Slashdot Mirror
Spy Satellite Photos Used To Fight Drug Smugglers
Hugh Pickens writes "The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, part of the Department of Defense, is using satellites to track the activities of drug cartels operating along the US-Mexican border. The agency is supplying photos to pinpoint Mexican narcotics operations and anticipate smuggling attempts into the United States. During a conference on border security held in Phoenix last week, Scott Zikmanis said his agency already has supplied some data to the El Paso Intelligence Center, a federal clearinghouse for investigating drug cartels. Any border-security surveillance will be done over Mexico, not the US says Zikmanis because a federal law, the Posse Comitatus Act, strictly limits US military operations on American soil unless such operations are authorized by Congress. Civil rights attorneys question the use of satellite technology in law enforcement. 'We are in the midst of a really dangerous time in terms of technology,' said Chris Calabrese, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union. 'The idea that such a powerful tool might be turned on US citizens is really troubling.'"
Is drug smuggling really such a big problem to require the use of military resources? It seems like something like this falls much more into the realm of law enforcement than something the military should get involved in.
I know that it is sometimes called the war on drugs, but is it really so bad that it deserves to be called a war?
Enough said.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
To those that don't know.. phoenix/tucson are seeing record kidnappings and murders. These are being primarily carried out by drug cartels. CNN and Fox have been talking about it, which makes this a political move to calm the masses.
So basically, -1 troll/offtopic is really slashdots way of saying "I hate that you thought of something before me."
Isn't protecting the borders exactly what the military are supposed to do?
Really, electronic fencing with video based surveillance is all you really need with camps every few miles or so.
No, what's really needed is to get rid of stupid, liberty denying, racist laws.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
i am saying that a different drug should have a different legal attitude
that the same policy on all drugs is illogical, simply because it ignores different effects of different drugs. most importantly: addiction. additionally: inebriation
so, for example, nicotine is highly addictive, but it doesn't inebriate. so you can handle a job/ relationship: legal
lsd is highly inebriating, but not addictive: legal
alcohol, marijuana: weakly, moderately addictive/ inebriating
but meth? heroin?: highly addictive, highly inebriating: illegal
understand me now?
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
They were not, by and large, falsely imprisoned. They were found guilty and sentenced according to the law. I'm sure there are a few that are in there on questionable evidence, but the overwhelming majority of them were caught, tried, and sentenced as the system is supposed to work.
That you do not agree with the law does not make it false imprisonment. I believe that a good portion of them should be let out, and that certain uses should be decriminalized (if not outright legalized), but that's a far cry from accusations of false imprisonment.
You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
But Mexico has/had soldiers on their southern border to prevent people from coming in.
Plus they have draconian immigration laws relative to the USA.
Their hypocrisy vis a vis their complaints about crackdowns on illegal immigration against their citizens is ignored.
Except for ending slavery, the Nazis, communism, & securing American independence, war has never solved anything.
That said, yes, pot heads shouldn't be in jail. But... Get to drugs much harder than that and they should be. Harder, more addictive, drugs add to crime, and not just drug crimes. Hard drug users are a deeper social problem than the mere moral crime of marijuana use.
Where is the evidence from peer reviewed scientific studies that shows drugs cause deep social problems? Oh and don't forget to include alcohol, I bet it causes a lot of problems.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?