by Michael Webster, Investigative Reporter
The
deployment of the robotic killing machines in the United States for
"disaster management" is troubling to say the least and a
harbinger of things to come.
Homeland Security now spying on
Americans
From American Chronicle dot com
by Michael Webster,
Investigative Reporter
Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
(UAV´s) and Space-Based Domestic Spying Surveillance technology the
U.S. Government is now watching American citizens under the guise of
disaster management and controlling the U.S. Mexican border. The
Reaper/Predator B UAV´s robotic killing machines are currently in
operation with the USAF, US Navy and the Royal Air Force. In
addition non military users of the Predator B include: NASA and
Homeland security though the US Customs and Border Protection
agencies.
The Department of Homeland Security´s (DHS)
space-based domestic spy program run by that agency´s National
Applications Office (NAO) is now in full operation. Indeed during
Hurricane Ike, U.S. Customs and Border Protection for the first time
flew the Predator B unmanned aerial vehicle in "support of the
Federal Emergency Management Agency´s relief efforts," the
insider tech publication reported.
Tom Burghardt in a recent
article wrote that the Predator B carries out "targeted
assassinations" of "terrorist suspects" across
Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan. The deployment of the robotic
killing machines in the United States for "disaster management"
is troubling to say the least and a harbinger of things to
come.
Despite objections by Congress and civil liberties
groups DHS, in close collaboration with the ultra-spooky National
Reconnaissance Office (NRO), the agency that develops and maintains
America´s fleet of military spy satellites, and the National
Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) that analyzes military imagery
and generates mapping tools, are proceeding with the first phase of
the controversial domestic spying program. NAO will coordinate how
domestic law enforcement and "disaster relief" agencies
such as FEMA will use satellite imagery intelligence (IMINT)
generated by military spy satellites. Burghardt wrote earlier this
year, unlike commercial satellites, their military cousins are far
more flexible, have greater resolution and therefore possess more
power to monitor human activity.
Barry Steinhardt, Director
of the ACLU´s Technology and Liberty Project, called for a
moratorium on the domestic use of military spy satellites until key
questions were answered. Steinhardt said, the domestic use of spy
satellites and UAV´s represents a big brother monster and we need
to put some restraints in place before it grows into something that
will trample Americans´ privacy rights. This program now is
providing federal, state and local officials "with extensive
access to spy-satellite imagery." Steinhardt said As we have
seen however, the use of satellite imagery during "national
security events" such as last summer´s political conventions
in Denver and St. Paul may have aided FBI and local law enforcement
in their preemptive raids on protest organizers and subsequent
squelching of dissent. One wonders if this is what DGI refers to
when they write that the company "performs work in the national
interest, advancing public safety and national security through
innovative research, analysis and applied technology".
There
are real questions being asked, do these spies in the sky
surveillance systems comply with privacy laws and doesn´t violate
the Posse Comitatus Act? The 1878 law prohibits the military from
playing a role in domestic law enforcement. Since the 1990s however,
Posse Comitatus has been eroded significantly by both Democratic and
Republican administrations, primarily in the areas of "drug
interdiction," "border security" as well as
"Continuity of Government" planning by U.S. Northern
Command (NORTHCOM). Within the Department of Homeland Security
(DHS), Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is the lead agency
charged with securing our nation´s borders. United States Border
Patrol (USBP) is charged with detecting and preventing the entry of
terrorists, weapons of mass destruction, and unauthorized aliens
into the country, and interdicting drug smugglers and other
criminals. The USBP already utilizes advanced technology to augment
its agents´ ability to patrol the border. The technologies used
include, but are not limited to, sensors, light towers, mobile night
vision scopes, remote video surveillance systems, directional
listening devices, various database systems, and unmanned aerial
vehicles (UAV's). These so called "force multipliers"
allow the USBP to deploy fewer agents in a specific area while
maintaining the ability to detect and counter intrusions and are
increasingly becoming a part of the USBP´s day-to-day operations.
There are two different types of UAV's: drones and remotely piloted
vehicles (RPVs). Both drones and RPVs are pilotless, but drones are
programmed for autonomous flight. RPVs are actively flown remotely —
by a ground control operator. UAV's are defined as a powered aerial
vehicle that does not carry a human operator, uses aerodynamic
forces to provide lift, can fly autonomously or be piloted remotely,
can be expendable or recoverable, and can carry lethal or nonlethal
payloads. UAV´s have played key roles in recent conflicts.
