tingling comment on mankind's future, Zhou added, "We will be a hybrid of electronic intelligence and our own soul." Now I am not claiming "Digital Angel®" is the tool of the antichrist. But I am saying emphatically that, if it is, the world is just about ready for it.
A few years ago, could you have predicted that in the year 2000 a major Republican presidential candidate would call two of the best-known evangelical Christian ministers in the country -- Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell -- "agents of intolerance"?
Back in the days when Pat Buchanan was spokesman for Ronald Reagan, would you have believed that just a few years later, today's White House press secretary, Joe Lockhart, would publicly equate Christians evangelizing people of other faiths with perpetuating "ancient religious hatred"?
Could you have guessed churches around the country would be denied the right to conduct weddings and funerals because they might be "disturbing the peace"?
Would you ever have thought that "new research" would show, in the biblical story of David and Goliath, that it wasn't David's faith in God that won the day. It was the fact, as Vladimir Berginer, professor of neurology at Israel's Ben-Gurion University argues, that Goliath was actually suffering from a disease of the pituitary gland called acromegaly, which caused a tumor to swell against Goliath's optic nerve. Poor Goliath, it turns out, was vision-impaired.
If the unproven and fraud-ridden theory of evolution can be used so effectively to undermine the first book of the Bible; and if a university professor can claim without evidence of any sort that Goliath couldn't see -- and the international media report this as news; then the dark, foreboding and allegorical last book of the Bible should be child's play to discredit.
And whereas a generation ago Judeo-Christianity was the dominant culture in America, and the homosexual world a seamy subculture, could you have guessed that today the homosexual activists' political agenda would have become accepted and supported in almost every sector of society, while Christianity would be openly and freely demonized?
But the blame for all this does not rest on homosexuals or those hostile to Christianity. Just as America has the noble tradition of liberty, but not nearly the substance it once had, so do many nominal Christians of today have the appearance and words of faith, but deep down are no different than the "heathen" they wish to evangelize. If you disagree, tell me how, with something like 80 million evangelical Christians in the United States, an immoral, lying sociopath like Bill Clinton could have been elected president -- twice.
The Clinton presidency -- by all accounts the most corrupt in American history -- is proof positive that millions of "Christians" are capable of looking evil straight in the eye and thinking it is good.
And good evil. After all, it was the religious people of the day, those who thought they were "approved of God," that hated Jesus and wanted him crucified, not the pagan Romans.
If Christians can accept a Clinton presidency, the horrific results of which America will be dealing with for a generation, they certainly can accept a little chip designed to make life better, can't they?
Many Christians have become so shallow, so worldly, so self-satisfied, and so corrupt that they have long ago lost the original innocence and brightness they had as children.
They embrace the practice of abortion, viewing it as a necessary health procedure, a fundamental right, an equalizing factor between women and men, even an advancement in their quality of life. They don't see that it perfectly parallels the satanic ritual of sacrificing an nnocent child on the altar of selfishness and lust. They've lost their spiritual discernment, and all they have left is the outward appearance of being religious.
Their belief system, instead of upgrading their lives, justifies their sin. They see themselves as having a sort of spiritual "diplomatic immunity." They are saved, after all, and therefore can do what they want with impunity, with no fear of spiritual law enforcement authorities.
They are saved, so to hell with everybody and everything else. They're waiting for the rapture, and enjoying God's piecemeal judgment of the world. They have almost completely lost the ability to recognize evil as evil, and to oppose it -- not with anger, but with love and strength, as Jesus did. Without real virtue, all that's left is hypocrisy, and Christianity in America today is full of it.
The truth is, Christians have been powerless to stop the spread of evil throughout America, even within their own churches. I always thought good was supposed to be more powerful than evil. Maybe there's not too much good in today's Christians -- not enough, anyway.
Yes, the truth is, if and when the terrible time foretold in Revelation comes, most of us probably won't even notice this manifestation of ultimate evil. After all, we've had a lot of practice.
Meet the 'Digital Angel' -- from Hell
© 2000 WorldNetDaily.com
'Twas Lord Byron who said it first, I believe: "'Tis strange but true; for truth is always strange; Stranger than fiction."
In the 21st century, I'm certain we will find that truth is even stranger than science fiction.
You had better sit down for this one, privacy fans. A company called Applied Digital Solutions has what sounds to me like the final solution. The NASDAQ-traded high-tech company is excited about its acquisition of the patent rights to a miniature digital transceiver -- which it nicknamed "Digital Angel (R)." Personally, I think it should be rated X -- or worse.
The product is billed as a versatile transceiver that can send and receive data -- and which can be implanted in humans.
It can provide a tamper-proof means of identification for enhanced business security, the company boasts. It can locate lost or missing individuals, say the proud owners. It can track and locate valuable property, they claim. It can monitor the medical conditions of at-risk patients. And it can slice, dice and destroy the ast vestiges of personal privacy in an increasingly impersonal world.
The implantable transceiver's signals can be tracked continuously by global positioning satellites. When implanted in the body, the device is powered electromagnetically through the movement of muscles, and it can be activated either by the wearer or by the monitoring facility.
"While a number of other tracking and monitoring technologies have been patented and marketed in the past, they are all unsuitable for the widespread tracking, recovery and identification of people due to a variety of limitations, including unwieldy size, maintenance requirements, insufficient or inconvenient power-supply and activation difficulties," explains a company prospectus. "For the first time in the history of location and monitoring technology, Digital Angel(R) overcomes these limitations."
Oh, goody.
The company projects a global market for this technology in excess of $100 billion.
But the applications it discusses just don't add up to that kind of number. The math doesn't work for me. You decide. Here's what the company is talking about: business security, locating individuals, monitoring medical conditions, tracking and locating essential military and diplomatic personnel, tracking personal property.
The only way that adds up to a hundred billion in my calculator is if every human being on earth gets one of these implants. And maybe that's the idea.
On Jan. 31, APS accepted the special "Technology Pioneers" award from the World Economic Forum for the company's contributions to worldwide economic development and social progress through technology advancements.
And what is the World Economic Forum? It bills itself as an independent organization committed to improving the state of the world. It does this by "creating the foremost global partnerships of business, political, intellectual and other leaders of society to define and discuss key issues on the global agenda."
Now, I want you to use your imagination here, for a moment. Why would an organization committed to breaking down nationalist barriers and moving the world toward global government give a technology award to a company that just acquired the patent to a sophisticated, implantable identification device? Hmmmmm? And guess what one of the foremost goals of WEF is? You got it -- vaccinating every human being on the planet. How convenient! What a coincidence.
President Clinton recently addressed the WEF in Davos, Switzerland. He boasted about asking the Congress to give pharmaceutical conglomerates tax credits to make vaccines more widely available at low cost. He appealed for a similar effort from the World Bank, other nations and the corporate world to deliver the vaccines to the people who need them -- meaning everyone.
