Americans are familiar with unmanned spy drones providing surveillance of Iranian nuclear complexes and Taliban armed militants combating American troops along the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Now the Obama administration has quietly authorized Predator drone use by law enforcement officials in the United States to spy on American citizens.
According to reporting by the Los Angeles Times, “The drones belong to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which operates eight Predators on the country’s northern and southwestern borders to search for illegal immigrants and smugglers. The previously unreported use of its drones to assist local, state and federal law enforcement has occurred without any public acknowledgment or debate.”
National attention has focused on a story about a sheriff in North Dakota who called in the reinforcements and an Air Force Predator Drone MQ-9 Reaper to assist in surveillance of a farm and six stray cows. The farm was owned by Rodney and Susan Brossart. And the Brossart family was known locally for being armed and apparently anti-government, hence the need for all the government resources.
This is part of a pattern by the Obama administration of bringing highly sophisticated military technology developed for war and deploying them against Americans. Law enforcement routinely uses night vision optics, heat sensors, and even armor and military grade firepower in the battle field called America’s cities.
Spying on Americans by Predator in the United States could explode in the next year. Also according to the LA Times, “For decades, U.S. courts have allowed law enforcement to conduct aerial surveillance without a warrant. They have ruled that what a person does in the open, even behind a backyard fence, can be seen from a passing airplane and is not protected by privacy laws.
Drones are particularly helpful in rural areas that are not blanketed with surveillance cameras the way most major cities are today. Americans living in densely populated major cities can easily spend all day on camera. Just look up. You will be surprised to see camera domes have replaced gargoyles as the building decoration of choice. This combined with greatly improved facial recognition software means everyone can be tracked and traced.
A predator drone flies high and out of ear shot. Using the sophisticated radar, sensors and optics onboard the Predator Drone, operators can identify you, know if you are carrying a firearm, and pinpoint your location.
Currently their use is limited because of FAA regulations, but two liberal Senators are pushing to change the rules. Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore, introduced an amendment to the FAA Air Transportation Modernization and Safety Act this past year, “to increase the number of ‘National Airspace System’ test sites for ‘unmanned aerial vehicles’ (UAV) from four to 10, and require that at least one of those test sites include a significant portion of public land.”
Schumer said at the time, “drones are more important than ever to our troops overseas, our cops walking the beat and our border patrol agents keeping drugs off our streets, not to mention accurate mapping and more.”
So add drones to the list of tools that can be used domestically to spy on you. The list is getting long. If you are carrying a cellphone, authorities can monitor your conversations, read your texts and emails. If you use a computer, authorities can monitor the websites you visit and the terms you search online.
With this type of technology the surveillance state envisaged by George Orwell in 1984 is here.
The question we must ask as citizens is do we trust the Federal Government with this nearly omniscient type of information and power. The history of Federal officials abusing information in earlier less technologically proficient eras is legendary. More information only increases the likelihood of more significant abuse in the future.
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About Floyd and Mary Beth Brown
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And this is just the tip of the iceberg fellow Americans !!! If you take Jared Law's or Glen Beck's advice and stockpile food etc YOU could be classified as a terrorist .
Be concerned , be very concerned !!!
Allen…Did you see Congress is working on a Bill to take away our stored foods? They call it "hoarding"
I wrote my Senator a nasty letter, because he approves anything that is against the constitution…We have a GOD given right to use PRUDENCE and store food!! Not a Government right!!! I'm afraid it will pass!! They just cremated the Bill of Rights!!
If this nitwit is spending our MONEY to spy on Americans, he should be put in JAIL, NOW !!
No surprise the slimy liar Schumer would promote this. Don't the people of New York think before they vote?
They more than likely vote for him because of what they think he does for them and don't consider how much freedom they have lost each time they accept his earmarked dollars or favors.
Our state elections are kind of rigged, with liberals from NYC who have summer homes upstate using the vacation address to vote so instead of their votes being a drop in a very liberal New York City bucket, they vote in elections upstate and skew the results in places that are typically more moderate or conservative. This has been well known, but little reported on, for years.
He has the right to do whatever he pleases because 43 million Americans voted him in power and made him a god. He also thinks of himself as a God. Already there is a Bill for them to take over the Internet as they have done to all other medias (television & newspapers) . Now the problem is that iman hussein has two options (that is why he is not bothered about the elections) because:
1. He can fudge the votes fraudulently as was done last time around,,
2, He can stop this election if he feels that he will lose, take over the military, declare marshall law and promote himself to be a dictator like chavez or hitler. The majority of Americans remain asleep, and that is the sadest part of this whole fiasco.
Many are asleep wit one eye open.
Having him cancel the elections is one of my fears. If he gets away with that we are done…..
He is taking away all our freedoms and Bill of Rights…..it isn't impossible to think he will do this too.
WE HAVE TO GET RID OF HIM!!!!!
Enter text right here
obama now collecting emails
!http://godfatherpolitics.com/2622/nazi-overtones-of-obama-campaign-effort-to-collect-gop-email-addresses/
I have one thing to say about this, if that sucker is close enough to snap a picture of My single finger salute, then it is close enough for an arrow from my bow, to scratch it's multi million dollar paint job……… No that isn't a threat, why would I want to harm a device I have so much money invested in ?
This is just too creepy!
I wish I understood why our gov't wants to constantly surveil us……………
It isn't a new concept. I hate the gov't. I hate Obama. I hate his thugs, thieves and liars. I suppose the drone will be right over my house for that.
I hope there are enough of us willing and ready to defend our freedom.
Maybe the Iranians will teach us how to hack them. Wouldn't you just love to pilot a multimillion dollar drone?