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FBI Uses Surveillance "Air Force" To Monitor US Citizens, AP Finds
In the wake of the violent protests, looting, and riots that shook Baltimore to its core and left parts of the city smoldering in late April, Benjamin Shayne — who had just sat down in his backyard to enjoy a radio broadcast of an Orioles game — inadvertently uncovered a secret FBI aerial surveillance program when he noticed a small plane circling overhead and asked Twitter if anyone could explain the aircraft’s low, circular flight pattern. As it turned out, one of Shayne’s followers had some answers:
@scanbaltimore It's registered to NG Research: http://t.co/mCWpUzvndp
For some other info: http://t.co/cbCehxiCS0 pic.twitter.com/eGXFIKXCgr
— Pete Cimbolic (@pete_cimbolic) May 3, 2015
That exchange would culminate in a Washington Post article which outlined the “aerial support” provided to the Baltimore Police Department by the FBI.
We went on to take a closer look and, in “Meet The FBI’s Secret Eye In The Sky Overseeing The Baltimore Riots”, we postulated that the Cessna’s monitoring the riots may have been equipped with night vision equipment provided by Persistent Surveillance Systems, a company which has worked with the Baltimore PD in the past. Here’s a schematic (via WaPo):
On the heels of the revelations, AP followed up and has much more on the FBI’s aerial surveillance program.
Via AP:
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. The FBI said it uses front companies to protect the safety of the pilots and aircraft. It also shields the identity of the aircraft so that suspects on the ground don't know they're being watched by the FBI.
In a recent 30-day period, the agency flew above more than 30 cities in 11 states across the country, an AP review found.
The FBI claims the program is "not secret" and does not aim to collect "mass surveillance", but as we discussed in depth in the article linked above (and as you can see from the graphic), it's difficult to believe that the equipment on the planes is powerful enough to be of use to the FBI but somehow not capable of the types of mass surveillance that the planes over Baltimore were capable of. More from AP:
"The FBI's aviation program is not secret," spokesman Christopher Allen said in a statement. "Specific aircraft and their capabilities are protected for operational security purposes." Allen added that the FBI's planes "are not equipped, designed or used for bulk collection activities or mass surveillance."
But the planes can capture video of unrelated criminal activity on the ground that could be handed over for prosecutions.
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.
AP discovered the names of many of the shell companies the FBI has used to conduct the operation and in an ironic twist, the government asked the news agency not to reveal the names because then the Bureau would simply have to create new companies, a process which would cost taxpayers money. In other words: "if you reveal this information to taxpayers, it will cost them."
U.S. law enforcement officials confirmed for the first time the wide-scale use of the aircraft, which the AP traced to at least 13 fake companies, such as FVX Research, KQM Aviation, NBR Aviation and PXW Services.
During the past few weeks, the AP tracked planes from the FBI's fleet on more than 100 flights over at least 11 states plus the District of Columbia, most with Cessna 182T Skylane aircraft. These included parts of Houston, Phoenix, Seattle, Chicago, Boston, Minneapolis and Southern California.
The FBI asked the AP not to disclose the names of the fake companies it uncovered, saying that would saddle taxpayers with the expense of creating new cover companies to shield the government's involvement, and could endanger the planes and integrity of the surveillance missions. The AP declined the FBI's request because the companies' names — as well as common addresses linked to the Justice Department — are listed on public documents and in government databases.
At least 13 front companies that AP identified being actively used by the FBI are registered to post office boxes in Bristow, Virginia, which is near a regional airport used for private and charter flights. Only one of them appears in state business records.
The moral of the story: if you're ever in your backyard relaxing and listening to a baseball game and happen to notice a Cessna making concentric circles overhead remember, it's not paranoia if they're really watching you.
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Big Brother is watching?
Winston Smith warned us this was coming down the pike. What he never saw coming was 1984 dressed up like Facebook and Google with the FBI circling above.
<Of course it's what we don't see, hear or read about that we should really be worried about.>
During times of war and under the grounds of National Security, monitoring US Citizens is LEGAL.
During times of war and under the grounds of National Security, the Executive Branch is granted extraordinary powers to govern by decree if necessary; therefore, constitutional rights can be suspended at any given time and without notice if the government deems imperative.
During times of war and under the grounds of National Security, any form of dissent can be associated to Sedition and the subsequent ground(s) for Insurrection; thus individuals who advocate seditious activities will be tried under the Military Tribunal system.