How could ADS ever hope to make $100 billion with this new technology? By implanting it in every human being in the world. And how could that be done? At vaccination time, of course.
Let's see now. The application is buying and selling. The technology is implantable. The plans are global.
This sounds remarkably like something I read in Revelation 16-18- KJV: "And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six."
Digital Angel? Sounds more like we could be entering the age of the Digital Devil.
Technological Advances That Threaten Our Freedom and Privacy
Surveillance cameras that constantly monitor our highways, streets, parking lots and buildings are fundamentally altering our way of life. These intrusive surveillance cameras are eliminating the sense of privacy that most of us have previously taken for granted. Our privacy is being progressively eroded by new technologies. The introduction of security cameras to provide traffic safety and crime control has been expanded to include surveillance of employees at their desks, in washrooms, and throughout the factory or store. The strong corporate arguments in favor of such continuous employee and customer monitoring include crime prevention, protection of staff, and employee drug prevention programs. However, the final result is that many employees are now living a secretly monitored life that is little different from that described by George Orwell in his frightening novel 1984. The truth is that modern technology in the last decade has produced surveillance possibilities that are far more pervasive that those faced by the characters in George Orwell's prophetic novel.How do you feel about government officials, the police or other inquisitive individuals knowing every private detail of your life? The complete record of your travel destination, your choice of books, newspapers, movies, your pay TV choices, your traffic tickets, your medical tests, and every purchase you make is now electronically recorded and "on file" for anyone who can access your computer data file. The technical capacity of the government to monitor every aspect of your life far outweighs your ability to protect your privacy. Despite the growing public concern with the issue of privacy of our computer records, the governments of the United States and Canada have totally failed to protect their citizens from the massive intrusion into their private lives by both government and private intelligence agencies.
The widespread introduction of corporate security systems requiring all workers to wear an employee badge containing an implanted computer microchip has given companies the potential to monitor the location and activity of every worker. As the employee enters his office the computer records the exact time and will quietly monitor his or her every move throughout the day. Sensors placed at strategic locations throughout the building will record the location and duration of every movement by the badge wearer.
New sophisticated office phone systems allow your boss to secretly monitor any private phone calls you might make. Many computerized office phone systems contain a record of all possible legitimate business phone numbers. If an employee places a personal call to a friend, the office phone system will record the unauthorized number and produce a report of their private calls and their duration as ammunition for his supervisor at their next evaluation interview. The International Labor Organization in Geneva recently warned, "Workers in industrialized countries are losing privacy in the workplace as technological advances allow employers to monitor nearly every facet of time on the job."
The study claimed that the United States was the worst offender. Recently the American Civil Liberties Union stated, "Criminals have more privacy rights than employees. Police have to get a court order, whereas in the workplace, surveillance can be conducted without safeguards." Additionally, computer network supervisors in many fully computerized companies secretly monitor the actual keystrokes and productivity of every individual employee who uses a desk-top computer in their daily work. Employees often complain about the incredible job stress they experience knowing that they are being secretly monitored every minute of the day. In many companies the use of random drug testing and secret cameras, together with intrusive psychological questionnaires creates a very unhealthy psychological environment of constant monitoring and suspicion.
Several friends in the field of private investigations and industrial counterespionage have shown me some of the incredible technical advances in surveillance devices. A new pinhole camera can be placed behind a wall that can monitor the next door room audibly and visually. It is virtually impossible to detect the lens unless you examine every wall, floor and ceiling surface with a magnifying glass to detect the camera lenses the size of the head of pin.
These new cameras can photograph silently in almost total darkness. Another new surveillance camera is secretly concealed in a small mobile telephone with the camera lens recording through the tiny hole normally used for the microphone. During a negotiation the owner can leave the phone in a board room when he leaves the room. As the other team discusses their negotiating position "in private" the other party is secretly recording everything they say and do. Surveillance devices can now be purchased for several hundred dollars that enable you to monitor everything occurring in your home or office while you are away.
One remote monitoring device, the XPS-1000, allows you to call your phone number from anywhere in the world by dialing your phone with a special activation code. The device will not ring your phone. However, from that moment on, you can monitor every sound in the building. Another tiny device, a micro transmitter surveillance bug powered for three months by a miniature battery, can be secretly left in any room. The device will broadcast up to one thousand yards to a radio receiver on any FM frequency you have chosen. The truth is that privacy is now an illusion. If someone truly is determined to monitor your activities, they can do it.
Mission Impossible Film Promotes Digital Angel Technology
(aka: THE TROUBLE WITH DIGITAL ANGELS)
Midway through Mission Impossible 2 Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) injects a biometric chip into the foot of love interest Thandie Newton. The action is perceived as necessary and ultimately saves the damsel in distress. This is due to the "wonderful" Global Positioning Satellite technologies and the latest in Digital Angel transponder chips designed to "enhance and preserve" the human experience.Recently, Applied Digital Solutions (ADS) received patent rights to the new technology named Digital Angel (TM). What's bothersome is that Digital Angel is a miniature digital transceiver specifically designed for human implantation (original patent info).
According to ADS, "The implantable transceiver sends and receives data and can be continuously tracked by GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) technology. The transceiver's power supply and actuation system are unlike anything ever created. When implanted within a body, the device is powered electromechanically through the movement of muscles, and it can be activated either by the 'wearer' or by the monitoring facility."
In a company press release dated February 15th, ADS stated that "Digital Angel has generated a large and positive response from both the investing public and those who are interested in participating in the wide array of applications for this technology."
ADS also claims that Digital Angel has "a variety of potential uses, such as providing a tamper-proof means of identification for enhanced e-business security, animal tracking, locating lost or missing individuals, tracking the location of valuable property and monitoring the medical conditions of at-risk patients."
To further advocate Digital Angel technology, Applied Digital Solutions launched a website http://www.digitalangel.net where viewers can peruse diagrams and read summary information. Although still in the developmental stage, a prototype of the device is scheduled for release by the end of 2000.
Other manufacturers of sub-skin implants have quietly field-tested similar devices over the past few years. The London Times reported in October 1998, "Film stars and the children of millionaires are among 45 people, including several Britons, who have been fitted with the chips (called the Sky Eye) in secret tests."
Due to civil liberty and privacy issues, the ACLU announced opposition to mandatory microchip implantation when applied to humans. The ACLU is certain to be a strange bedfellow of Christians and conservatives concerning this issue.
THE FULFILLMENT OF PROPHECY?
