Further Reading

Monday 10 June 2013

Genetic Weapons - Can Your DNA Kill You?

Activist Post: It is a scene out of a futuristic political thriller—the Secretary of State issues secret orders for embassy officials to collect the DNA of foreign heads of state while the President, speaking at a $1000 a plate dinner, is surrounded by a contingent of Secret Service agents wiping clean his drinking glasses and picking up stray hair follicles. They are not just protecting the President—they are protecting the President's DNA. If this sounds like a script treatment for a Hollywood version of a Philip K. Dick novel, consider this: The Secretary of State's name is Hillary Clinton and her directives to embassies were uncovered in a 2010 WikiLeaks cable release. The President in this scenario is Barack Obama and the Secret Service unit pledged to protect his DNA is a group of Navy stewards, as revealed in the 2009 book by Ronald Kessler, entitled In the President's Secret Service.Our government's DNA obsession was again in the news this week as the Supreme Court handed down a decision, worthy of penning by George Orwell, that law enforcement collection of arrestees' DNA is not an invasion of privacy. The decision likened DNA to fingerprints, neatly sidestepping the fact that a person's complete genetic makeup is contained in those drops of blood that the police can now collect with impunity and without fear of a civil rights lawsuit...read more>>>....