Free Republic

The Secret Service is facing a "grave" threat to President Trump from a new wave of high-tech weapons including armed drones, plastic guns made on 3-D printers and even sophisticated IEDs, according to a new alert issued by a former agent. "This threat is grave," Dan Bongino told Secrets. The author of a new book on the Secret Service that calls for a seismic change of thinking at the agency, Bongino said terrorists are eager to unleash an attack on their "ultimate prize." New age threats include weaponized drones delivered in "swarms" that could attack the White House or any...

Attorney General Eric Holder admitted Tuesday that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was in the process of looking at the use of domestic drones. Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, questioned Holder during a House Judiciary Committee hearing, asking the Attorney General if he believed if the Federal Aviation Administration or Congress should regulate of drone use. “Would you think that it would be better that Congress intervene and employ legislation safeguarding the Fourth Amendment, right of privacy basically on citizens or do you suggest as Attorney General that the FAA still control who gets a drone or not?”...

A Predator drone designed to catch terrorists in Afghanistan was used to track a recalcitrant North Dakota rancher and his sons accused of cattle thieving and monitor them to see when they were unarmed and alert the police in a case believed to be the first where an American citizen was arrested with the aid of a drone. On Jan. 14, 2014, Rodney Brossart was acquitted of stealing cattle and criminal mischief, but convicted of terrorizing police (a conviction he is appealing) and sentenced to three years in prison with all but six months suspended. This all stems from an...

Why does a police department which hasn’t had an officer killed in the line of duty in over 125 years in a town of less than 20,000 people need tactical military vests like those used by soldiers in Afghanistan? For that matter, why does a police department in a city of 35,000 people need a military-grade helicopter? And what possible use could police at Ohio State University have for acquiring a heavily-armored vehicle intended to withstand IED blasts? Why are police departments across the country acquiring heavy-duty military equipment and weaponry? For the same reason that perfectly good roads get...

In Deer Trail, Colorado, it's could soon be open season on unmanned aerial drones. Residents in the two of 500 will go to the polls on October 8 to decide whether to sell 'hunting permits' that would make it legal to shoot drones out of the sky. Legal, that is, from the town's perspective. Federal aviation officials have warned that anyone who actually fires on a drone could face the same charges as anyone shooting at an airplane. A permit costs $25, with a $100 bounty reward for shooters who bring in debris from an unmanned aircraft 'known to be...

WASHINGTON — People who fire guns at drones are endangering the public and property and could be prosecuted or fined, the Federal Aviation Administration warned Friday.

As the Senate agreed today to stop the "nuclear option," Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) told Eric Bolling on Your World that he plans on filibustering the FBI director nomination. Democrats, led by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, had warned Republicans that if they don't allow President Obama's executive branch nominees, then they'd strip Congress' power to filibuster. Sen. Paul said he would put a hold on the nomination of James Comey as FBI director to get more information on how the federal government is using drones. "I'm trying to get a real truth. Is the FBI using the Bill of...

This is NOT an april fools joke. This morning, when I got out of my car to go into work, I noticed a small plane-looking vehicle passing over the building I work at. We are close to the CVG Airport, but this was going away from it in a western direction, not from or towards it. I looked at it and noticed the "buzzing noise" it makes, MUCH different than any normal plane, and it came to me where I had heard that before--on video of a drone on tv or such. It continued on its way, and had one...

Two San Bernardino County SheriffÂ’s deputies have been shot while pursuing a carjacking and home-invasion suspect in the Angelus Oaks area of Big Bear. A law enforcement source confirms to the Associated Press that the assailant is triple-murder suspect Christopher Dorner, who is said to be heavily armed in engaging in gunfire with authorities. Repeated gunshots could be heard on Glass Road west of 7 Oaks just after 1:30 p.m. and officials requested an armored vehicle to help remove several injured deputies from the scene. A SWAT team was also called in to set up a perimeter of the area....

Less than two weeks ago, Sen. Rand Paul's demanded to know whether the president believed he had a right to kill an American citizen on American soil with a drone, finally getting an answer that had to be dragged out Attorney General Eric Holder. An equally important, but still unasked question is whether the president intends to build a federal, drone-based "public safety" force to police local communities. Somebody had better ask the president about this quickly, because it appears that his administration intends to use drones to actively usurp what were once local police and sheriff's department functions. Put...

