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.'"

Comments

pcp? meth?

[circletimessquare]

i support the legalization of marijuana. hell, i even think magic mushrooms and lsd should be legal, if they are used in a controlled environment. because, while they are extremely reality-altering, they are not addictive

but some chemicals, like pcp and meth, are literally life destroyers: they are powerfully chemically addictive and habituating. this means you can't use them for awhile and walk away. they take over your life. where before you had a relationship and a job, now you just have a habit to feed. no, sorry, human willpower is not stronger than these chemical forces

so some drugs must be fought, forever, regardless of the fact the war is never won and regardless of the fact that prohibition feeds organized crime and other social ills. simply because legalization of SOME highly addictive drugs create WORSE negative effects on society than prohibtion of them does. i am all for novel approaches for users: healthcare treatments, for example, rather than stone cold jail. but an addict is an addict is an addict: they need some sort of limits on their freedom, because an addict just uses their freedom to get more drugs

most ironically of all, if you want to get right down to the issue of personal freedoms, guess what: addictive drugs are the most personal freedom destroying force in the world. no harsh fascist intrusive government in the wildest imagination can destroy more personal freedom than an addiction to something like meth can (well, actually, such a government could be that evil by forcefully addicting its citizens to something like meth, but this only further proves my point about some drugs)

alcohol, marijuana, nicotine, lsd... legalize

pcp, oxycodone, methamphetamine... no, sorry, never. these are freedom destorying chemically addicting and habituating monsters that enslave and zombify worse than any government, real or imaginary, ever could. these drugd remain illegal IN THE NAME OF personal freedom