“Two.”  Director of Intelligence Konrad J. Trautman, J-2, U.S. Special Operations Command, one of the keynote speakers at the Biometric Consortium Conference, said, then paused for effect. “If you don’t remember anything else I say, remember ‘two.’” Then he went on to explain that two is the number of known or suspected persons being apprehended daily in theater with the use of biometrics.

From many perspectives, two may seem like a small number, but to think that, in little more than five years, the Department of Defense has seen the promising application of biometrics go from random terrorist identity matching using latent fingerprint technology (which is still a viable tool) to a power grid of application that is helping win the War on Terror is a proud and sobering thought. You can see pictures from the conference in our “updates” section and also read about the new Naval Postgraduate School Certificate Program in Identity Management  that Biometrics Task Force leaders are attending.

As you will see from our lead article, the BTF is contributing valuable input to Defense Biometrics as the HSPD-24 Action Plan is being established to meet the Presidential Directive, as well as reinvigorating the Community of Interest to standardize data. Finishing touches are being put on the fourth DVD in our Biometric Awareness series, directed toward leaders and their contribution to biometric effectiveness. Updates on the new version of HIIDE, from the Integration and Technology Management Branch (Tactical Biometrics Intelligence Support) at G-2, are reported in the Program Manager Corner.