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Congress: We Didn't Know the FBI Was Creating a Small Surveillance 'Air Force'
Errorcod3 sends a followup to last week's news that the FBI is operating a fleet of planes across the U.S. for surveillance purposes. A new article in The Atlantic points out that Congress is claiming to have had little or no awareness the fleet was being built, and is asking for answers. Quoting:
Senator Charles Grassley, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, demanded to be briefed (PDF) no later than this week on "the scope, nature, and purpose of these operations and what legal authorities, if any, are being relied upon in carrying out these operations." Sixteen House members wrote to the FBI (PDF), pointing out that the president had just signed a reform ending the bulk collection of phone records. "It is highly disturbing," they wrote, "to learn that your agency may be doing just that and more with a secret fleet of aircraft engaged in surveillance missions." They asked for the FBI to identify the legal theory used to justify the flights, the circumstances surrounding them, the technologies on the aircraft, the privacy policy used for data collected, and the civil liberties safeguards that had been put in place. Senator Al Franken has posed ten questions of his own (PDF) to the FBI.
if you use the word 'spy' or 'surveillance' its generally allowed.
but call it agency-wide peeping toms and we'd all object.
same thing, though. loss of privacy and some dude looking into stuff that he has no right to. mostly for jollies, too (lets admit the elephant in the room; surveillance has the 'fun' aspect for you sick-o pervs out there that enjoy that kind of thing).
there is no 'making us safer'. its everything BUT that, to be accurate about it.
peeping toms. that's what we are enabling. we should do all we can to refer to the mass spying in this way. maybe then they'd be seen for what they really are. perverts with legal authority to BE pervs under color of law.
how sad that we have allowed this to go as far as it has.
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"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
Congress gave up their rights and obligations to corporate lawyers and ALEC a long time ago. Now the defense, surveillance, energy and banking industries pretty much write the laws and run the show. So one more out of control agency among so many seems pretty par for the course in "1984 as an instruction manual" America.
A brain is a terrible thing to waste... Mind? That's debatable.
Seeing the same video bytes -- which I am not going to watch anyway -- EVERY TIME I scroll down the page.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
These agencies are not sifting through everyone's personal stuff for jollies. It's fear and intimidation, and used repeatedly as a way to silence opposition and critics. Cut their budget and see all of your personal affairs made public. Defend the person exposed, and your stuff is made public. Make the wrong deals or don't make the right promises, and media will find out who you were fooling around with, or have dick-picks exposed (not claiming that what happened to a certain politician, just an easy example). Are you foolish enough to believe that the IRS targeting certain groups of people is purely coincidence?
Congress does not know where the FBI is spending tax money? What the fuck are they doing on the tax payer dime, because their goddamn job is to know these things. Fire them all and start getting people you trust on ballots, because the career politicians funded by a select few people in the country are not doing the job.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
To put this less passionately, digging up dirt on people results in power. The dirt is a commodity. The most valuable kind, worth leverage, clout, influence, control. From this perspective, setting aside thoughts of morality and malice, it's quite the reasonable thing to do.
Which is another way of saying, a very credible thing to expect. Whatever is "just good business." can be considered increasingly certain at higher scales.