June 2, 2015
"The FBI is operating a small air force with scores of low-flying planes across the country carrying video and, at times, cellphone surveillance technology..."
"... all hidden behind fictitious companies that are fronts for the government, The Associated Press has learned. The planes' surveillance equipment is generally used without a judge's approval, and the FBI said the flights are used for specific, ongoing investigations...."
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45 comments:
Lois Lerner was unavailable for comment
The FBI is acting like the IRS
The description of those planes sound a lot like NSA ELINT birds. I'm fine with them flying in Iraq. I'm not happy with them flying in the US without a warrant. They have tremendous and intrusive capabilities. They need to be applied via a warrant.
...and we're supposed to trust bigger government because...?
We're the government, and where here to sp..uh...help you.
Does the requirement for a warrant protect you from anything anymore?
It's for our own good, I'm sure.
@Scott M.
It's never a matter of trusting government, small or large. It's a matter of requiring government to abide by the constitution, abide by the law, and abide by the will of the people. It's about the people paying attention to what is actually happening in Washington, and throwing out any of "our" representatives who do not represent our interests.
The FBI is looking for Lois Lerner's missing emails.
The FBI is looking for Hillary Clinton's accomplishments.
Rand Paul may be right to be suspicious. Ya think?!?
Maybe we need a better self-enforcing constitution.
"Black helicopters" is still a metonym for "paranoid rightwing beliefs," right?
Anyway I'm not worried--after all government is just another name for the things we choose to do together.
Sheryl Attkisson's computer could not be reached for comment. Just kidding, it could totally be reached.
Personally, I blame Nixon. Also Bush, of course.
It's about the people paying attention to what is actually happening in Washington, and throwing out any of "our" representatives who do not represent our interests.
Ha! People don't give a shit. And if they do there is very little they can do about it.
The new Trans-pacific Trade Bill that is super sacred secret from all of Congress until it is a completed treaty turns over all sovereignty once conferred on the U.S. by the Constitutions ratification and by Lee's surrender to Grant over to a trade board of International Authority only that will decide on how the old Bill of Rights and separation of powers in that old Constitution No longer apply.
The Board will need a trained and loyal Secret Police. Calling the new Secret Police an FBI operationi is a cute cover story.
The Board will need a trained and loyal Secret Police. Calling the new Secret Police an FBI operationi is a cute cover story.
Welcome to your Corporate Dictatorship!
Between Robert Cook and garbage mahal we have two different aromas of abject cynicism. (Which smells better to you, horseshit or dogshit?)
I have never trusted government, but I do have expectations of any institution that takes my money coercively. I have a right to demand transparency, accountability, and fair dealing. Without it, society degenerates into the kind of grasping cultural poverty that warms the cockles of these two men's pea-sized hearts.
Even if a warrant means next to nothing, to me it is better to demand that it mean something, rather than to declare it irrelevant and endorse sucking up to your favorite political warlord.
The fact they are hidden behind front companies tells you all you need to know. The FBI has numerous aircraft titled directly to the agency. These could have been, too.
Why Would The. FBI. Hide. The. Ownership. Of The. Airplanes.?
Blogger HoodlumDoodlum said...
"Black helicopters" is still a metonym for "paranoid rightwing beliefs," right?
Those aren't black helicopters, they're white Cessnas. That makes all the difference. \sarc
If you have nothing to hide, what's the big deal?
amiright?
Conversely, if you have a problem with this--what are you hiding?
If you have nothing to hide, what's the big deal?
Why stop there? If you have nothing to say, then why do you want free speech??
From the article -
"Some of the aircraft can also be equipped with technology that can identify thousands of people below through the cellphones they carry, even if they're not making a call or in public. Officials said that practice, which mimics cell towers and gets phones to reveal basic subscriber information, is rare."
Trust us, officials said.
Citizens can be confident that they can ask their public servants questions without fear that government employees might for example subsequently leak sensitive personal information to which they have access.
Sealed divorce records always remain sealed.
The IRS would never do anything to compromise its professional reputation and political impartiality.
Structuring is illegal but since the number of mobsters and terrorists is relatively small, surely authorities present their suspicions to a judge and obtain a warrant before rummaging through a citzen's financial records.
And so on ...
Go ahead vote for whomever you want. It won't change a thing as long as the army of governmental functionaries willing to act ruthlessly according to their oen lights remains intact.
