An obscure person in Jeddah by the name of Adel Mohammed S Alshareef has helpfully provided the ammo for another “Muslim apocalypse” horror story: on 8 May a German news agency reported that a Saudi Arabian had attempted to patent a satellite tracking device which could be inserted under the skin. He included in his application a “Model B”, in which the chip could contain a deadly poison that could be released by remote control; the patent was consequently rejected on ethical grounds.
The report then made its way into English, and featured in a German English-language site called The Local:
“In recent times the number of people sought by security forces has increased,” the Jeddah-based inventor wrote in his summary.
The tiny electronic device, dubbed the “Killer Chip” by Swiss daily Tagesanzeiger, would be suited for tracking fugitives from justice, terrorists, illegal immigrants, criminals, political opponents, defectors, domestic help, and Saudi Arabians who don’t return home from pilgrimages.
“I apply for these reasons and for reasons of state security and the security of citizens,” the statement reads.
The story was from there picked up by Fox and WorldNetDaily, which both homed in on the Saudi angle; right-wing blogs have now added some predicable commentary. Jihad Watch describes the device as “Another great Islamic invention”, while Atlas Shrugs gives us:
ISLAM PLAYS WITH TECHNOLOGY
Is this what Obama means about their great “contributions” to society. Instant death chip implant. Perfect ……. Christians, Jews stay out of Islamic ORs.
Joel Richardson, however, outdoes both with the suggestion that the proposed device was predicted in the Book of Revelation:
He ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. He was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that it could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. Revelation 13:14-15
The documentation for the invention is available from DEPATISnet, the German patent database; the document is numbered DE102007051890A1, and is entitled “Implantation von elektronischen Chips in den Körper des Menschen zum Zwecke der Bestimming seines geografischen Aufenthaltsortes”. Unfortunately I cannot read German, and even if I could I wouldn’t be in a position to judge if the proposed device is technologically viable. Details of the lethal “Model B” appear on page two, paragraph 0007 (1).
The abstract gives the inventor’s list of those whom he believes need to be tracked:
Zusammenfassung: In der letzten Zeit hat sich die Anzahl der von den Sicherheitsbehörden gesuchten Personen vermehrt. Darunter sind Flüchtlinge der Justiz, darunter sind Terroristen, darunter sind Personen, die dem System der Aufenthaltsregularien und der Arbeitserlaubnis zuwiderhandeln, und Arbeitskräfte, die den Obhutspersonen entfliehen (AdÜ: Regulation der Obhutsperson für auslän dische Arbeitskräfte in Saudi-Arabien), sowie der Staatssicherheit gefährliche Personen, seien as nun Personen der politischen Opposition oder Abtrünnige usw. Zusätzlich zu diesen vorab genannten Personen kommen noch die Personnen, die nach der Saison der großen Pilgerfahrt (Hagj) und kleinen Pilgerfahrt (Omra) –dies ist spezifisch für Saudi-Arabien in diesem Fall – zurückbleiben.
Judging from a Babelfish translation, it looks as though the Local report was slightly distorted; the inventor is worried about pilgrims coming to Saudi Arabia and remaining, not Saudi Arabians using pilgrimage to escape from the country. From what I can see, he also doesn’t suggest who exactly ought to have the “Model B” version inserted.
A comment added to one news report noted that in the 1970s Jack Vance imagined a society in which the population was obliged to wear explosive collars; there are obvious parallels with other science-fiction stories (Escape from New York comes to mind). The idea is of course inherently repellent on human rights grounds, and in the real world there is also no way such a thing could be made safe from accidental detonation through injury or due to other electronic sources that might trigger it. However, the inventor claims to be worried about “Terroristen”, and this is a fear which has proved to be corrosive to higher ideals in a number of countries. If he has come up with his invention at the behest of the Saudi government (or the anti-Christ), it is strange that he should be seeking a European patent as a private person.
(1) The document initally appears as a one-page unsearchable pdf, which can be misleading; to see the other pages you need to click on a forward button or click on “Load Full Document”.
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