Air Force Document: Drones Can Be Used To Spy On
Americans
“Incidental” surveillance data can be held for 90 days
Steve Watson
Infowars.com
May 11, 2012
A newly discovered Air Force intelligence brief states
that should fleets of unmanned drones accidentally capture surveillance footage
of Americans, the data can be stored and analyzed by the Pentagon for up to 90
days.
The instruction, dated April 23, admits that the Air
Force cannot legally conduct “nonconsensual surveillance” on Americans, but
also states that should the drones ”incidentally” capture data while conducting
other missions, military intelligence has the right to study it to determine
whether the subjects are legitimate targets of domestic surveillance.
“Collected imagery may incidentally include US persons or
private property without consent,” the instruction states.
The Air Force can take advantage of “a period not to
exceed 90 days” to use the data to assess “whether that information may be
collected under the provisions of Procedure 2, DoD 5240.1-R and permanently
retained under the provisions of Procedure 3, DoD 5240.1-R.” it continues.
The Pentagon directives cited authorize limited domestic
spying in certain scenarios such as natural disasters, environmental cases, and
monitoring activity around military bases.
Should the drones capture data on Americans, the Air
Force says that it should determine whether they are, among other things, “persons
or organizations reasonably believed to be engaged or about to engage, in
international terrorist or international narcotics activities.”
The instruction also states that the Pentagon can
disseminate the data to other intelligence and government agencies, should it
see fit.
“Even though information may not be collectible, it may
be retained for the length of time necessary to transfer it to another DoD
entity or government agency to whose function it pertains.” the document reads.
The document was discovered by Steven Aftergood of the
Federation of American Scientists.
As we reported in February, Over 30 prominent watchdog
groups have banded together to petition the FAA on the proposed increase in the
use of drones in US airspace.
The groups, including The American Civil Liberties Union,
The Electronic Privacy Information Center and The Bill of Rights Defense
Committee, are demanding that the FAA hold a rulemaking session to consider the
privacy and safety threats.
Congress recently passed legislation paving the way for
what the FAA predicts will be somewhere in the region of 30,000 drones in
operation in US skies by 2020.
The ACLU noted that the FAA’s legislation “would push the
nation willy-nilly toward an era of aerial surveillance without any steps to
protect the traditional privacy that Americans have always enjoyed and
expected.”
In addition to privacy concerns, the groups warned that
the ability to link facial recognition technology to surveillance drones and
patch the information through to active government databases would “increase
the First Amendment risks for would be political dissidents.”
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Steve Watson is the London based writer and editor for
Alex Jones’ Infowars.net, and Prisonplanet.com. He has a Masters Degree in
International Relations from the School of Politics at The University of
Nottingham in England
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