Harvesting the data of millions of Iraqis, like Azzam, was part of the U.S. military's quest for "identity dominance", a term coined by John Woodward, director of the Department of Defense's Biometrics Management Office from 2003 to 2005. — Photo by Arthur Mazi on Unsplash
LOS ANGELES/BEIRUT: Houssam Azzam was 17 when the US military took over his hometown of Fallujah in 2004 and detained him as part of a roundup of young men in western Iraq.
His photo, fingerprints, and iris scans were entered into a database, alongside a trove of information about him and his family, even though he said he was only ever involved in peaceful protests against the US presence.
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