Ya ya, I know there are several other threads on this subject. This one begs it's own thread due to the fast shifting nature to rush implementation of such pervasive and widespread domestic aerial spying.

But wait, that's not all!

From CBS New Los Angeles:

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2012/06/0....

Quote:

A non-classified U.S. Air Force intelligence report obtained by KNX 1070 NEWSRADIO dated April 23, 2012, is helping fuel concern that video and other data inadvertently captured by Air Force drones already flying through some U.S. airspace, might end up in the hands of federal or local law enforcement, doing an end-run around normal procedures requiring police to obtain court issued warrants.

Go that?

Warrants be damned. Whatever you do will simply drop into the hands of law enforcement, whether you are breaking the law, or more likely not. And it's a VERY short leap from that kind of situation to ex-post facto laws working against you... for which you are innocent today, you are open to prosecution tomorrow.

18,000 Drones ready to be sold to every imaginable agency with the direct help and encouragement of the United States Federal Government:

Quote:

“This report noted that they are able to collect that information and then determine whether or not they can keep it.”

The revised Air Force report is a continuation of a policy already a few years old, but is causing more alarm now as drones appear poised to soon become a ubiquitous presence in U.S. skies thanks to a federal policy to promote their use, first by law enforcement agencies, and then by commercial concerns.

A “streamlined” process for police departments to apply for permits to fly drones was recently introduced by the FAA.

Got that too?? That would be 'streamlined' as in 'expedited'. As in 'SOON'.

Quote:

What has critics alarmed is that data collected by drones accidentally, under the guidelines, can be kept by the military up to three months before being purged and can also be turned over to “another Department of Defense or government agency to whose function it pertains.”

Purposeful loopholes abound large enough to drive a truck through. I will call them 'boiling frog' appetizers on a much larger extremely toxic menu.

That only gets BIGGER:

Quote:

The Air Force guidelines permit using drones domestically to assist law enforcement in “investigating or preventing clandestine intelligence activities by foreign powers, international narcotics activities , or international terrorist activities.” More vague is language that also allows military cooperation with local law enforcement for the purposes of “preventing, detecting, or investigating other violations of law.”

Let me translate that last paragraph for you in more simple terms:

'We are determined to make a large enough banana peel that guarantees you slip on it'.

Quote:

In an email to KNX 1070 NEWSRADIO, Air Force spokesperson Capt. Rose Richeson said, “The Executive Branch has promulgated detailed Departmental and Intelligence Community-wide instructions and directives about when it is appropriate to share information with federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies consistent with the protection of privacy and civil liberties.”

But Capt. Richeson goes on to say that “a court order or warrant is not required in all circumstances.”

That one begs abit of translation too. Here you go: '0bama thinks these things are bitchen and sez we don't need no stinken' badges EITHER'

And to put the icing on the cake:

Quote:

The military’s use of drones domestically will pale by comparison should sales to police departments take off.

Oh, you can BET 'sales to police departments WILL take off'. Metaphorically and literally.

Combine this fast ramping capacity for ubiquitous and pervasive surveillance combined with the 'Ste11ar W1nd' project going live next summer, you will have a real-deal police spy state capacity FAR beyond what the world has ever known.

But wait! There is yet still more for you late night viewers:

Not so you think these things will simply limited to flimsy balsa wood like gliders to be easily shot down. The military is upping the game to a new generation of drones that can/will make an easy transition to domestic use:

Quote:

Massive experimental drone takes to skies above Edwards AFB
By W.J. Hennigan
12:49 p.m. PDT, June 4, 2012




A massive experimental drone designed by Boeing Co. engineers to fly for up to four days at a time completed its first test flight above the Mojave Desert at Edwards Air Force Base.

By any other definition, that would be 'pervasive' on steroids.

Quote:

"This day ushers in a new era of persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance where an unmanned aircraft will remain on station for days at a time providing critical information and services," said Phantom Works President Darryl Davis in a statement. "This flight puts Boeing on a path to accomplish another aerospace first — the capability of four days of un-refueled, autonomous flight."

They've gone made with power. Out of control wise.

NMA

Well, if you're not doing anything wrong, you don't have anything to worry about....right?

Price of good outdoor grown Domestic Mari~j is about to go UP!

Maybe living in a 3rd world country would be safer.

Quote:

Price of good outdoor grown Domestic Mari~j is about to go UP!

I was thinking the same thing. There is a lot grown in the North Carolina mountains where I live and they are usually caught via choppers noticing them. With the drones it will be way easier to see them.

Excellent post Videopro.

18,000 new jobs (drone jockeys)
Plus all the jobs needed manufacturing and keeping these things airworthy, maybe another 5000 ppl.

more green sharts.

Duh-bamas jobs program

nice

Vote Obama 2012!

With Ovomits INFATUATION with drones killing "militants" (whatever those are) this is scary on a whole 'nother level.

And another thing--rough math says that 18,000 drones is 5.7 of them for EVERY county in the U.S.

Thanks, John Mica. First the TSA and now the FAA approval for drones.

But, drones = jobz!

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012....

Quote:

Kuzma estimates as many as 50 companies in Florida are involved in some way with manufacturing drones. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical Universityin Daytona Beach is one of the few institutions in the country that offers a degree in unmanned systems.

Kuzma said drone testing in Florida could create lots of jobs, although he could not offer a solid number. Just as importantly, testing in Florida could help the state expand its stake in the industry, he said.

