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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFBI Admits to Using High-Tech Spy Planes to Monitor Freddie Gray Protests
FBI Admits to Using High-Tech Spy Planes to Monitor Freddie Gray ProtestsFBI won't say whether Joint Terror Task Force was used.
By Adam Johnson * AlterNet * May 7, 2015
Baltimore joins a growing list of cities where anti-police brutality protests have fallen under the purview of FBIs surveillance apparatus. According to yesterdays Baltimore Sun, federal authorities used their sophisticated fleet of spy aircraft to watch over Baltimore in the wake of rioting. FBI spokeswoman Amy Thoreson insisted the aircraft were used to help Baltimore Police keep an eye out for criminal activity:
"The aircraft were specifically used to assist in providing high-altitude observation of potential criminal activity to enable rapid response by police officers on the ground," Thoreson said. "The FBI aircraft were not there to monitor lawfully protected first amendment activity." :
The admission was in response to amatuer sleuths noticing unsual flight activity about the Baltimore area. As the Washington Post reported on Tuesday:
Civil libertarians have particular concern about surveillance technology that can quietly gather images across dozens of city blocks in some cases even square miles at a time inevitably capturing the movements of people under no suspicion of criminal activity into a government dragnet. The ACLU plans to file information requests with federal agencies on Wednesday, officials said.
The airplanes surveillance technology, as Arstechnica points out, was perfected overseas in US wars Iraq and Afghanistan.
http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/fbi-admits-using-high-tech-spy-planes-monitor-freddie-gray-protests
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)trumad
(41,692 posts)See that's the problem...most Americans don't see the big picture and slippery slope.
99th_Monkey
(19,326 posts)99th_Monkey
(19,326 posts)It's about whether it's a productive and wise use of the FBI's limited resources,
AND about whether it's appropriate for ANY law enforcement to be "monitoring"
peaceful protest movements and events as though they represent some "national
security threat" ... i.e. suspected 'terrorists' ... it's an absurd, obscene and
disgraceful misplacement and misuse of their resources and authority.
Actually it reminds me of during the 60's when J. Edger Hoover assigned an
entire team of FBI officers to decipher the "real meaning" of the famous rock
and roll hit "Louie Louie".
trumad
(41,692 posts)Think Orwell. Good post BTW
Last edited Thu May 7, 2015, 10:50 PM - Edit history (1)
How can I not 'think Orwell', these daze?
We've been morphing warp-speed to resemble the
Orwellian nightmare now, for how long
at least since 9/11.
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)and my coffee has cooled down.
A lot of this has now, sadly to be expected. I am quite flipant becuase many of us screamed to high heaven when all this started, and of course, we were told that it could not be this bad, 'cause well it's murica and we're special!... but hey... it will get far worst before it gets better.
And yes indeed we are special. Most countries remember what happened 800 years ago, let alone last week. We collectively have trouble remembering last night.
seveneyes
(4,631 posts)It's not like anyone is championing the actions and reactions.
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)See, they do it to both sides..