Many Christians believe that, before long, an antichrist system will appear. It will be a New World Order, under which national boundaries dissolve, and ethnic groups, ideologies, religions, and economics from around the world, orchestrate a single and dominant sovereignty. Such a system will supposedly be free of religious and political extremes, and membership will tolerate the philosophical and cultural differences of its constituents. Except for minor nonconformities, war, intolerance, and hunger will be a thing of the past.
According to popular Biblical interpretation, a single personality will surface at the head of the utopian administration. He will appear as a man of distinguished character, but will ultimately become "a king of fierce countenance" (Dan. 8:23). With imperious decree the Antichrist will facilitate a one-world government, universal religion, and globally monitored socialism. Those who refuse his New World Order will inevitably be imprisoned or destroyed, until at last he exalts himself "above all that is called God, or that is worshiped, so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God" (2 Thess. 2:4).
The Antichrist's widespread power will be derived at the expense of individual human liberties. He will force "all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six [666]" (Rev. 13:16-18 KJV).
For many years the idea that humans could somehow succumb to little more than branded cattle, and that rugged individualism would thereafter be sacrificed for an anesthetized universal harmony, was repudiated by America’s greatest minds. Then, in the 1970’s, things began to change. Following a call by Nelson Rockefeller for the creation of a "New World Order," presidential candidate Jimmy Carter campaigned, saying, "We must replace balance of power politics with world order politics."
During the 1980's President George Bush continued the one-world dirge, announcing over national television that "a New World Order" had arrived. Following the initial broadcast, President Bush addressed the Congress, saying,
What is at stake is more than one small country [Kuwait], it is a big idea--a new world order, where diverse nations are drawn together in common cause to achieve the universal aspirations of mankind: peace and security, freedom, and the rule of law. Such is a world worthy of our struggle, and worthy of our children’s future!
Ever since the President's astonishing newscast, a parade of political and religious leaders have discharged a profusion of rhetoric aimed at implementing the goals of a New World Order. In his Friday Fax, Austin Ruse of Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute (www.c-fam.org) wrote:
The 55th annual meeting of the UN General Assembly next fall will go by the name of the Millennium Assembly. The resolution calling for this special meeting of the Member States said, 'The year 2000 constitutes a unique and symbolically compelling moment to articulate and affirm an animating vision for the United Nations in the new era.' The Member States also look upon the new meeting as an opportunity to 'strengthen the role of the United Nations.'
Austin continues:
At the same time as the GA’s Millennium Assembly, Secretary General Kofi Annan will host a shorter 'Millennium Summit' that will deal with a broad range of themes including 'the role and function of the UN,' 'towards a global society,' 'new challenges to multi-lateralism in the era of globalization,' 'international cooperation,' and 'promoting peace and sustainable development of mankind.' The Millennium Summit will also deal with human rights. Radical notions of reproductive 'rights' and population control generally enter the UN debate through the concepts of human rights and 'sustainable development.'
Developers of biometric implant chips employ similar language to announce compatible global technologies, and many Americans consider electronically marking humans or implanting a series of digital equations under the skin to be the natural progress of advancing and necessary technologies.
IT SHOULD COME AS NO SURPRISE
Some people believe microchips are being developed for mandatory human implantation and that such chips will be the Biblical Mark of the Beast. These claim that bills such as the Emigration of Control Act of 1996, Section 100, would permit injection of microchips for identification purposes. This might be referred to as an invisible tattoo or electronic media under the skin. Is such a system of identification based on implantable microchip technology indeed being developed? The following are a few examples:
As far back as 1973, Senior Scholastics introduced school age children to the concept of buying and selling using numbers inserted in the forehead. In the September 20, 1973 feature "Who Is Watching You?" the secular high school journal speculated:
"All buying and selling in the program will be done by computer. No currency, no change, no checks. In the program, people would receive a number that had been assigned them tattooed in their wrist or forehead. The number is put on by laser beam and cannot be felt. The number in the body is not seen with the naked eye and is as permanent as your fingerprints. All items of consumer goods will be marked with a computer mark. The computer outlet in the store which picks up the number on the items at the checkstand will also pick up the number in the person's body and automatically total the price and deduct the amount from the person's 'Special Drawing Rights' account."
WILL DIGITAL "MARKS" SOON BE MANDATORY?
Microchip implantation is currently introduced as a voluntary procedure. But a report written by Elaine M. Ramish for the Franklin Pierce Law Center says, "A [mandatory] national identification system via microchip implants could be achieved in two stages: Upon introduction as a voluntary system, the microchip implantation will appear to be palatable. After there is a familiarity with the procedure and a knowledge of its benefits, implantation would be mandatory."
Writing for WorldNetDaily.com (Concern over microchip implants, 1999), Jon E. Dougherty quoted George Getz, the communications director for the Libertarian Party:
After all, the government has never forced anyone to have a drivers license, [but] try getting along without one, when everyone from your local banker to the car rental man to the hotel operator to the grocery store requires one in order for you to take advantage of their services, that amounts to a de facto mandate. If the government can force you to surrender your fingerprints to get a drivers license, why can't it force you to get a computer chip implant? These are differences in degree, not in kind--which is why it's essential to fight government privacy invasions from the outset.
As Social Security numbers were first voluntary, then mandatory, biometric chip implants are universally inevitable unless citizens rise up in immediate and national opposition. People like Mr. Getz may be on to something. Conservatives and liberals alike better contact state and federal representatives while they still can and demand immediate protection. Laws preserving individual rights need to be enacted by Congress before Digital Angel and similar forces lead humanity down a high-tech path of no return.
Note what the prophet said!
"And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark [charagma; from Greek charax meaning to stake down into or "stick into"] in their right hand, or in their foreheads....Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six (666)" (Rev. 13:16-18 KJV)
Notice the The True Bible (KJV) says: "in" - not "on" the right hand or forehead!
Did the prophet foresee a hypodermic needle injecting something under the skin?
"And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name." (Rev. 14:9-11 KJV)
"Resistance Is Futile.You Will Be Assimilated!"
By Thomas Horn
The Borg ("Cyborg") are considered by Star Trek fans to be the greatest villains ever introduced to television audiences. The biological and technological terrors made their debute on May 8th, 1989 in the "Q, Who?" episode of The Next Generation.
"This is the Borg Collective," they said menacingly. "Prepare to be assimilated. We will add your biological and technological distinctives to our own. You will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile."
Viewers sat on edge as the cybernetically enhanced and immensely powerful humanoids overcame the USS Enterprise and her crew. Implanted with biometric devices connected to a sophisticated communications network known as "The Borg Collective," the superior beings moved without conscious to assimilate the Star Trek crew and to implant them with biometric devices designed to facilitate the needs of The Collective.
The program was an effective two-part cliffhanger. When the crew of the Enterprise escaped, Trekkies around the world exhaled a borg-like collective sigh of relief.
