By IOL South Asia Correspondent

New Delhi, Feb.16 (IslamOnline) - The newly installed hi-tech computer system, Pisces, at the Karachi International Airport is posing a serious threat to Pakistan's security, said the Pakistani online magazine, Weekly Independent, in its current issue.

According to the magazine, Pisces is connected with the American FBI databank and the newly upgraded Interpol datastore through satellite for instant transmission and retrieval of information. It is also linked with Pakistan's identity card-making body, the National Database Registration Authority (Nadra), through a landline. "Thereby the system, being supervised and monitored by the US, is using, storing and updating all available information with Nadra about every Pakistani citizen", the magazine said quoting sources.

All the names of Pakistanis put on the Exit Control List (ECL) by the government have also been fed into these computers to check their fleeing abroad, added the sources.

The Pisces (Personal Identification Secure, Comparison and Evaluation System) is a supercomputer equipped with a software to identify and check any US-wanted Pakistani citizens boarding international flights, Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority officials said. The system contains data on worldwide bomb explosions, suspected, wanted and convicted terrorists as well as information regarding car thefts the world over.

The system is also equipped with a software to match the basic physical features like height, skin color, prominent identification marks, fingerprints, eye color and type of hair of a terrorist with any passenger boarding any international flight. All passengers have to go through the Pisces scanning system to board any flight, added the sources.

"To check passports and other identification papers, Pisces is supported by flex-cam cameras connected to special software, which can film the subject from any direction and magnify it by manifold," Weekly Independent said quoting computer experts.

The special high-speed program, designed by Microsoft for airports, has been named "Sentry". It contains Intel's most sophisticated microprocessors.

According to the Pakistani online magazine, the system was basically installed to check the large-scale flight of Afghans and Arab volunteers, who participated in the war against the US alongside Taliban. The US State Department computer experts installed this system on December 9, 2001 at the Karachi airport. The entire set-up is stationed in the Intelligence Bureau (IB) headquarters in Islamabad and its Karachi offices, where the US experts along with IB officers control its operations. As a result, no passenger can fly out of Pakistan without  the FBI's clearance.

"The new system has posed a serious threat to domestic and external security operations of the country. Like any other country, Pakistan too would be sending its personnel to various countries for intelligence purposes. But now it is almost impossible to keep such missions secret because of the Pisces scanning system and its linkage with Nadra”, the magazine said quoting security experts.

Eventually this system would be installed at 18 exit points of Pakistan, including Torkaham and Chaman. At present, it has been installed at two points: Karachi and Islamabad airports. The same system would be installed at the Lahore airport on March 3 this year. "This system has been established in most parts of the world and will keep a strong check on the movement of those leaving their respective countries," the magazine said.

Though it is an effective tool against the movement of terrorists and illegal immigrants, it would harm the security operations of any country in the world. "Pakistan should particularly be concerned about the system owing to Islamabad's off-and-on relationship with the US and Washington's cozy ties with New Delhi and Tel Aviv. Even before the US had provided satellite images of Kahuta and other facilities to Israel, it had already passed them on to India," an official told the online magazine.

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