Confirmed: FBI uses Drones in the US

[ArcadiaGP]

FBI uses drones in U.S., says Mueller – CNN Security Clearance - CNN.com Blogs

Lovely.

Paging Senator Rand Paul... come in Mr. Paul...

 

[NSA 308]

The article says that the drones are used sparingly, and only for surveillance, when agents lives may be at risk. They have been used on hostage situations before.

Manned aircraft have been used for a long time for aerial surveillance. I don't see anything in the article about armed drones or raids against the tea party. Much ado about nothing.

 

[No2rdame]

The article says that the drones are used sparingly, and only for surveillance, when agents lives may be at risk. They have been used on hostage situations before.

Manned aircraft have been used for a long time for aerial surveillance. I don't see anything in the article about armed drones or raids against the tea party. Much ado about nothing.

That is, if you believe that the government uses them sparingly and only to protect the lives of agents.

 

[IndyDave1776]

That is, if you believe that the government uses them sparingly and only to protect the lives of agents.

Isn't the federal government's idea of 'sparingly' anything less than 24/7 operation?

 

[ZombieApocolypse]

Duh? Where else would the gov't test em?

 

[Kirk Freeman]

And so does ATFE. Wow, I thought Congress took away their Broncos, but now F Troop has drones? Really? F Troop?

 

[jbombelli]

Is anybody surprised by this?

 

[Redtbird]

When I leave my apartment now, I stop, look up at the sky, and WAVE!!

Guess I should start look for black helicopters some day soon... ggl ggl!

 

[KellyinAvon]

The capability of these military remotely piloted aircraft/unmanned aerial systems (they ain't drones) is staggering. I remember seeing Predator feed video that looked like it was flying at 50 feet and that was over 10 years ago. The weapons came later (Hellfire was fired from an MQ-1 in early 2001 if memory serves), these are recon aircraft. Sure we've had police helicopters for years, but MQ-1s and MQ-9s gather huge amounts of video imagery to be analyzed. It's what they do.

 

[icky]

and im sure they would tell us all if they were armed

 

[Lucas156]

The new war on terrorism is in the USA.

 

[Expat]

The article says that the drones are used sparingly, and only for surveillance, when agents lives may be at risk. They have been used on hostage situations before.

Manned aircraft have been used for a long time for aerial surveillance. I don't see anything in the article about armed drones or raids against the tea party. Much ado about nothing.

Yeah and the Feds don't surveil us electronically either...

 

[JollyMon]

 

[ArcadiaGP]

Land of the free*

*certain conditions may apply
*void in Rhode Island

 

[JettaKnight]

There's a shirt with this for sale ($12, free shipping) today at Woot!.

 

[JettaKnight]

The capability of these military remotely piloted aircraft/unmanned aerial systems (they ain't drones) is staggering. I remember seeing Predator feed video that looked like it was flying at 50 feet and that was over 10 years ago. The weapons came later (Hellfire was fired from an MQ-1 in early 2001 if memory serves), these are recon aircraft. Sure we've had police helicopters for years, but MQ-1s and MQ-9s gather huge amounts of video imagery to be analyzed. It's what they do.

Predators and Reapers are used by the USAF. But, what does the FBI have? My intelligent guess is something far, far less sophisticated.

Do I like all this drone stuff? No. Can it be stopped? About as well as buggy whip manufacturers stopped the automobile.

A remotely piloted aerial vehicle has all the surveillance of a helicopter, but it has a much lower total cost, it's smaller, it can be deployed quicker, has lower risk, it's quieter, it has a longer operational time - need I go on?

 

[KellyinAvon]

Predators and Reapers are used by the USAF. But, what does the FBI have? My intelligent guess is something far, far less sophisticated.

Do I like all this drone stuff? No. Can it be stopped? About as well as buggy whip manufacturers stopped the automobile.

A remotely piloted aerial vehicle has all the surveillance of a helicopter, but it has a much lower total cost, it's smaller, it can be deployed quicker, has lower risk, it's quieter, it has a longer operational time - need I go on?

Not sure where you're going here Jetta. The US Border Patrol Air and Marine Service operates Predators and Predator-B Models (AKA MQ-9 Reaper). DHS has MQ-1/9s, you think DOJ is flying those Styrofoam spy plane things the Air Force cops launch with a giant slingshots?

Loiter time + electro-optical+ infrared = a lot of imagery (day and night) that gets bounced off satellites and sent (and stored/analyzed)somewhere. Surveillance means "just looking at everything".

Not sure what buggy whip makers not stopping cars has to do with this...

 

[JettaKnight]

Not sure where you're going here Jetta. The US Border Patrol Air and Marine Service operates Predators and Predator-B Models (AKA MQ-9 Reaper). DHS has MQ-1/9s, you think DOJ is flying those Styrofoam spy plane things the Air Force cops launch with a giant slingshots?

Well, I guess I stand corrected.

Not sure what buggy whip makers not stopping cars has to do with this...

My point is that it's real hard to stop progress. The aerial remote controlled vehicles has so many advantages that preventing their use isn't truly possible or desirable. Look what Texas is doing - Cops can have drones, journalist can't. Geologist, maybe. Ranchers, doubtful.

It's like trying to ban cell phones because the NSA collects metadata.

The bigger picture is our notion of privacy is changing. We've been here before - over a hundred years ago. The supreme court dealt with this in the 1890's with the rise of instant cameras.