"I AM LOCUTUS OF BORG!"
At one point during The Next Generation series, captain Jean-Luc Picard was captured and assimilated by the Borg. He became known as Locutus of Borg and promised to "raise the quality of life for all species." This would be accomplished by forced integration into the Collective.
Several weeks ago a disturbing secular news story illustrated how life in the not-to-distant future may imitate the filmmakers art. Applied Digital Solutions (ADS) received patent rights to Borg-like technology named Digital Angel (TM), a miniature digital transceiver specifically designed for human implantation. The Digital Angel transceiver is designed to be injected beneath the skin with a hypodermic needle.
According to ADS, "The implantable transceiver sends and receives data and can be continuously tracked by GPS (Global Positioning Satellite [read "the collective"]) technologies. The transceiver's power supply and actuation system are unlike anything ever created. When implanted within a body, the device is powered electromechanically through the movement of muscles, and it can be activated either by the 'wearer' or by the monitoring facility" [read "the collective"].
In a company press release dated February 15th, ADS stated that "Digital Angel has generated a large and positive response from both the investing public and those who are interested in participating in the wide array of applications for this technology."
ADS also claims that Digital Angel has "a variety of potential uses, such as providing a tamper-proof means of identification for enhanced e-business security, animal tracking, locating lost or missing individuals, tracking the location of valuable property and monitoring the medical conditions of at-risk patients."
Digital Angel (http://www.digitalangel.net) is the latest in emerging technologies designed to "enhance" the human species. Research teams funded by the National Institutes of Health, NASA, and a barrage of privately funded laboratories are also developing brain implants that will make it possible for people to communicate through computers using the power of thought. This could ultimately facilitate a wide array of complicated tasks assigned by the New Collective.
If this all sounds a bit Orwellian--it is. It is also reality, and many Christians believe such technology points to an antichrist system that will ultimately assimilate ethnic groups, ideologies, religions, and economics from around the world into a New World Order "Collective."
Control of the NWOs "assimilated" will be derived at the expense of individual human liberties. Everyone, "both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond [will be forced to] receive a mark [charagma; from Greek charax meaning to stake down into or "stick into" such as with a hypodermic needle injecting something under the skin!] in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six [chi xi stigma; The Greek "stigma" means to "stick, incise, or punch into the skin" as with a hypodermic needle injection)."] (Rev. 13:16-18-KJV - emphasis added)
According to experts, experiments in behavior modification have also been conducted using implanted chips. Dr. Carl Sanders points out that "the frequency of the chip [has] a great effect upon behavior...you could cause behavioral change."
Dr. Sanders continues: "One of the projects [we worked on] was called the Phoenix project which had to do with Vietnam veterans. We had a chip that was called the Rambo chip. This chip would actually cause extra adrenaline flow....Microchips can also be used for migraine headaches, behavior modification, upper/downer, sexual stimulant and sexual depressant."
Behavior modification using implanted chips may explain the ruthless methods of assimilation that will be employed by the borg-like followers of the Antichrist. (See Rev. 13:15; 20:4 KJV)
BE ASSIMILATED, OR BE STEREOTYPED AND DESTROYED!
One cannot read the books of Revelation and Daniel without observing the unique combination of political (Antichrist) and religious (False Prophet) personalities operating within the antichrist's "collective." Convincing religious leaders and laypeople to follow such anti-Christian and anti-democratic patterns means dismantling conservative and evangelical apologetics.
Enter a pattern reminiscent of Jewish persecution in post war Germany: Isolation of and discrimination against conservatives who fear the loss of individual human liberties is mandatory. The need to trivialize those who appreciate individual freedoms has already begun.
In Russia, where national tax ID numbers are being introduced, Andrei Zolotov Jr. wrote in The Moscow Times: "...some right-wing Christians fear the growing computerization of the world is opening the way for the coming of the Antichrist. The government's new, widely publicized plan to give every citizen a tax identification number and talk of introducing social security cards with bar codes - dreaded by those who see Satan's number, 666, in the codes - has apparently given them cause for further alarm."
The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church addressed the Governments plans, saying, "Many Christians, who consider the name given to them in baptism holy, consider it unworthy to ask the government for some new 'name' in the form of a number."
But Sergei Chapnin, editor of the Russian magazine Sobornost Orthodox (www.sobor.ru), said the religious community's response is a sign that an "occult" mentality is penetrating the Orthodox Church. "To believe in the magic of numbers is absolutely a non-Christian attitude toward life," Chapnin said. "If some people are afraid of it, it only says that occultism is intruding into Christian consciousness, and first of all the consciousness of neophytes who are the majority in today's Russian Orthodox Church." How convenient.
LOCUTUS OF BORG: "We will raise the quality of life for all species."
Dr. Carl Sanders, electronics engineer and inventor of the Intelligent Manned Interface biochip, worked on microchip technology as a method of raising the quality of life through medical advancements. Later he worried, "There are bills before congress right now that will allow them to inject a microchip in your child at the time of birth for identification purposes. The president of the United States of America, under the 'Emigration of Control Act of 1996', Section 100, has the authority to deem whatever type of identification is necessary - whether it be an invisible tattoo or electronic media under the skin."
Dr. Sander's prophecy is coming true. Laboratories like The Fetal Treatment Center (FTC) at UC San Francisco have now connected (NASA's) implantable biotelemetry devices to unborn babies. Other specialists, such as Dr Roy Bakay of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, are already installing chip-to-brain implants.
Charles Ostman, a senior fellow at the Institute for Global Futures and science editor at Mondo 2000, appreciates the implantable chip technology. "Neuroprosthetics are . . . inevitable," he says. "Biochip implants may become part of a rote medical procedure. After that, interface with outside systems [ read "the collective"] is a logical next step."
Professor Kevin Warwick, the first known recipient of a biometric chip implant, speaks excitedly of human microchip implantation. "Right-o, got the signal, got the implant; all I've got to do is run a wire from the implant to my nervous system. I'm so excited about it, I want to get on with the next step straight away. Let's see if we can control computers directly from our nervous system."
When asked about the Borg-like ramifications of such technology, professor Warwick responds "It is possible for machines to become more intelligent than humans in the reasonably near future. Machines will then become the dominant life form on earth." Spoken like a good little Borg wannabe.
And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. (Rev. 14:9-11 KJV)
BIOTECH: FIRM PLANS TO SELL IMPLANTABLE DEVICES THAT CAN STORE A VARIETY OF DATA ABOUT YOU.
The LA Times reports: “A Florida company is poised to become the first to sell microchips designed to be implanted into human beings, an achievement that opens the door to new systems of medical monitoring and ID screening.