During times of war and under the grounds of National Security, compulsory internment of certain US Citizens and Aliens living in Continental United States and overseas possessions into designated military areas is LEGAL.
In legal terms the United States of America is currently in a State of War: Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) -- http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-107publ40/pdf/PLAW-107publ40.pdf
joint resolution. (17c) A legislative resolution passed by both houses. It has the force of law and is subject to executive veto. Black's Law Dictionary Ninth Edition
Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) = Joint Resolution
END OF THE STORY, ANYTHING ELSE IS PURE WHINING
You assume the government cares if it breaks the law. It doesn't.
TYPICAL WHINER
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9b32ODGxjpo
ARGUS-IR
http://www.wearethemighty.com/darpa-argus-drone-2014-12
Probably the same thing, just fitted on a Cessna...
Wiki 'Boomerang'(countermeasure).
GF, Ya know the best thing about drones at 17,500 ft?
Their pilots are on the ground, and within range.
If these planes are used for "specific ongoing investigations" as the article says, rather than mass surveillance, then getting a warrant shouldn't be a problem, should it? But they don't. Which means their story is complete and total horseshit.
.
The real problem is those who accept the ruling elite's concept of legal and illegal, of right and wrong.
They are as evil as the rulers, with the additional flaws of stupidity and gullibility.
Like you, perhaps.
Now, it doesn't even care about getting caught.
Imagine if we had all been required--wisely--to read 1984 in school and were all pretty much equipped to know exactly what all this means.
Imagine if we had balls instead of keyboards.
Can't blame the schools for that.
Each man's balls are his own. Seems they play major roles in our fantasy lives, but they're long gone in the real world.
We're all part of a mad stew of corruption.
The facts speak for themselves.
Indeed - the joys of Federalism...
"During times of war and under the grounds of National Security, monitoring US Citizens is LEGAL"
Everything Hitler did was legal too.
It's always legal. They write the laws.
By that logic, America has been in a continuous state of war for over 70 years.
"The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous." - 1984.
The AUMF needs to be revoked. It's a blank check for tyranny.
“No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.” - James Madison
I have just completed a re-reading of the constitution and all of the amendments.
NOWHERE IN THE CONSTITUTION OR THE AMENDMENTS IS THERE POWER GIVEN TO CONGRESS OR THE PRESIDENT TO SUSPEND THE CONSTITUTION (under ANY circumstances). So, any act or law created by Congress that gives them or the president the power to suspend the constitution would therefore be an unenforceable law (except through illegal power).
If the Congress or the president wants to suspend the constitution through the use of the War Powers Act or any other vehicle, to make it legal they should first amend the constitution to give them the power to do so.
Just because they have done it and gotten corrupt cronies to agree to it, and slack jawed dupes to enforce it does not make it anything more than treason.
To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof.
U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 8, Clause 18
Necessary and Proper Clause. (1926) The clause of the U.S. Constitution permitting Congress to make laws "necessary and proper" for the execution of its enumerated powers. U.S. Const. art. I, § 8, cl. 18.• The Supreme Court has broadly interpreted this clause to grant Congress the implied power to enact any law reasonably designed to achieve an express constitutional power. McCulloch v. Maryland, 17 U.S. (4 Wheat.) 316 (1819). Also termed Basket Clause; CoeffiCient Clause; Elastic Clause; Sweeping Clause. Black's Law Dictionary Ninth Edition
The War Powers Resolution was passed by Congress citing the Necessary and Proper Clause.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/50/chapter-33
That does not give them the power to void or suspend the constitution. A law cannot void the constitution that gives them the power to make the laws.
Either the constitution gives them the power to makes the laws or it does not. If it gives them the power then it cannot at the same time make the power that gave them the authority null and void... or suspended.
If what you are claiming is true then there would be absolutely no need for an amendment process AND the constitution is a completely irrelevant document because all it really says is that congress can do whatever the heck they want regardless of what is written here. That is not what is said.
Those in power WANT the corrupt authority to do whatever they want and so they bend and twist the real wording and then by agreement use the corrupt authority enforced with goons.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuity_of_Operations
Yes, that is also an unconstitutional initiative that was in fact a coup against the constitutional authority of the government.
A law that is made under a constitutional authority cannot void the authority that allowed the law to be made. Makes no sense.
The fact that those in power want the power does not make it any more legal or constitutional. It only means that the authority being used in not legal authority it is extra-legal authority.
In other words, the government ruling under those laws is a treasonous government ... there has been a successful coup.
