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FBI Is Behind Mysterious Flights Over US Cities
New submitter kaizendojo sends a report from the Associated Press indicating the FBI has a small fleet of planes that fly across the U.S. carrying surveillance equipment. The planes are registered with fictitious companies to hide their association with the U.S. government. The FBI says they're only used for investigations that are "specific" and "ongoing," but they're often used without getting permission from a judge beforehand. "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." The AP identified at least 50 FBI-controlled planes, which have done over 100 flights since late April. The AP adds that they've seen the planes "orbiting large, enclosed buildings for extended periods where aerial photography would be less effective than electronic signals collection."
Lucius Fox: Beautiful... unethical... dangerous. You've turned every cellphone in Gotham into a microphone.
Batman: And a high-frequency generator-receiver.
Lucius Fox: You took my sonar concept and applied it to every phone in the city. With half the city feeding you sonar, you can image all of Gotham. This is *wrong*.
Batman: I've gotta find this man, Lucius.
Lucius Fox: At what cost?
Batman: The database is null-key encrypted. It can only be accessed by one person.
Lucius Fox: This is too much power for one person.
Batman: That's why I gave it to you. Only you can use it.
Lucius Fox: Spying on 30 million people isn't part of my job description.
This article is from Bristol, UK. They've been flying planes there for years.
http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/S...
One assumes in the UK it's linked to this:
http://leaksource.info/2014/09...
but that's pure speculation.
Why hide this behind shell companies if it's all above board, authorized and legal? Oh, wait, anything that law enforcement does must be legal right? /sarcasm Wouldn't it be a more effective crime deterrent if the aircraft had large bold block letter lighted signs that said FBI on them?
Hide their association from who, exactly? Air traffic control? It's not like you can see who registered a plane from the ground.
This statement just screams "we are breaking the rules and don't want to get caught"
Bullshit.
Let's make one thing clear right now. Our Government doesn't give a shit about being "caught". They haven't cared about this for quite some time now.
They don't give a shit because they know there's not a damn thing you can do about it.
Classified operations staying classified for other reasons? Sure, but I fail to see why they need to hide any unconstitutional/illegal operation anymore. Ever.
Well, I suppose if you are the ringleader of a large criminal enterprise, like the Gambino family, you might get suspicious if an FBI-registered airplane was circling your house. At least that part doesn't really bother me any more than the fact they use unmarked, or decptively marked vans on stakeouts.
Even the fact that there are 50 of them doesn't bother me, really. It's a huge country, and the FBI is national in scope. A little single engine prop plane isn't going to be able to go out of Indiana to eavesdrop on a suspect in Montana very easily.
SPying on a particular suspect in an ongoing investigation? I've got no problem with that, but get a warrant. The lack of any warrant necessary to send a plane after you and record your every move is unsettling. If they are indeed for specific investigations, it should be no problem to get one.
The article mentions that they were also used during the recent unrest in Baltimore. I think this type of use is probably okay, but it again depends on what exactly their purpose is, and what kind of information they are extracting from the crowds below. And we don't know that. Reporting crowd movements and/or new gatherings of people away from the riot police? Videotaping the rioters? A-OK by me. Cell phone tower spoofing? Now I think you are back into warrant territory.
Lastly, we need to know more about when these things are deployed. If they are generally flying around willy-nilly with no particular purpose and recording everything, I have a problem with that. THey say that is not happening, but we as yet have no transparency to ensure that.