Implantable chips have long been discussed by technologists and denounced by those who object on religious grounds or fear their use by a totalitarian state. But the company that did the test, Applied Digital Solutions of Palm Beach, said the specter of terrorism is shifting attitudes. The direct union of man and computer is no longer dismissed out of hand.
‘The bottom line is, when people are trying to regain their peace of mind, they're more open to new approaches,’ said Keith Bolton, Applied Digital's chief technology officer.
Applied Digital, which had revenue of $165 million last year, has made its mark by selling electronic chips that help farmers keep tabs on the health and safety of their cows and other livestock. The company also makes a monitoring bracelet for Alzheimer patients, so that families can use global positioning satellite systems to help find loved ones who might have wandered off&ldots;
Other potential applications would put the chips in the role of an ultimate ID, capable of performing many of the roles that are performed by keys and ATM cards.
‘I'd be shocked if within 10 years you couldn't get a chip implanted that would unlock your house, start your car and give you money,’ said Chris Hables Gray, an associate professor of computer science at the University of Great Falls in Montana and author of ‘The Cyborg Citizen.’&ldots;”
NJ SURGEON HAS EMBEDDED CHIP
The Washington Post reports: “A New Jersey surgeon has embedded under his skin tiny computer chips that can automatically transmit personal information to a scanner, a technology that his employer hopes will someday be widely used as a way to identify people.
One bioethicist called the procedure the stuff of science fiction. The chip, developed by Applied Digital Solutions of Palm Beach, Fla., is similar to that implanted in more than a million dogs, cats and other pets in recent years to track and identify them.
The new chip measures slightly smaller than a Tic Tac mint and has a miniature antenna that emits signals containing about two paragraphs worth of data when scanned by a handheld reader.
The device must undergo clinical trials and be approved by the Food and Drug Administration before it can be marketed, first to patients with other implanted medical devices, such as pacemakers.
The surgeon, who said he implanted the device in his hip and one arm in September, asked not to be named because he worries about the attention his initiative will draw. He said he decided to test the chip himself after seeing rescuers at the World Trade Center disaster site write their names and Social Security numbers on their arms so they could be identified in case they were injured or killed at the site&ldots;”
Biometrics draws crowd- Companies showcase biology-driven identity recognition technology.
LAS VEGAS - The business of biometrics has drawn a lot of interest on Wall Street and in other circles recently; and a raft of biometrics firms from across the globe were spreading the word at Comdex this week.
In fact, enough were on hand at this year's event to form their own pavilion on the convention center floor, which the conference organizers dubbed "Biometropolis."
They were showcasing technologies ranging from fingerprint scanners, implantable microchips, to voice and facial recognition systems.
Although the dictionary defines it as "the statistical analysis of biological observations and phenomena," the term "biometrics" is used most often these days to refer to the technology and science of using unique biological characteristics to verify a person's identity.
So far, the deployment of biometric identification systems in the United States has been limited primarily by privacy concerns and high costs. But many expect the use of such systems to increase as citizens appear more willing to trade privacy for security in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
"Security shot up the Richter scale in terms of priorities," said Grant Evans, senior vice president of Identix, the leading supplier of fingerprint scanning hardware and software and the largest publicly traded biometrics firm. "And what it really all boiled down to was the ability to identify people."
Indeed, facial recognition systems, which key in on unique facial characteristics and compare them against a database of known criminals or terrorists, currently are being installed in several U.S. airports. The deployment of such systems in public places prior to Sept. 11 had always been met with substantial resistance from civil libertarians who fear they ultimately could be used to keep track of ordinary citizens.
Biometrics stocks take off
Meanwhile, the stocks of the few biometric technology outfits that are publicly traded have risen sharply in value.
For example, Visionics (VSNX: down $0.36 to $13.15, Research, Estimates) shares have risen more than 216 percent from their $4.27 Sept. 10 closing price.
Shares of competing facial-recognition tech company Viisage Technology (VISG: down $0.22 to $9.22, Research, Estimates) are up nearly fourfold from $1.94. Identix (IDNX: up $0.13 to $7.64, Research, Estimates) shares are up about 85 percent from $4.20.
And executives from biometrics companies said the increased demand for the technology has spread well beyond the air travel industry as corporations and consumers reassess the security of their offices and homes, as well as their data, amid a heightened awareness of vulnerability.
Identix's Evans said U.S. demand for biometric access-control devices built into PC systems had gone up "several fold," in the weeks following Sept. 11.
"In Europe, people are more used to this kind of technology, and I think the United States is going to come up fast," said Michael Weber, North American sales director for Siemens Biometrics, an operating unit of German conglomerate Siemens AG.
Many European nations have been living with the threat of terrorism for years and have already learned to strike a balance between security and privacy, deploying a range of systems that combine biometrics with smart cards, which contain embedded microprocessors.
About three years ago, Siemens created its biometrics unit in an effort to better highlight its biometrics capabilities, specifically, the hardware used for fingerprint scanning. About a year ago, the company began to sharpen its focus on North America, and it currently has a modest sales force of seven, Weber said.
After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the new focus on security, the company sees a fourfold increase in its total end market opportunity, Weber said.
Graham Farrell, vice president of marketing at SecuGen, a leading maker of fingerprint scanning hardware, has a different perspective on how the sudden threat of Terrorism and the new focus on security will affect the total market for his company's products.
"I think its just going to grow four times faster," he said.
Other biometrics outfits participating in this year's Comdex include: Swedish-based Precise Biometrics; Cognitec AG; a German face recognition software company; and Digital Persona, a Redwood City, Calif., company that designs biometric identification systems for mainstream markets.
Terrorism Has Spawned the Mark of the Beast!
A prototype of an implantable biometric chip capable of marking an individual's precise location and of monitoring him or her for life is gaining support. It was named Best in Show of 170 International Science Exhibitors last year, and released in its "First Phase" wristwatch format called Guardian Angel soon after. Beta testing with an eye on human implantation was initiated privately, and recent acts of terrorism have many calling for quick implementation of the technology...more below.
Applied Digital Solutions (ADS) received patent rights to Digital Angel (TM) technology on December 10, 1999. What set Digital Angel apart from the competition was the innovative design--a miniature digital transceiver specifically created for human implantation.
According to information released last year the implantable transceiver "sends and receives data and can be continuously tracked by GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) technology. The transceiver's power supply and actuation system are unlike anything ever created. When implanted within a body, the device is powered electromechanically through the movement of muscles, and it can be activated either by the 'wearer' or by the monitoring facility."
An Information Technology report recently verified plans to study implantable chips as a method of tracking terrorists. After first pulling back from the implantable version of its Digital Angel, ADS foresees a unique use of its product in the wake of terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.
"We've changed out thinking since September 11," a company spokesman said, "Now there's more of a need to monitor evil activities."