The mother*ckers did not have the balls to pass an amendment to the constitution, as is required by the constitution, because it would never pass.
Instead they got their cronies to agree, most likely by bribery or threat, to overthrow the legal constitutional government FOR the United States.
Any reasonable and uncorrupted person reading the constitution, amendments and laws would come to the same conclusion.
CdeS, And during times of a Tyrannical Government, replacing said government is CONSTITUTIONAL...
Well, Mr. de Saint, how the hell did you come up with 5 down arrows for stating these facts? Maybe some folks don't like the inevitable conclusion?
We're fucked. A totally spineless congress has, over time, given or allowed to be taken powers to the executive branch that has created a dictatorship with unprecedented powers, especially with the state of technology today.
1984 understated the case, but he took, a real goodl shot at it.
Congress does not have the authority to void the document that gives them authority. If they do then it is an illegal coup. It is TREASON, a high crime.
You boot licking maggot! Why don't you show where the feds get this authority to suspend the constition simply by declaring war.
Took a while, but I figured it out, CD.
That bottom flight plan is a chic pilot.
Got her high heal stuck in the left rudder pedal.
You're a suspect until the government says you're not a suspect.
So far the government has not declared any non-suspects.
Wonder when we'll start to hear CNN whining on about how "progressive" it is to "drone" fellow Americans?
I see these planes flying over Phoenix all the time. FBI = Fucking Bunch of Idiots! How did that work out for them stopping the two muslim nut jobs from Phoenix who went to Dallas to kill people. The FBI "knew" about them, but did nothing.
That shit was fake. The two mussies had ak47's and the cop with a glock offed em both without a scratch. LMAO. I love how MSM had a computer generated video graphic 2 hours after it happened. The shit is fake. Be scared of scary mussies.
Not AK47's, they had (very rare) Keltec Sub2000 rifles. An FBI informant GAVE those two losers those rifles, along with body armor. Body armor that apparently was useless against an off-duty cop's pistol. Hmmm.
Nice to see that they've successfully repurposed all those drug running Cessnas from the MENA, AK days!
66 miles per hour. Low and slow. Attracts almost no attention. Try that in a jet;)
That's been going on for over a year in Compton, CA.
With free fake money there is no end to the shit you can pull.
Big Brother is the equivalent of a drooling helmet wearing retard, the danger is giving them plastic laminated cards to wear around their necks with pictures of women and children and instructions in crayon to harm them, they have retard strength.
Don't forget the bloody fangs and fiery eyeballs.
LMAO thats good shit.
They are not in place to discover and monitor true criminals. There are in place to discover and monitor those who object to this activity. The police state monitors citizens who oppose the police state. Catching criminals ls secondary, and by the way a good source of extra revenue. Catching ordinary people who have unallowed ideas is paramount. That would eventually be all of us, of course, since the police state violently destroys itself.
They use Stingray phone tracker:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stingray_phone_tracker
Also looks like they're using a FLIR system.
Turns out big brother is a major asshole.
And big bro will be even bigger asshole later cause he's going broke being a asshole
Big Brother has become a disingenuous malevolent fraudulent depraved bankrupt predatory zio occupied cancer and threat to the freedom of citizens in every country in the world.
He ain't my brother, he's just heavy.
Soon there will be fleets of drones over every city monitoring the location of every citizen and non-citizen. Drones don't require search warrants.
And there will be lots more laws like in bank deposits where simply doing something that seems suspicious to the FBI becomes a crime in itself.
Actually, they probably do. The Supremes shot down (pardon the pun) using helicopters with thermal cameras to find grow ops.
So, to get around that, they're probably using parallel construction -- for both the old stuff the helicopters did, and the new stuff the drones do.
I don't know how you would do it, but if you wanted to get rid of this stuff, shutting down parallel construction would be the key. My guess is that DHS fusion centers have a lot to do with it, so maybe start there.
Anybody know how these flight-path tracking photos are created? Seems like it could be a fun and ultimately useful hobby.
Pretty much any of the flight tracking websites can do this, you just need to know a tail number.
For extra points, you can get a RTL-SDR setup ($20 from amazon), and if the planes are using an ADS-B transponder and you know the code, and build your very own FBI airplane detector, no internet (and subsequent NSA spying) required. This is probably why the FBI was upset about the AP disclosing, only a slight amount of work will let sophisticated bad guys negate this.
They're losing a toy that's useful for catching real criminals because they decided to use it on everyone. Had they been more judicious about the deployments, they probably would have remained secret. It's unfortunate, really, as there are real-world bad guys that need to be caught, but you can't expect to pull police-state levels of surveillance and not get noticed.