"Back in the Nineties, everyone was worried about militias and survivalists, who lived in what were invariably described as “compounds,” and not in the Kennedys-at-Hyannis sense. And, every so often, one of these compound-dwellers would find himself besieged by a great tide of federal alphabet soup, agents from the DEA, ATF, FBI and maybe even RRB. There was a guy named Randy Weaver, who lost his wife, son and dog to the guns of federal agents, was charged and acquitted in the murder of a deputy marshal and wound up getting a multimillion dollar settlement from the Department of Justice....

In this animated satire, a former K.G.B. agent welcomes a future in which Americans live under the watchful eyes of drones. When I began thinking of this animated Op-Docs video, I had two things in mind. The first was the adoption of drones by the Seattle Police Department. (The program has since been scuttled.) The second was Yevgeny Zamyatin’s 1924 novel “We,” which was a forerunner to dystopian novels including George Orwell’s “1984,” Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” and Kurt Vonnegut’s “Player Piano.” “We” is set in a futuristic city that is constructed almost entirely out of glass. This total...

Midwest farmers were outraged to hear that the Obama EPA was spying on ranches in surveilance planes. Rep. Tom Latham sent a letter to the EPA demanding answers, “No federal agency has the right to treat the American farmer like the Taliban.” To the Obama EPA – Iowa farmers are the enemy. The AP reported: Midwest ranchers have never been enamored with environmental regulators, but they really began to complain after learning that federal inspectors were flying over their land to look for problems. The Environmental Protection Agency flies over power plants and other facilities nationwide to identify potential air,...

Charlottesville, Va., has become the first city in the United States to formally pass an anti-drone resolution. The resolution, passed Monday, "calls on the United States Congress and the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia to adopt legislation prohibiting information obtained from the domestic use of drones from being introduced into a Federal or State court," and "pledges to abstain from similar uses with city-owned, leased, or borrowed drones." The resolution passed by a 3-2 vote and was brought to the city council by activist David Swanson and the Rutherford Institute, a progressive civil liberties group based ACA premium...

A clip from the episode of NOVA entitled "Rise of the Drones." The full episode can be viewed here: http://video.pbs.org/video/2326108547

WASHINGTON (CBSDC) – With the use of domestic drones increasing, concern has not just come up over privacy issues, but also over the potential use of lethal force by the unmanned aircraft. Drones have been used overseas to target and kill high-level terror leaders and are also being used along the U.S.-Mexico border in the battle against illegal immigration. But now, these drones are starting to be used domestically at an increasing rate. The Federal Aviation Administration has allowed several police departments to use drones across the U.S. They are controlled from a remote location and use infrared sensors and...

Earlier this week, the federal government announced that the Air Force might be dispatching drones to a backyard near you. The stated purpose of these spies in the sky is to assist local police to find missing persons or kidnap victims, or to chase bad guys. If the drone operator sees you doing anything of interest (Is your fertilizer for the roses or to fuel a bomb? Is that Sudafed for your cold or your meth habit? Are you smoking in front of your kids?), the feds say they may take a picture of you and keep it. The...

This was filmed in Elgin, Illinois about 40 miles from Chicago. I assume it's for the NATO summit this week as a security measure.

Unmanned drones could soon be buzzing in the skies above many U.S. cities, as the federal government green-lights the technology for local law enforcement amid widespread privacy concerns. The Federal Aviation Administration on Monday began to explain the rules of the sky for these newly licensed drones at potentially dozens of sites across the country. The agency, on its website, said that government "entities" will have to obtain a special certificate in order to fly the aircraft, adding that the FAA is "streamlining the process for public agencies to safely fly (drones) in the nation's airspace." In doing so, the...

U.S. Air Force policy permits the incidental collection of domestic imagery by unmanned aerial systems (drones), but ordinarily would not allow targeted surveillance of a U.S. person.  The Air Force policy was restated in a newly reissued instruction on oversight of Air Force intelligence.“Air Force Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) operations, exercise and training missions will not conduct nonconsensual surveillance on specifically identified US persons, unless expressly approved by the Secretary of Defense, consistent with US law and regulations,” the instruction stated.On the other hand, “Collected imagery may incidentally include US persons or private property without consent.”“Collecting information on specific targets...