ADS also claims the Digital Angel has a variety of other uses, such as "providing a tamper-proof means of identification for enhanced e-business security, animal tracking, locating lost or missing individuals, tracking the location of valuable property and monitoring the medical conditions of at-risk patients."
Following the Internet World Wireless 2001 award for "Best of Show: Client Services," Mercedes Walton, President and COO of Applied Digital Solutions, said: ``We have always had high expectations for the Digital Angel products. This award is truly a validation of our faith in Digital Angel's ability to capture the imagination of the public. Consumer anticipation has translated into accelerated interest from potential partners and allies. We are eager to bring Digital Angel to the marketplace in a very timely manner...."
To further advocate Digital Angel technology, Applied Digital Solutions launched a website http://www.digitalangel.net where viewers can peruse diagrams and read summary information.
Other manufacturers of sub-skin implants have quietly field-tested similar devices over the past few years. The London Times reported in October 1998, "Film stars and the children of millionaires are among 45 people, including several Britons, who have been fitted with the chips (called the Sky Eye) in secret tests."
Due to civil liberty and privacy issues, the ACLU announced opposition to mandatory microchip implantation when applied to humans. The ACLU is certain to be a strange bedfellow of Christians and conservatives concerning this issue.
THE FULFILLMENT OF PROPHECY?
Many Christians believe that, before long, an antichrist system will appear. It will be a New World Order, under which national boundaries dissolve, and ethnic groups, ideologies, religions, and economics from around the world, orchestrate a single and dominant sovereignty. The system will supposedly be free of religious and political extremes, and membership will tolerate the philosophical and cultural differences of its constituents. Except for minor nonconformities, war, terrorism, and hunger will be a thing of the past.
According to popular Biblical interpretation, a single personality will surface at the head of the utopian administration. He will appear as a man of distinguished character, but will ultimately become "a king of fierce countenance" (Dan. 8:23).
With imperious decree the Antichrist will facilitate the one-world government, universal religion, and globally monitored socialism. Those who refuse his New World Order will inevitably be imprisoned or destroyed, until at last he exalts himself "above all that is called God, or that is worshiped, so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God" (2 Thess. 2:4).
The Antichrist's widespread power will be derived at the expense of individual human liberties. He will force "all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six [666]" (Rev. 13:16-18).
For many years the idea that humans could somehow succumb to little more than branded cattle, and that rugged individualism would thereafter be sacrificed for an anesthetized universal harmony, was repudiated by America’s greatest minds.
Then, in the 1970’s, things began to change. Following a call by Nelson Rockefeller for the creation of a "New World Order," presidential candidate Jimmy Carter campaigned, saying, "We must replace balance of power politics with world order politics."
During the 1980's President George Bush continued the one-world dirge, announcing over national television that "a New World Order" had arrived. Following the nitial broadcast, President Bush addressed the Congress, saying,
What is at stake is more than one small country [Kuwait], it is a big idea--a new world order, where diverse nations are drawn together in common cause to achieve the universal aspirations of mankind: peace and security, freedom, and the rule of law. Such is a world worthy of our struggle, and worthy of our children’s future!
Ever since the President's astonishing newscast, a parade of political and religious leaders have discharged a profusion of rhetoric aimed at implementing the goals of a New World Order.
Developers of biometric implant chips employ similar language in announcing compatible global technologies, and many Americans consider electronically marking humans or implanting a series of digital equations under the skin to be the natural progress of advancing and necessary technologies.
IT SHOULD COME AS NO SURPRISE
Some people believe implantable microchips will be the Biblical Mark of the Beast. These claim that acts of terrorism such as the ones in New York and Washington, encourage microchipping humans for identification purposes.
But even before the New York and Pentagon tragedies, a push was being made to brand and monitor humanity. Consider the following:
* As far back as 1973, Senior Scholastics introduced school age children to the concept of buying and selling using numbers inserted in the forehead. In the September 20, 1973 feature "Who Is Watching You?" the secular high school journal speculated:
"All buying and selling in the program will be done by computer. No currency, no change, no checks. In the program, people would receive a number that had been assigned them tattooed in their wrist or forehead. The number is put on by laser beam and cannot be felt. The number in the body is not seen with the naked eye and is as permanent as your fingerprints. All items of consumer goods will be marked with a computer mark. The computer outlet in the store which picks up the number on the items at the checkstand will also pick up the number in the person's body and automatically total the price and deduct the amount from the person's 'Special Drawing Rights' account."
* In the 1974 article "The Specter of Eugenics," Charles Frankel pointed out Linus Pauling's (Nobel Prize winner) suggestions that a mark be tattooed on the foot or forehead of every young person. Pauling envisioned a mark denoting genotype.
* In 1980, U.S. News and World Report continued the warning, pointing out that the Federal Government was contemplating "National Identity Cards," without which nobody could work or conduct business.
* The Denver Post Sun followed up in 1981, claiming that chip implants could someday replace I.D. cards. The June 21, 1981 story read in part, "The chip is placed in a needle which is affixed to a simple syringe containing an anti-bacterial solution. The needle is capped and ready to forever identify something--or somebody."
* The May 7, 1996 Chicago Tribune questioned the technology, wondering aloud if we could trust Big Brother under our skin?
* Then in 1997 applications for patents of subcutaneous implant devices for "a person or an animal" were applied for.
* On April 27, 1998, Time Magazine ran the story, The Big Bank Theory And What It Says About The Future OF Money, in which they opined "Your daughter can store the money any way she wants--on her laptop, on a debit card, even (in the not too distant future) on a chip implanted under her skin."
* In August 1998 the BBC covered the first known human microchip implantation.
* That same month the Sunday Oregonian warned that proposed medical identifiers might erode privacy rights by tracking individuals through alphanumeric health identifier technologies. The startling Oregonian feature depicted humans with barcodes in their foreheads.
* Senator Robb (Virginia) felt it necessary to add the MARC (multi-technology automated reader card) Card Amendment to the FY97 DOD Authorization Bill.
* One can only speculate why bionics is attempting to create organisms that contain linked organic (human cells) material with biometric chips for human implantation.
* Meanwhile, it's the year 2002. Terrorism has many people in the mood to sacrifice human liberties, and Digital Angel has opened its first mass production factory in Palm Beach, Florida.
WILL DIGITAL "MARKS" SOON BE MANDATORY?
Makers of implantable microchips claim the proceedure will be voluntary at first. But a report written by Elaine M. Ramish for the Franklin Pierce Law Center says:
"A [mandatory] national identification system via microchip implants could be achieved in two stages: Upon introduction as a voluntary system, the microchip implantation will appear to be palatable. After there is a familiarity with the procedure and a knowledge of its benefits, implantation would be mandatory."