Who do you think is behind the campaign to make smart phone and cell phone use seem "cool" and "hip" and "now"?
Now get off my lawn.
"Some of the aircraft can also be equipped with technology that can identify thousands of people below through the cellphones they carry, even if they're not making a call or in public."
Another reason not to carry a cell phone.
The American Revolution was of by and for smugglers in Boston and the Chesapeake to import goods without a British World Empire setting a rake off that virtually enslaved the Colonists who could see the land grab across the Appalachians in Ohioo, Indiana,, Illinois and Wisconsin that was soon to be aristocratic granted private domains a la Willim Penn's land grab.
5 of the Bill of Rights Amendments are designed to stop that British World Empire's trade impoverishment tricks cold. The Empire is back calling itself the EU and the UN, and Obama plans o lead it riding his Global Climate Czardom horse.
"No freeman shall ever be debarred the use of arms"; "The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government"; "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants"; “What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance. LET THEM TAKE ARMS.” (President Thomas Jefferson)
What are you worried about?
The purpose of the surveillance planes and the NSA phone call sifting is to protect our homeland security. Right?
There's two different ways to fight ISIS:
1. Turn America into a police state.
2. Give ISIS 72 hours to disband before you fire a nuclear ballistic missile at them.
Before AP wrote about it, a private citizen in Montana(?) noticed the small plane and researched and tracked them to some obscure company in VA. I think I saw his account on Drudge.
Old news:
May 12, 2013
FBI Planes Flying Over Boston Metropolitan Area 'Frighten' Residents
Today's news:
MAN UNDER COUNTER-TERRORIST SURVEILLANCE SHOT BY FBI AGENT AND BOSTON POLICE OFFICER
Air America is back!
So there is no law against photographing these planes and publishing them and their whereabouts on the internet.
You ain't got a warrant, mate. So eat a dick.
so long as they are used for "specific, ongoing investigations" it works for me.
garage mahal said...
It's about the people paying attention to what is actually happening in Washington, and throwing out any of "our" representatives who do not represent our interests.
Ha! People don't give a shit. And if they do there is very little they can do about it.
Much truth in the last two sentences, Garage. But ponder how this has come to pass. What has caused us to feel helpless in the path of government power? Is it the surveillance? The connection between money and political power? The rise of the lifelong politicians rather than the citizen-politicians? Or is it less specific, some insidious creep of the power of government in all aspects of what we do? Schools. Worship. Media. Business. Agriculture. Transportation. Sexual conduct. (Notice how even after legalizing contraception, abortion, homosexuality and pornography, government has slipped back into arbitrating sexual conduct?)
The power of government is becoming a vast and pervasive indivisible force. Many liberals have believed that giving government vast power over individual lives in one area does not compromise freedom in another. They think they can limit the natural impulse to control to areas where they see authoritarian power as benign or even a positive good. But it isn't working out that way. It never could.
"Ha! People don't give a shit. And if they do there is very little they can do about it."
When was the last time you railed against Harry and Nancy when they were in charge? How about Obama? You only rail against this crap when Republicans are in charge. You are an effing hypocrite and you disgust me pretty much every time you write something.
Have a nice night!
The FBI is incompetent and has been so for a very long time. Time for them to go along with the ATF and dozens of other federal bureaucracies.
I think it's tied into Jade Helm 15 "Master the Human Domain," and the closing of four Walmart stores for six months, without any advance notice, purportedly for plumbing problems.
You heard it here first.
steve uhr said...
so long as they are used for "specific, ongoing investigations" it works for me.
Not for me.
It's nice though to finally read that Cook agrees that our constitution was implemented to secure our, the peoples, natural rights.
Robert Cook supports the expansion of the federal government. Any statement that can be construed to mean other than fealty to that expansive central state is a lie.
That Robert Cook is confused about the inevitability of what we are witnessing, if his politics are adopted, buys him no reprieve.
Bob's all for the constitution. Except for those parts that where individual rights are concerned. Those are given to us by the government and we only get to keep them if we behave.
Don't misunderstand Robert Cook. He is not in any of our conventional political paradigms. He is a revolutionary, he wants to tear up Constitution like the outdated piece of DWEM parchment it is and guide this country in an entirely new direction, which none of us can possibly imagine. Not saying he doesn't deserve to be shot, but really it's best to try to call things by their right name. I'm not even sure he's a communist, it might be beyond that.
I think he works for the UN. He seems enamored of that institution.
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