Historically, UAV´s have been used in various military settings
outside of U.S. borders. UAV´s have provided reconnaissance,
surveillance, target acquisition, search and rescue, and battle
damage assessments. In the recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq,
UAV´s have been used for surveillance purposes and to attack
enemies. The Predator UAV, for example, was armed with anti-tank
weapons to attack Taliban and Al Qaeda members. UAV´s have also
been used in domestic settings.
The NASA-sponsored
Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology (ERAST)
program has produced civilian UAV's to monitor pollution and measure
ozone levels. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is
involved in developing Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and video
camera guidance for using UAV's to locate and identify toxic
substances. Lastly, the Department of Energy recently announced that
it will test UAV´s.
They can also be outfitted with
radiation sensors to detect potential nuclear booms, suite case
nuke, dirty booms and reactor accidents. Thousands of National Guard
troops are deployed along with U.S. Border Patrol to protect the US
border and are flying unmanned aircraft system (UAS), out of bases
in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.
As reported
earlier this year in the Laguna Journal that a special U.S. Military
Task Force has been created to protect our southern border with
Mexico. Members of this task force are preparing to secure the
border by responding with specially trained fast response U.S. Army
task force military units. These forces are already in place with
the heart of the power being concentrated in El Paso and Southern
New Mexico with a far reaching responsibility from East Texas to
Southern California. USAF General Victor E. Renuart Jr. They are
being staged and immediately available as emergency "on call"
units for use against terrorist threats on the nation's border and
local disasters, said Gen. Victor E. Renuart Jr., commander of
United States Northern Command and the North American Aerospace
Defense Commander.
The Ft. Bliss 1st Armored Division
soldiers, as well as a new missile defense unit that are being
created at Fort Bliss. America's first air defense and believed by
Jane's Intel Web Report to be the owners of the sky where ever they
fly. These F-22 Raptors that are stationed at Holloman Air Force
Base will be available to defend homeland security, Renuart
said.
Renuart, who visited Joint Task Force-North, which is
under his command, declined to discuss any details of threats
uncovered along the border with Mexico, but he said many agencies,
including JTF-North, have made "it a very difficult border for
someone to take advantage of." That would explain why there
have been recent reports of U.S. military being seen on the
border.
As previously reported in the Journal the federal
government acknowledged that the United States-Mexican border region
has been experiencing an alarming rise in the level of criminal
cartel activity, including drug and human smuggling, which has
placed significant additional burdens on Federal, State, and local
law enforcement agencies.
Dozens of U.S. citizens have been
kidnapped, held hostage and killed by their captors in Mexico and
many cases remain unsolved. Moreover, new cases of disappearances
and kidnap-for-ransom continue to be reported. See: Americans Being
Kidnapped, Held and killed in Mexico "It is prudent for us to
assume that any of these established trafficking routes, whether
it's human trafficking or drugs or arms or money, any of those could
be used, and so we want to keep our eyes and ears on all of those to
ensure that they are not used in that regard," Renuart said.
See: New Terrorist Bases South Of The Border Both the F-22 and the
Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, missile -- designed
to destroy short- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles as they
re-enter Earth's atmosphere -- are recent additions to the nation's
arsenal. A THAAD unit is being created at Fort Bliss.
"Our
job at NORTHCOM is to ensure that if there's a seam or a gap there
that we're thinking of how we could fill that with some other
capability out of" the Defense Department, he said. "What
that has forced us to do is think about, 'How do you solve that
time/distance problem, even on a short-notice event. And so I have
access to capabilities now that I didn't have a year or two ago that
I can move very quickly to fill that need.
The MQ-9 Reaper
will employ robust sensors to automatically find, fix, track and
target critical emerging time sensitive targets. In the MQ-9 the SAR
was replaced with the AN/APY-8 Lynx II radar, replacing the TESAR
with more advanced high resolution radar-imaging system. The ground
control segment of the Predator B is common with all previous
Predator systems. The US government is developing the ability to
operate multiple aircraft from a single ground station, in effect,
multiplying the overall combat effectiveness over the
battlefield.
Sources: Tom Burghardt U.S. Army Joint Task
Force-North The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) U.S.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Holloman Air Force Base Gen.