Bloomberg News estimates the drone industry is worth nearly $6 billion and could almost double in value by 2021 because of its expected expansion into the civilian economy.

Looks to be an exciting future with healhcare spending taking up the entire federal budget in the coming years, and $12 Billion in drone spending on tap for 2021.

Oh and about that pesky "interest on the debt" - if rates rise...

The FAA version of expedite: All commercial planes flying in the US are required to have ash trays. Right above it must be a placard that says "smoking prohibited"

This country is getting to be about as private as a Gmail account.

I am not a pilot. However, several posters here are.

Wouldn't this number of drones be a hazard to small aircraft? or large aircraft?

Yes. As I posted in a different thread, there are only 15,000 revenue generating airliners in the WORLD. The rest are in private use, bone yards/parked in the desert.

North America is 16% of the total land mass of the globe. Air Traffic Control is set up so that job #1 is "separating IFR traffic", with other duties as workload permits. Only drones on the scale of the Global Hawk or that hydrogen powered Boeing drone in this thread could be operated that way.

I'm assuming that drones would be prohibited in the airspace surrounding large terminals (class B and C), but who knows. Maybe circumventing the constitution will take precedence. If they were prohibited it would dramatically curtail the intended use - ferreting out law breakers in metropolitan areas.

As for other airspace most traffic still operates on "see and avoid" principles. Unless quite sophisticated, most of these drones will not be seeing much at all, so that doubles the chance of close calls (or worse).

Tiny drones could be hand launched and retrieved much like an r/c plane and operated below controlled airspace (typically 700 or 1200' above ground) but larger drones will either need to be trucked into local GA airports or stationed at bases and dispatched then flown to the area to be scanned.

As a pilot I don't think it's been thought out very well, but honestly I'm more concerned with the blatant use of high tech surveillance on U.S. citizens.

How about surveilling workingman's comp claimants who claim to be crippled.

Even better! If you can't beat them, join them!

Start a service charging private detectives that will surveil a target for them.

You need to start thinking on the positive side.

Do you need a pilot's license to fly these? What kind of FAA certification do you need, if any?

Look at the BIG picture.

Follow the manufacturers' campaign contributions.

Just like the scanners in airports.

This will create an entire new layer of LE and bureuacracy and expense.

The inside track elite will all share $$$ from the taxpayer for this crap. Enourmous amounts!

There's your thread winner right here!

Quote:

Look at the BIG picture.

Follow the manufacturers' campaign contributions.

Just like the scanners in airports.

This will create an entire new layer of LE and bureuacracy and expense.

The inside track elite will all share $$$ from the taxpayer for this crap. Enourmous amounts!

The amount of money and opportunity for even more bloated bureaucracy designed to loot the population to an even more stellar degree is inherent in this soon to be burgeoning project.

All of which ensures that every last one of the estimated 18,000 agency roll-out potentials will be fully realized. AND THEN SOME. Further, just like the cash cow of red-light cameras, these will produce RMR like nothing you can even imagine.

The ability to continuously scour every square inch of the landscape 24/7 for every tiny violation to hang a giant price tag upon which to feed the oligarchs will be simply irresistible!

^^ yep

At this point we have two choices - hope for collapse that will wipe away all this money a la Greece, or local communities need to prohibit their LEOs from spending money on this activity. Or, we submit to the boot on our necks.

Your choice, America.

FAA was forced to approve this, I'm almost sure they did not want too.

Let's see ... 18,000 drones which need to be monitored, kind of like airport controllers, where, because of the intensity of the monitoring, let's assume two people on each 8-hour shift, 3 shifts/day ... 2 shifts/week. That would be 2x3x2x18,000 = 216,000 jobs created.

Imagine the possibilities that this fine-resolution, high powered processing technology matched with an all seeing eye in the sky can create:

* Ability to track every car on the road simultaneously looking for:

- Speed violations. Monitored millisecond by millisecond, turn by turn.
- Pervasive and compounding repeated offender penalty fees applied. In realtime!
- (HUGE and exponentially increasing revenue stream possibilities there.)

The above already exists on some video monitored tollways in some parts of the world where the point-to-point calculations are applied and speeding tickets automatically issued. Using monitor drones would amplify this capacity literally to the MOON and beyond leaving no automobile untouched.

- Real property code compliance monitoring.
- Realtime capacity to document physical changes (and taxable improvements)

Again, the above already exists with agencies using the ever improving and increasing frequency of satellite imagery publishing (i.e.) Google Earth. Drones with ground penetrating radar will allow agencies to monitor virtually every property pervasively day and night to determine what property upgrades you are engaged in within the inside of your home and bill you immediately for taxable improvement that previously would have gone undetected.

While we are on the subject of what is going on inside your home:

Any 'so-called Constitutionally protected' firearms you might have lying around the house will be easy to spot by type and quantity and electronically transmitted into a Federal inventory database (Ste11ar W1nd facility in Utah) with EASE for 'future reference'.

And yet again: The above has already been accomplished to somewhat lesser degree by relatively lesser technology by the IRG Iranian Revolutionary Guards to quickly find and arrest armed anti-government dissidents.

Those are but just a hint at the tantalizing uses available to 'authorities' when they fill the skies with these irresistible new toys.

Quote:

video and other data inadvertently captured by Air Force drones already flying through some U.S. airspace

Oh. Right!

So each drone strike in Asia takes off from Edwards, flies across the continental USA to Newport News, lands, unloads all of that 'inadvertently captured data' to the Police, and then flies to Asia.

We.R.Fvcked.