George Getz, the communications director for the Libertarian Party agrees, saying:
After all, the government has never forced anyone to have a driver license, [but] try getting along without one, when everyone from your local banker to the car rental man to the hotel operator to the grocery store requires one in order for you to take advantage of their services, that amounts to a de facto mandate. If the government can force you to surrender your fingerprints to get a drivers license, why can't it force you to get a computer chip implant?
People like Mr. Getz are correct. Conservatives and liberals alike need to contact state and federal representatives and demand laws preserving individual rights before Digital Angel and similar forces lead humanity down a high-tech path of no return.
Just as Social Security numbers were first voluntary, then mandatory, biometric chip implants will eventually become mandatory unless citizens rise up in immediateand national opposition. Even Applied Digital Solution's chief executive officer Richard Sullivan envisions a scenario where``people [are] required to be chipped or [have] some combination of a device requiring them to be scanned and monitored at all times.''
Note what the prophet said!
"And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark [charagma; from Greek charax meaning to stake down into or "stick into"]in their right hand, or in their foreheads....Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six" (Rev. 13:16-18)
Did the prophet foresee a hypodermic needle injecting something beneath the skin? Probably.
A temporary victory was won against such ideas following the original news story by Raiders News Update concerning ADS's implantable microchip intentions in 1999. News services across the web ran our story resulting in an inundation by concerned readers. ADS's shares droped on the Nasdaq from $5.00 to .50 each.
ADS then released this statement: "We are not pursuing any applications for embedded chips and we have moved away from that for a couple of reasons....There are a number of privacy concerns and religious implications -- fundamentalist Christian groups regard it [implanting computer chips] as the Devil's work."
More recently however an Independent news story claimed that if the Palm Beach testing center's wristwatch version of Digital Angel is successful, ADS "will start implanting them inside humans between the muscle and the skin on the forearm next year."
Now terrorism has people thinking that everything from face scanning to implantable chips is not only inevitable, but perhaps a good idea. These are differences in degree, not in kind, and mandates an immediate response from level headed people to lawmakers. It also forecast a prediction made long ago:
"And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name." (Rev. 14:9-11)
*The selling point for implanting biochips beneath your skin is that they cannot be stolen.*
By Jack Duggan
The selling point for implanting biochips beneath your skin is that they cannot be stolen. They can be used to access ATM’s, pay bills, sign contracts, verify your identity--all without your wallet--and locate lost or kidnaped children. Should you, yourself, become lost or disabled, a global array of satellites will locate you, or any person who has been implanted with a SIB (Subdermally Implanted Biochip) anywhere on the planet.
A SIB can contain complete, valuable medical data about its wearer, saving lives in trauma cases. It can also index the wearer’s criminal record, voting record, party affiliation, and level of access to government facilities and benefits, all without the wearer knowing exactly what’s in there. Citizens will just have to take the government’s word that everything is kosher.
Eventually, governments will insist that all citizens have SIBs. You will not be able to use your bank, open home utility accounts, nor sign contracts unless fitted with a SIB, for ‘security purposes.’
One day, your car won't start and you won't be able to get a tow truck nor money to repair it because it your SIB chip is not working. The bank’s ATM won’t accept your SIB’s code, yet you see it accepting the SIB’s of other customers.
Your spouse will call from the grocery store, saying her chip also isn’t working and she can’t buy food for the kids. Once, stores accepted both cash and SIB’s, but by edict of the Federal Reserve System, no one may use cash nor credit cards any more. All for reasons of ‘national security’ of course.
After hours of begging a government agency for an answer, it will turn out that a 20 year old clerk in Scumpond, Mass., put a hold on your whole family’s chips because of an unpaid parking ticket attributed to your vehicle’s license plate number.
You shout that you have never even been to Scumpond, Mass., but it falls on deaf ears. You are told that you will have to take the matter up with Ms. Dumklerk in person. You telephone the Scumpond City Hall Department of Revenue from your neighbor's home, as your own phone was just shut off because of your “criminal status.” They tell you that Ms. Dumklerk is on a leave of absence, so you'll just have to be patient until she returns. No one else can help you, because Ms. Dumklerk encrypted access to all her files with her SIB code, which is against procedure, but they never had time to train her properly because they are underfunded and overworked.
You are told to call back in a four weeks, when Ms. Dumclerk might be back from the rain forest. Sorry.
Unable to buy or sell, you turn to family, friends and neighbors for aid. You need a car to get to work, food, diapers, milk, a kerosene heater for your house and candles, since the electric is shut off.
Your parents try to help, but they are immediately warned at the cash-less register in the store that they are not allowed to exceed their “fair share” in purchasing food and hardware for an elderly couple, which has already been calculated by the U.S. Department of Earth First. Sadly, they give you what little excess they had in their pantry, but it will only help your family for a few days. Ditto for your few friends and neighbors. After surrendering their small hordes, most give excuses, because they know what it means to fall under the scrutiny of the government for exceeding their “fair share” of the planet’s resources, as scientifically defined by U.C. Berkeley.
After two weeks, the baby is whining for milk, the children are begging for food and your wife can't stop crying. You no longer can use a phone to call Scumpond. Your neighbor just told you that his telephone is off limits, since you caused it to exceed the time allotment authorized by the U.S. Department of Communications Conservation. He is now himself under resource scrutiny.
Desperate, with no options left, you remember the old unregistered pistol buried beneath your bedroom floorboards. Never in your life did you think you would stoop this low, but the baby is now screaming non-stop.
VeriChip's National Rollout Begins in Palm Beach County, Florida
Jacobs Family to ``Get Chipped'' May 10, 2002
Local hospitals and physicians to participate in initial rollout of VeriChip(TM) and the GVS Registry
PALM BEACH, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 22, 2002-- Sales and registration of VeriChip to begin May 13, 2002
Applied Digital Solutions, Inc. (Nasdaq: ADSX - news), an advanced technology development company, announced today that the Jacobs family will be the first in the world to ``get chipped''(TM) with VeriChip's personal verification microchip.
The historic ``chipping'' procedure will take place in the first Authorized VeriChip Center in Palm Beach County, Florida, on May 10, 2002.
VeriChip is a miniaturized, implantable, radio frequency identification device (RFID) that can be used in a variety of security, emergency and healthcare applications. On April 4, 2002, the company announced that it had received written guidance that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not consider VeriChip's personal verification device to be a regulated medical device, enabling the company to begin sales, marketing and distribution of VeriChip in the United States. The company believes its first-mover advantage will enable it to gain significant market share in the emergency information and verification market that is estimated to exceed $15 billion.
Each VeriChip is composed of FDA-accepted materials and contains a unique verification number that can seamlessly integrate to the Global VeriChip Subscriber (GVS) Registry. This Registry program will enable VeriChip subscribers to store pertinent personal verification and healthcare information in the company's secure database. The GVS Registry is hosted and maintained by Digital Angel Corporation's (Amex: DOC - news) state-of-the-art, FDA-compliant operations center in Owings, Maryland.