Victor E. Renuart Jr., commander of United States Northern Command
and the North American Aerospace Defense Commander. U.S. Soldiers on
the ground. Barry Steinhardt MQ-9 Reaper, Predator B UAV On the
Border: RECON Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV´s) and
Space-Based Domestic Spying Surveillance technology the U.S.
Government is now watching American citizens under the guise of
disaster management and controlling the U.S. Mexican border. The
Reaper/Predator B UAV´s robotic killing machines are currently in
operation with the USAF, US Navy and the Royal Air Force. In
addition non military users of the Predator B include: NASA and
Homeland security though the US Customs and Border Protection
agencies.
The Department of Homeland Security´s (DHS)
space-based domestic spy program run by that agency´s National
Applications Office (NAO) is now in full operation. Indeed during
Hurricane Ike, U.S. Customs and Border Protection for the first time
flew the Predator B unmanned aerial vehicle in "support of the
Federal Emergency Management Agency´s relief efforts," the
insider tech publication reported.
Tom Burghardt in a recent
article wrote that the Predator B carries out "targeted
assassinations" of "terrorist suspects" across
Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan. The deployment of the robotic
killing machines in the United States for "disaster management"
is troubling to say the least and a harbinger of things to
come.
Despite objections by Congress and civil liberties
groups DHS, in close collaboration with the ultra-spooky National
Reconnaissance Office (NRO), the agency that develops and maintains
America´s fleet of military spy satellites, and the National
Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) that analyzes military imagery
and generates mapping tools, are proceeding with the first phase of
the controversial domestic spying program. NAO will coordinate how
domestic law enforcement and "disaster relief" agencies
such as FEMA will use satellite imagery intelligence (IMINT)
generated by military spy satellites. Burghardt wrote earlier this
year, unlike commercial satellites, their military cousins are far
more flexible, have greater resolution and therefore possess more
power to monitor human activity.
Barry Steinhardt, Director
of the ACLU´s Technology and Liberty Project, called for a
moratorium on the domestic use of military spy satellites until key
questions were answered. Steinhardt said, the domestic use of spy
satellites and UAV´s represents a big brother monster and we need
to put some restraints in place before it grows into something that
will trample Americans´ privacy rights. This program now is
providing federal, state and local officials "with extensive
access to spy-satellite imagery." Steinhardt said As we have
seen however, the use of satellite imagery during "national
security events" such as last summer´s political conventions
in Denver and St. Paul may have aided FBI and local law enforcement
in their preemptive raids on protest organizers and subsequent
squelching of dissent. One wonders if this is what DGI refers to
when they write that the company "performs work in the national
interest, advancing public safety and national security through
innovative research, analysis and applied technology".
There
are real questions being asked, do these spies in the sky
surveillance systems comply with privacy laws and doesn´t violate
the Posse Comitatus Act? The 1878 law prohibits the military from
playing a role in domestic law enforcement. Since the 1990s however,
Posse Comitatus has been eroded significantly by both Democratic and
Republican administrations, primarily in the areas of "drug
interdiction," "border security" as well as
"Continuity of Government" planning by U.S. Northern
Command (NORTHCOM). Within the Department of Homeland Security
(DHS), Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is the lead agency
charged with securing our nation´s borders. United States Border
Patrol (USBP) is charged with detecting and preventing the entry of
terrorists, weapons of mass destruction, and unauthorized aliens
into the country, and interdicting drug smugglers and other
criminals. The USBP already utilizes advanced technology to augment
its agents´ ability to patrol the border. The technologies used
include, but are not limited to, sensors, light towers, mobile night
vision scopes, remote video surveillance systems, directional
listening devices, various database systems, and unmanned aerial
vehicles (UAV's). These so called "force multipliers"
allow the USBP to deploy fewer agents in a specific area while
maintaining the ability to detect and counter intrusions and are
increasingly becoming a part of the USBP´s day-to-day operations.
There are two different types of UAV's: drones and remotely piloted
vehicles (RPVs). Both drones and RPVs are pilotless, but drones are
programmed for autonomous flight. RPVs are actively flown remotely —
by a ground control operator. UAV's are defined as a powered aerial
vehicle that does not carry a human operator, uses aerodynamic
forces to provide lift, can fly autonomously or be piloted remotely,
can be expendable or recoverable, and can carry lethal or nonlethal
payloads. UAV´s have played key roles in recent conflicts.