FBI is so cute dressed in their leasure clothes harrasing Facebook people...unreal...lmao
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lNVs7ODkRU
Seth Blather is now "Seth Blabber."
The entire Government of Brazil might fall here and we're worried about a couple of Cessna's "doing the Hoover"?
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/02/15/stingray_imsi_catcher...
...
Stingrays by design collaterally gather data from innocent bystanders’ phones and can interrupt phone users’ service, critics say they may violate a federal communications law.
A fresh trove of FBI files on cell tracking, some marked “secret,” was published this week by the Electronic Privacy Information Center. They shed light on how, far from being a “new” tool used by the authorities to track down targets, Stingray-style technology has been in the hands of the feds since about 1995 (at least). During that time, local and state law enforcement agencies have also been able to borrow the spy equipment in “exceptional circumstances,” thanks to an order approved by former FBI Director Louis Freeh.
EPIC, a civil liberties group, obtained the documents through ongoing Freedom of Information Act litigation that it is pursuing in order to get the feds to hand over some 25,000 pages of documents that relate to Stingray tools, about 6,000 of which are classified. The FBI has been drip-releasing the documents monthly, and there have been a couple of interesting nuggets in the batches so far—like a disclosure that the FBI has a manual called “cell tracking for dummies” and details hinting that the feds are well aware the use of Stingrays is in shaky legal territory.
The latest release, amounting to some 300 selectively redacted pages, not only suggests that sophisticated cellphone spy gear has been widely deployed since the mid-‘90s. It reveals that the FBI conducted training sessions on cell tracking techniques in 2007 and around the same time was operating an internal "secret" website with the purpose of sharing information and interactive media about "effective tools" for surveillance. There are also some previously classified emails between FBI agents that show the feds joking about using the spy gear. "Are you smart enough to turn the knobs by yourself?" one agent asks a colleague.
...
http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/09/the-body-worn-imsi-catcher-for-a...
http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/31/hacker-intercepts-phone-calls-with-ho...
Why the fuck would people carry around a device that you can't remove the antenna and it always is transmitting location information. There is only one reason to force that onto people and make sure all the cellphones are never off.
I bet most people didn't know this but even google rats you out if GPS is turned off.
http://cellphonetrackers.org/mobile-gsm-tracking-base-stations.html
...
Actually, if you can obtain your LAC and CID, you can find your phone’s rough location (which in fact is the location of the cell site) as well. Google Maps for mobile uses base stations to locate your cell phone too. It has a unique feature called my location, you can view your location even your phone do not have GPS, it use nearby cell towers (three or more for more precise location, see below) to find your location. If you have GPS, Google Maps will acquire the coordinates and other information of your nearby cell sites and upload them to Google severs for location service.
...
Remember you can't shut down google services on an android phone or remove maps.
You do not need aerial surveillance if all you are doing is keeping a log of who is calling who. You use aerial surveillance to monitor the actual conversation!
Codenamed Project Orwell
BTW, each time they use a Stingray to transmit on a cellular band to spoof a tower, it is an unlicensed transmission which is itself illegal and subjects the operator to fines and imprisonment. Espcially when each transmission is intentional.
<--Mostly Paranoid
<--Mostly Tyrannical
US Gov't is?
This is not news. They've been using planes for decades.
What most of you don't know however, is that they've also been using drones for 10 years. Ever since they started using UAV's in Iraq, they've been using them to spy on Americans at home and on other ME countries (e.g. Iran). Except that the latter got wise to this real fast.
Then you have E911 which is a security vulnerability.
https://21stcenturylocksmith.wordpress.com/2015/03/24/how-police-listen-...
Some more information.
https://21stcenturylocksmith.wordpress.com/2015/03/18/stingrays-how-poli...
...
Like other IMSI-catchers, they could also be potentially used in signal jamming and electronic warfare. For example, using the existing stingray infrastructure, a police department could jam internet and phone signals in a given area. The FBI is known to have used a stingray to jam signals at least once. More alarmingly, the FBI could establish a no-fly zone by jamming drone control signals.
Stingrays could also be used to force fake software updates and insert malware into phones. This malware could interfere with any encryption software on the target phones.
After a Supreme Court decision banned the use of GPS tracking, various agencies realized they could use their IMSI-catchers to track phones. In 2008, a stingray tracked a stolen phone with enough precision that it could be found within an apartment complex.
