This Shadowy Company Is Flying Spy Planes Over US Cities

[bathroommonkey76]

For six straight days in the middle of March, a small twin-propeller plane flew over Phoenix. Each evening, it picked two or three spots and circled for hours, flying at more than 17,000 feet. The plane was loaded with sophisticated surveillance equipment, including technology developed by the National Security Agency to track cell phones.

In June of last year, that same plane spent three weeks circling daily over Wilmington, North Carolina, carrying a state-of-the-art “persistent surveillance” camera that can monitor a large area continuously for hours at a time.

The Phoenix and Wilmington flights are among dozens tracked by BuzzFeed News that were flown by companies run by an obscure, Oklahoma-based private equity fund called Acorn Growth Companies. Acorn’s planes serve as the US military’s “A-Team” for aerial surveillance in Africa, including tracking suspected terrorists’ phones from the air. In the US, the planes sometimes take part in military exercises — as they were in Phoenix — helping troops practice raids on targets using the same phone-tracking technology.

At other times, Acorn serves commercial clients. The Wilmington flights, according to the company that made and operated the persistent surveillance camera, were run for two reasons: to demonstrate the technology’s value for traffic surveys, and to track vehicles going to and from retail outlets. This “commercial intelligence” would allow businesses to understand where their customers are driving from. The idea was to give retailers clues to help their marketing, so they can target mailings or other efforts to lure in customers from neighborhoods where people tend to shop at competing stores.

Read more:

https://www.buzzfeed.com/christianstork/spy-planes-over-american-cities?utm_term=.lum5JwOZK3#.wdjKodqajy

[LiberalArkie]

1. A lot of these planes, I would say just about all of them are mapping planes.

The generally are flying around noon or there about so they can get good up to date images of the buildings and property. Those are the images you see when you zoom all the way in on Google or Apple maps.

[bathroommonkey76]

2. "Dont contact me again, he said, and hung up."

Does that sound like a man who is mapping an area for a company like Google, or Apple? I don't believe they were expecting a call from Buzzfeed.

Acorn isn’t talking about these flights, or any others. The company’s executives failed to respond to repeated phone messages and emails. Eventually, BuzzFeed News got put through to Coultrup, the former Army Special Forces colonel, who was in no mood to talk.

“Don’t contact me again,” he said, and hung up

.

[stevenleser]

3. That's probably standard in terms of the direction most employees of companies are given if the

media calls.

Most employees of most firms, institutions and agencies are not authorized to talk to the media on behalf of that firm/institution/agency.

I'm not entitled to talk to the media on behalf of the places I work. I doubt many folks here are either.

[LiberalArkie]

4. I would guess that the same small planes that fly for the mapping companies

also fly for the FBI and others. But generally they are mapping land and housing.