Historically, UAV´s have been used in various military settings
outside of U.S. borders. UAV´s have provided reconnaissance,
surveillance, target acquisition, search and rescue, and battle
damage assessments. In the recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq,
UAV´s have been used for surveillance purposes and to attack
enemies. The Predator UAV, for example, was armed with anti-tank
weapons to attack Taliban and Al Qaeda members.UAV´s have also been
used in domestic settings.
The NASA-sponsored Environmental
Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology (ERAST) program has produced
civilian UAV's to monitor pollution and measure ozone levels. The
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is involved in
developing Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and video camera
guidance for using UAV's to locate and identify toxic substances.
Lastly, the Department of Energy recently announced that it will
test UAV´s.
They can also be outfitted with radiation
sensors to detect potential nuclear booms, suite case nuke, dirty
booms and reactor accidents. Thousands of National Guard troops are
deployed along with U.S. Border Patrol to protect the US border and
are flying unmanned aircraft system (UAS), out of bases in
California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.
As reported
earlier this year in the Laguna Journal that a special U.S. Military
Task Force has been created to protect our southern border with
Mexico. Members of this task force are preparing to secure the
border by responding with specially trained fast response U.S. Army
task force military units. These forces are already in place with
the heart of the power being concentrated in El Paso and Southern
New Mexico with a far reaching responsibility from East Texas to
Southern California. USAF General Victor E. Renuart Jr. They are
being staged and immediately available as emergency "on call"
units for use against terrorist threats on the nation's border and
local disasters, said Gen. Victor E. Renuart Jr., commander of
United States Northern Command and the North American Aerospace
Defense Commander.
The Ft. Bliss 1st Armored Division
soldiers, as well as a new missile defense unit that are being
created at Fort Bliss. America's first air defense and believed by
Jane's Intel Web Report to be the owners of the sky where ever they
fly. These F-22 Raptors that are stationed at Holloman Air Force
Base will be available to defend homeland security, Renuart
said.
Renuart, who visited Joint Task Force-North, which is
under his command, declined to discuss any details of threats
uncovered along the border with Mexico, but he said many agencies,
including JTF-North, have made "it a very difficult border for
someone to take advantage of." That would explain why there
have been recent reports of U.S. military being seen on the
border.
As previously reported in the Journal the federal
government acknowledged that the United States-Mexican border region
has been experiencing an alarming rise in the level of criminal
cartel activity, including drug and human smuggling, which has
placed significant additional burdens on Federal, State, and local
law enforcement agencies.
Dozens of U.S. citizens have been
kidnapped, held hostage and killed by their captors in Mexico and
many cases remain unsolved. Moreover, new cases of disappearances
and kidnap-for-ransom continue to be reported. See: Americans Being
Kidnapped, Held and killed in Mexico "It is prudent for us to
assume that any of these established trafficking routes, whether
it's human trafficking or drugs or arms or money, any of those could
be used, and so we want to keep our eyes and ears on all of those to
ensure that they are not used in that regard," Renuart said.
See: New Terrorist Bases South Of The Border Both the F-22 and the
Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, missile -- designed
to destroy short- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles as they
re-enter Earth's atmosphere -- are recent additions to the nation's
arsenal. A THAAD unit is being created at Fort Bliss.
"Our
job at NORTHCOM is to ensure that if there's a seam or a gap there
that we're thinking of how we could fill that with some other
capability out of" the Defense Department, he said. "What
that has forced us to do is think about, 'How do you solve that
time/distance problem, even on a short-notice event. And so I have
access to capabilities now that I didn't have a year or two ago that
I can move very quickly to fill that need.
The MQ-9 Reaper
will employ robust sensors to automatically find, fix, track and
target critical emerging time sensitive targets. In the MQ-9 the SAR
was replaced with the AN/APY-8 Lynx II radar, replacing the TESAR
with more advanced high resolution radar-imaging system. The ground
control segment of the Predator B is common with all previous
Predator systems. The US government is developing the ability to
operate multiple aircraft from a single ground station, in effect,
multiplying the overall combat effectiveness over the
battlefield.
Sources:
Tom Burghardt
U.S. Army
Joint Task Force-North
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection
(CBP)
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
Holloman
Air Force Base
Gen. Victor E. Renuart Jr., commander of
United States Northern Command and the North American Aerospace
Defense Commander.
U.S. Soldiers on the ground.
Barry
Steinhardt
MQ-9 Reaper, Predator B UAV On the Border: RECON
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