There are several countermeasures that can be taken to protect oneself from stingray surveillance. First, there is a free app which detects the presence of IMSI-catchers. To stop phone tracking, there exist many EMF-blocking cases that can prevent your phone from receiving signals. And lastly, make sure that any updates you install are authentic.
...
One more time, Timothy Mcveigh. A villain?
END the FUCKING FEDERAL GOV NOW!
Yes! He was a fucking low life terrorist who murdered babies you cunt!
You Federal fucks invented collateral damage. Now you don't want to share your invention?
McVeigh did no harm to the Federal Government. To the contrary, he provided pretexts to increase State power. He did, however, murder a bunch of people going to work. And their kids, in the daycare center. Fuck him in Hell.
In May 1988, at the age of 20, McVeigh graduated from the U.S. Army Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia. While in the military, McVeigh used much of his spare time to read about firearms, sniper tactics, and explosives. McVeigh was reprimanded by the military for purchasing a "White Power" T-shirt at a Ku Klux Klan protest against black servicemen who wore "Black Power" T-shirts around the army base.
McVeigh couldn't blow up a tree stump in his back yard. He damn sure didn't blow up no Federal building.
It is claimed that while visiting friends in Decker, Michigan, McVeigh complained that the Army had implanted a microchip into his buttocks so that the government could keep track of him.
What? No cellphone?
Andy The German - who is he and why was he in the country?
The FBI was surveilling the Minneapolis suburbs of Edina and Bloomington last week, specifically the areas around the Mall of America and Southdale.
Despite what some hysterical types (or retail sales denialists), there's nothing going on at either place. The Somalis who go there all the time are going there because they do all the work at the malls. No matter how much the fearmongers want us to be afraid of the Somalis, all they do is work, driving cabs, working at parking lots, malls, and hospitals. A few teenagers and young men have gone back to Somalis to help their relatives in the ongoing CIA proxy war. Anyone opposing US foreign policy interests in any way is a "terrorist," so these young men get a lot of negative attention.
There was a time when "terrorists" were people who committed violence against civilians for political reasons. Since that's now about all the US does, "terrorism" now refers to anyone who doesn't commit violence against civilians in furtherance of US political goals. It's hard to keep up with the definitions, I know.
So apparently everyone going to the mall in Minneapolis last week was a "terrorist." Damn JC Penney.
They are? Well, good for the 'Muricans.
http://www.jtxp.org/tech/HEKTOR_en.htm
...
Analogue techniques of voice scrambling usually do not require more bandwidth, than unencrypted speech, thus may be inserted into most narrowband voice channel, regardless of analog or digital transmission layer. On that score, analog encryption has strategic advantage over many all-digital or even IP-based voice crypto solutions. (The latter ones are often considered 'state of the art', but most voice crypto applications present high infrastructural requirements and suffer from potential and well-known vulnerabilities of PC- or mobile platforms. Worst of all: None of the commercial solutions is fully disclosed, therefore they are not trustworthy at all.)
Basic concept
It is the thesis of this project, that the audio signal of human speech gains significant cryptographic complexity by application of rapid time domain scrambling with:
long blocks
many partitions
different transposition tables for every single block
The proposed hardware consists of an inexpensive AVR-microcontroller with extra SRAM and only few analog components around.
This constitutes for an autonomous, transparent, experimentation-friendly and inexpensive platform.
The proposed firmware (=programming) digitizes the analog waveforms, keeps exact timing, and, of course, performs that complex variant of time transposition ciphering with large blocks and comparably high chopping frequency.
This project is and will ever be open source.
...
This sort of stuff needs to be built into cellphones and all voice communication devices to stop mass spying. This will fuck up their database programs if implemented correctly.
Since when the American people become the enemy #1? I've told you people unless all of you take your guns and fight those dual-citizens that hijacked your country you are all doom.
We live in amazing times. The FBI now has a camera that can spot corrupt sports officials from 30,000 feet. (Although in the case of Chuck Blazer, that is not as amazing as it might sound.)
I suppose I would have thought that FBI employees would be ashamed to spy on their fellow citizens. I guess I'd be wrong.
No, you're right. Some are ashamed -- and they quit. So the ones that are left, not so much.
I actually spoke with a former agent years ago that worked during the Clinton admin, and he bailed due to the internal politicalization that was taking place and selective enforcement that avoided taking corrupt members of the government to task; he just couldn't stomach it.
Is this the technology that captures license plates over a city that I heard about on the grapevine?