Information provided by the subscriber will be stored in the GVS Registry database. Only information authorized by the subscriber will be available for access via VeriChip's proprietary scanner. Instant access to such vital information as allergies to medications, medical device implants, pre-existing medical conditions and emergency contact numbers could save lives in an emergency and enhance the peace of mind of subscribers and their loved ones.
VeriChip System Affiliates such as hospitals, healthcare clinics, search and rescue units, and EMTs will be able to use proprietary VeriChip scanners to read a subscriber's VeriChip and gain access to the subscriber's Registry information if authorized to do so by the subscriber.
Scott R. Silverman, President of Applied Digital Solutions, first announced the May 10, 2002, event during a recent interview on MSNBC and said: ``On May 10th we'll make history with the first-ever `chipping' procedure and the launch of VeriChip and the GVS Registry into the U.S. market. We're delighted that we've been able to bring VeriChip's life-enhancing technology to market in record time. We announced VeriChip less than six months ago and now we're about to launch the product into the U.S. market.''
Silverman continued: ``We're very pleased with the excellent cooperation and excitement we've received from the healthcare community in Palm Beach County. The active involvement of VeriChip System Affiliates like hospitals and EMS units who will use VeriChip proprietary scanners and link into the GVS Registry is critical.
In addition, we've identified a well-respected medical practice in Palm Beach County to become the first Authorized VeriChip Center. In conjunction with this Center, we're launching the first ChipMobile(TM) - a state of the art, medically equipped mobile unit that will deliver VeriChip to initial target markets such as elder care centers, critical care facilities and Generation Y events. This initial rollout in Palm Beach County will last until June 30, 2002, at which time we will explore other geographic market opportunities and nationwide distributor alliance programs.''
The historic chipping procedure on May 10th will be followed by a press conference and an invitation-only brunch for business partners and community leaders.
During the press conference and the business brunch, Applied Digital executives will unveil more details about VeriChip's rollout plans.
About VeriChip(TM)
VeriChip, first announced on December 19, 2001, is a miniaturized, implantable, radio frequency identification device (RFID) that can be used in a variety of security, emergency and healthcare applications. On April 4, 2002, the company announced that it had received written guidance that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not consider VeriChip's personal verification device to be a regulated medical device, enabling the company to begin sales, marketing and distribution of VeriChip in the United States.
About the size of a grain of rice, each VeriChip is composed of FDA-accepted materials and contains a unique verification number. That number is captured by briefly passing a proprietary, external scanner over the VeriChip. A small amount of radio frequency energy passes through the skin energizing the dormant VeriChip, which then emits a radio frequency signal transmitting the verification number. VeriChip Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of Applied Digital Solutions.
About Digital Angel Corporation
Digital Angel Corporation (Amex: DOC - news) was formed on March 27, 2002, in a merger between Digital Angel Corporation and Medical Advisory Systems, a global leader in telemedicine that has operated a 24/7, physician-staffed call center in Owings, Maryland, for two decades. Prior to the merger, Digital Angel Corporation was a wholly owned subsidiary of Applied Digital Solutions. Digital Angel(TM) technology represents the first-ever combination of advanced biosensors and Web-enabled wireless telecommunications linked to the Global Positioning System (GPS).
By utilizing advanced biosensor capabilities, Digital Angel will be able to monitor key body functions - such as temperature and pulse - and transmit that data, along with accurate emergency location information, to a ground station or monitoring facility. For more information about Digital Angel,
visit http://www.digitalangel.net.
About Applied Digital Solutions
Applied Digital Solutions (Nasdaq: ADSX - news) is an advanced technology development company that focuses on a range of early warning alert, miniaturized power sources and security monitoring systems combined with the comprehensive data management services required to support them. Through its Advanced Technology Group, the company specializes in security-related data collection, value-added data intelligence and complex data delivery systems for a wide variety of end users including commercial operations, government agencies and consumers. For more information, visit the company's website at http://www.adsx.com.
Statements about the Company's future expectations, including future revenues and earnings, and all other statements in this press release other than historical facts are ``forward-looking statements'' within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and as that term is defined in the Private Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and are subject to change at any time, and the Company's actual results could differ materially from expected results. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect subsequently occurring events or circumstances.
Auto-ID: Tracking everyone, everything, everywhere
Of course, government and law enforcement will be quick to use the technology to keep tabs on citizens, as well.
Auto-ID technology will create "order and balance" in a chaotic world
Katherine Albrecht, CASPIAN
[The following is an excerpt from the article, "Supermarket Cards: Tip of the Retail Surveillance Iceberg," accepted for Publication in the Denver University Law Review, June 2002]
"In 5-10 years, whole new ways of doing things will emerge and gradually become commonplace. Expect big changes."- MIT's Auto-ID Center
Supermarket cards and other retail surveillance devices are merely the opening volley of the marketers' war against consumers. If consumers fail to oppose these practices now, our long term prospects may look like something from a dystopian science fiction novel.
A new consumer goods tracking system called Auto-ID is poised to enter all of our lives, with profound implications for consumer privacy. Auto-ID couples radio frequency (RF) identification technology with highly miniaturized computers that enable products to be identified and tracked at any point along the supply chain.
The system could be applied to almost any physical item, from ballpoint pens to toothpaste, which would carry their own unique information in the form of an embedded chip. The chip sends out an identification signal allowing it to communicate with reader devices and other products embedded with similar chips.
Analysts envision a time when the system will be used to identify and track every item or person produced on the planet.
A number for every Item on the planet
Auto-ID employs a numbering scheme called ePC (for "electronic product code") which can provide a unique ID for any physical object in the world.
The ePC is intended to replace the UPC bar code used on products today.
Unlike the bar code, however, the ePC goes beyond identifying product categories -- it actually assigns a unique number to every single item that rolls off a manufacturing line. For example, each pack of cigarettes, individual can of soda, light bulb or package of razor blades produced would be uniquely identifiable through its own ePC number.
Once assigned, this number is transmitted by a radio frequency ID tag (RFID) in or on the product. These tiny tags, predicted by some to cost less than 1 cent each by 2004, are "somewhere between the size of a grain of sand and a speck of dust." They are to be built directly into food, clothes, drugs, or auto-parts during the manufacturing process.
Receiver or reader devices are used to pick up the signal transmitted by the RFID tag. Proponents envision a pervasive global network of millions of receivers along the entire supply chain -- in airports, seaports, highways, distribution centers, warehouses, retail stores, and in the home. This would allow for seamless, continuous identification and tracking of physical items as they move from one plac