can't... that's the only way to stop them from tracking you
Posted on 03/02/2013 6:09:55 PM PST by Vince Ferrer
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has customized its Predator drones, originally built for overseas military operations, to carry out at-home surveillance tasks that have civil libertarians worried: identifying civilians carrying guns and tracking their cell phones, government documents show.
The documents provide more details about the surveillance capabilities of the department's unmanned Predator B drones, which are primarily used to patrol the United States' northern and southern borders but have been pressed into service on behalf of a growing number of law enforcement agencies including the FBI, the Secret Service, the Texas Rangers, and local police.
Homeland Security's specifications for its drones, built by San Diego-based General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, say they "shall be capable of identifying a standing human being at night as likely armed or not," meaning carrying a shotgun or rifle. They also specify "signals interception" technology that can capture communications in the frequency ranges used by mobile phones, and "direction finding" technology that can identify the locations of mobile devices or two-way radios. The Electronic Privacy Information Center obtained a partially redacted copy of Homeland Security's requirements for its drone fleet through the Freedom of Information Act and published it this week. CNET unearthed an unredacted copy of the requirements that provides additional information about the aircraft's surveillance capabilities.
Homeland Security's Predator B drone can stay aloft conducting surveillance for 20 hours. (Credit: U.S. Department of Homeland Security) Concern about domestic use of drones is growing, with federal legislation introduced last month that would establish legal safeguards, in addition to parallel efforts underway from state and local lawmakers. The Federal Aviation Administration recently said that it will "address privacy-related data collection" by drones. The prospect of identifying armed Americans concerns Second Amendment advocates, who say that technology billed as securing the United States' land and maritime borders should not be used domestically. Michael Kostelnik, the Homeland Security official who created the program, told Congress that the drone fleet would be available to "respond to emergency missions across the country," and a Predator drone was dispatched to the tiny town of Lakota, N.D., to aid local police in a dispute that began with reimbursement for feeding six cows. The defendant, arrested with the help of Predator surveillance, lost a preliminary bid to dismiss the charges.
"I am very concerned that this technology will be used against law-abiding American firearms owners," says Alan Gottlieb, founder and executive vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation. "This could violate Fourth Amendment rights as well as Second Amendment rights." Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection agency declined to answer questions about whether direction-finding technology is currently in use on its drone fleet. A representative provided CNET with a statement about the agency's unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) that said signals interception capability is not currently used:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection is not deploying signals interception capabilities on its UAS fleet. Any potential deployment of such technology in the future would be implemented in full consideration of civil rights, civil liberties, and privacy interests and in a manner consistent with the law and long-standing law enforcement practices.
CBP's UAS program is a vital border security asset. Equipped with state-of-the-art sensors and day-and-night cameras, the UAS provides real-time images to frontline agents to more effectively and efficiently secure the nation's borders. As a force multiplier, the UAS operates for extended periods of time and allows CBP to safely conduct missions over tough-to-reach terrain. The UAS also provides agents on the ground with added situational awareness to more safely resolve dangerous situations. During his appearance before the House Homeland Security committee, Kostelnik, a retired Air Force major general who recently left the agency, testified that the drones' direction-finding ability is part of a set of "DOD capabilities that are being tested or adopted by CBP to enhance UAS performance for homeland security." CBP currently has 10 Predator drones and is considering buying up to 14 more.
If the Predator drones were used only to identify smugglers or illegal immigrants crossing the Mexican and Canadian borders, or for disaster relief, they might not be especially controversial. But their use domestically by other government agencies has become routine enough -- and expensive enough -- that Homeland Security's inspector general said (PDF) last year that CBP needs to sign agreements "for reimbursement of expenses incurred fulfilling mission requests."
"The documents clearly evidence that the Department of Homeland Security is developing drones with signals interception technology and the capability to identify people on the ground," says Ginger McCall, director of the Open Government Project at the Electronic Privacy Information Center. "This allows for invasive surveillance, including potential communications surveillance, that could run afoul of federal privacy laws."
A Homeland Security official, who did not want to be identified by name, said the drones are able to identify whether movement on the ground comes from a human or an animal, but that they do not perform facial recognition. The official also said that because the unarmed drones have a long anticipated life span, the department tries to plan ahead for future uses to support its border security mission, and that aerial surveillance would comply with the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and other applicable federal laws.
The documents show that CBP specified that the "tracking accuracy should be sufficient to allow target designation," and the agency notes on its Web site that its Predator B series is capable of "targeting and weapons delivery" (the military version carries multiple 100-pound Hellfire missiles). CBP says, however, that its Predator aircraft are unarmed.
Gene Hoffman, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who's the chairman of the Calguns Foundation, said CBP "needs to be very careful with attempts to identify armed individuals in the border area" when aerial surveillance touches on a constitutional right.
"In the border area of California and Arizona, it may be actively dangerous for the law-abiding to not carry firearms precisely due to the illegal flow of drugs and immigrants across the border in those areas," Hoffman says.
CBP's specifications say that signals interception and direction-finding technology must work from 30MHz to 3GHz in the radio spectrum. That sweeps in the GSM and CDMA frequencies used by mobile phones, which are in the 300MHz to 2.7GHz range, as well as many two-way radios. The specifications say: "The system shall provide automatic and manual DF of multiple signals simultaneously. Automatic DF should be able to separate out individual communication links." Automated direction-finding for cell phones has become an off-the-shelf technology: one company sells a unit that its literature says is "capable of taking the bearing of every mobile phone active in a channel."
Although CBP's unmanned Predator aircraft are commonly called drones, they're remotely piloted by FAA-licensed operators on the ground. They can fly for up to 20 hours and carry a payload of about 500 lbs.
Much of the language that causes concern is written by people trying to inflate their own importance. The CBP Predator program in reality is a failure. It sucks funds away from things that work into a capability that is seldom used and is locked on limited tracks allowed by the FAA. The contract with General Atomics is practically criminal in its lack of accountability. Several years ago a Predator being flown by General Atomics contract pilots was crashed due to gross incompetence and negligence. Because of the way the contract is written, CBP still pays an outrageous amount of money every year, to General Atomics, for Ku band time on that aircraft that is now in the trash heap.
CBP Air would be a lot better off with a mid size turbine airplane capable of carrying the same sensors for a lot less money. You could buy several of these for the cost of the Predator and use the same crews to fly those aircraft. The advantage would be cost, a lower mishap rate, and CBP could operate it anywhere in the U.S. without a permission slip from the FAA.
The only capability the Predator has brought to its limited operating area has been VADER, an MTI radar capable of detecting and tracking groups on foot. Then again that could have been bought for a manned aircraft.
can't... that's the only way to stop them from tracking you
It also tells you that the Sec of DHS has a limp dick.
Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping!
To get onto The Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping List you must threaten to report me to the Mods if I don’t add you to the list...
Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping!
To get onto The Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping List you must threaten to report me to the Mods if I don’t add you to the list...
It's not the country we loved ...
Soon we won't have to worry about people coming here to be free. We won't be free.
Our biggest concern will be can we leave... and will Canada take us in...
Regulations don’t mean anything if the people who are supposed to enforce the regulations are lawless thugs just like the foreign enemy combatant who appointed them to that position.
Right now “the enemy is in the building”. Laws/regulations/Constitution no longer matter, because the only ones allowed to guard the henhouse are all foxes.
I want my country back. Spineless GOP, sycophantic dimorats, and a dictator in chief........the insanity continues
“In the border area of California and Arizona, it may be actively dangerous for the law-abiding to not carry firearms precisely due to the illegal flow of drugs and immigrants across the border in those areas,...”
How about on the streets of any big US city?
That was my question, too. What about tracking just the SIM card? Can they do that wo/ the battery activated?
Somehow I am not comforted. If anyone thinks the only danger is from Obama, or the left, they are mistaken.
and you would be correct on that...all the way back to when someone has the asshat idea of a Patriot Act which came under the GOP. Some like Rush have it right, it is the ruling political class, not party, that is at odds with us the serfs. Soon they will be in complete control with no ability to get them out, at least that is what they think.
Someone here pointed out weeks ago, during its high point, the provos in the IRA had no more than 100 members yet managed to keep an entire nation at bay for over 50 years. It is just a matter of commitment to a cause, hopefully the flame of freedom stays kindled in the USA.
So, when do we start blackmarketing for obamaphones? The jackboots wouldn’t track their own free phones, right?
Latest technology probably puts self-contained trackers in all cell phone batteries.....Wouldn't put it past them - might explain why the batteries cost so damn much.
“...the agency notes on its Web site that its Predator B series is capable of ‘targeting and weapons delivery’”
All it takes is a secret or “emergency” presidential directive to arm the “capable” drones, such as allowing the Secret Service to use armed drones to protect POTUS or deal with an emergent domestic terror situation like the DC sniper.
I have seen nothing to preclude that from having happened already and drones have already been spotted near POTUS appearances.
Your argument is from the perspective and standpoint of a civilized government. In those cases, the pen is mightier than the sword. However those who now occupy positions of power are anything but civilized. Who ever said the pen was mightier than the sword, obviously never met the sword, or if they did it was too late to warn everyone of their egregious mistake.
:O)
One problem with your line of thinking, James: these are not autonomous flight platforms. They require a joystick jockey to keep them going. All it takes is some good intel on where in the wilderness the flight radio shack is located, some ingenuity, a pack of pissed off patriots, and you can take over those drones for your own purposes or at least make the control of those devices quite perilous for those who wish to do the job.
The problem with the IRA is that it was supported via indirect routes by the Soviet Union and other means. They did not live in a vacuum nor do most guerrilla type movements.
Don’t forget the radar units, else the launch platform pictured will do nothing.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.