FBI behind mysterious surveillance aircraft over US cities
FBI behind mysterious surveillance aircraft over US
cities
Jun 2, 3:27 AM (ET)
By JACK GILLUM, EILEEN SULLIVAN and ERIC TUCKER
WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI is operating a small air force
with scores of low-flying planes across the country carrying video and, at
times, cellphone surveillance technology — all hidden behind fictitious
companies that are fronts for the government, The Associated Press has learned.
The planes' surveillance equipment is generally used
without a judge's approval, and the FBI said the flights are used for specific,
ongoing investigations. In a recent 30-day period, the agency flew above more
than 30 cities in 11 states across the country, an AP review found.
Aerial surveillance represents a changing frontier for
law enforcement, providing what the government maintains is an important tool
in criminal, terrorism or intelligence probes. But the program raises questions
about whether there should be updated policies protecting civil liberties as
new technologies pose intrusive opportunities for government spying.
U.S. law enforcement officials confirmed for the first
time the wide-scale use of the aircraft, which the AP traced to at least 13
fake companies, such as FVX Research, KQM Aviation, NBR Aviation and PXW
Services. Even basic aspects of the program are withheld from the public in
censored versions of official reports from the Justice Department's inspector
general.
"The FBI's aviation program is not secret,"
spokesman Christopher Allen said in a statement. "Specific aircraft and
their capabilities are protected for operational security purposes." Allen
added that the FBI's planes "are not equipped, designed or used for bulk
collection activities or mass surveillance."
But the planes can capture video of unrelated criminal
activity on the ground that could be handed over for prosecutions.
Some of the aircraft can also be equipped with technology
that can identify thousands of people below through the cellphones they carry,
even if they're not making a call or in public. Officials said that practice,
which mimics cell towers and gets phones to reveal basic subscriber
information, is rare.
Details confirmed by the FBI track closely with published
reports since at least 2003 that a government surveillance program might be
behind suspicious-looking planes slowly circling neighborhoods. The AP traced
at least 50 aircraft back to the FBI, and identified more than 100 flights
since late April orbiting both major cities and rural areas.
One of the planes, photographed in flight last week by
the AP in northern Virginia, bristled with unusual antennas under its fuselage
and a camera on its left side. A federal budget document from 2010 mentioned at
least 115 planes, including 90 Cessna aircraft, in the FBI's surveillance
fleet.
The FBI also occasionally helps local police with aerial
support, such as during the recent disturbance in Baltimore that followed the
death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray, who sustained grievous injuries while in
police custody. Those types of requests are reviewed by senior FBI officials.
The surveillance flights comply with agency rules, an FBI
spokesman said. Those rules, which are heavily redacted in publicly available
documents, limit the types of equipment the agency can use, as well as the
justifications and duration of the surveillance.
Details about the flights come as the Justice Department
seeks to navigate privacy concerns arising from aerial surveillance by unmanned
aircrafts, or drones. President Barack Obama has said he welcomes a debate on
government surveillance, and has called for more transparency about spying in
the wake of disclosures about classified programs.
"These are not your grandparents' surveillance
aircraft," said Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst with the American
Civil Liberties Union, calling the flights significant "if the federal
government is maintaining a fleet of aircraft whose purpose is to circle over
American cities, especially with the technology we know can be attached to
those aircraft."
During the past few weeks, the AP tracked planes from the
FBI's fleet on more than 100 flights over at least 11 states plus the District
of Columbia, most with Cessna 182T Skylane aircraft. These included parts of
Houston, Phoenix, Seattle, Chicago, Boston, Minneapolis and Southern
California.
Evolving technology can record higher-quality video from
long distances, even at night, and can capture certain identifying information
from cellphones using a device known as a "cell-site simulator" — or
Stingray, to use one of the product's brand names. These can trick pinpointed
cellphones into revealing identification numbers of subscribers, including
those not suspected of a crime.
Officials say cellphone surveillance is rare, although
the AP found in recent weeks FBI flights orbiting large, enclosed buildings for
extended periods where aerial photography would be less effective than
electronic signals collection. Those included above Ronald Reagan Washington
National Airport and the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota.
After The Washington Post revealed flights by two planes
circling over Baltimore in early May, the AP began analyzing detailed flight
data and aircraft-ownership registrations that shared similar addresses and
flight patterns. That review found some FBI missions circled above at least
40,000 residents during a single flight over Anaheim, California, in late May,
according to Census data and records provided by the website FlightRadar24.com.
Most flight patterns occurred in counter-clockwise orbits
up to several miles wide and roughly one mile above the ground at slow speeds.
A 2003 newsletter from the company FLIR Systems Inc., which makes camera
technology such as seen on the planes, described flying slowly in left-handed
patterns.
"Aircraft surveillance has become an indispensable
intelligence collection and investigative technique which serves as a force
multiplier to the ground teams," the FBI said in 2009 when it asked
Congress for $5.1 million for the program.
Recently, independent journalists and websites have cited
companies traced to post office boxes in Virginia, including one shared with
the Justice Department. The AP analyzed similar data since early May, while
also drawing upon aircraft registration documents, business records and
interviews with U.S. officials to understand the scope of the operations.
The FBI asked the AP not to disclose the names of the
fake companies it uncovered, saying that would saddle taxpayers with the
expense of creating new cover companies to shield the government's involvement,
and could endanger the planes and integrity of the surveillance missions. The
AP declined the FBI's request because the companies' names — as well as common
addresses linked to the Justice Department — are listed on public documents and
in government databases.
At least 13 front companies that AP identified being
actively used by the FBI are registered to post office boxes in Bristow,
Virginia, which is near a regional airport used for private and charter
flights. Only one of them appears in state business records.
Included on most aircraft registrations is a mysterious
name, Robert Lindley. He is listed as chief executive and has at least three
distinct signatures among the companies. Two documents include a signature for
Robert Taylor, which is strikingly similar to one of Lindley's three
handwriting patterns.
The FBI would not say whether Lindley is a U.S.
government employee. The AP unsuccessfully tried to reach Lindley at phone
numbers registered to people of the same name in the Washington area since
Monday.
Law enforcement officials said Justice Department lawyers
approved the decision to create fictitious companies to protect the flights'
operational security and that the Federal Aviation Administration was aware of
the practice. One of the Lindley-headed companies shares a post office box
openly used by the Justice Department.
Such elusive practices have endured for decades. A 1990
report by the then-General Accounting Office noted that, in July 1988, the FBI
had moved its "headquarters-operated" aircraft into a company that
wasn't publicly linked to the bureau.
The FBI does not generally obtain warrants to record
video from its planes of people moving outside in the open, but it also said
that under a new policy it has recently begun obtaining court orders to use
cell-site simulators. The Obama administration had until recently been
directing local authorities through secret agreements not to reveal their own
use of the devices, even encouraging prosecutors to drop cases rather than
disclose the technology's use in open court.
A Justice Department memo last month also expressly
barred its component law enforcement agencies from using unmanned drones
"solely for the purpose of monitoring activities protected by the First
Amendment" and said they are to be used only in connection with authorized
investigations and activities. A department spokeswoman said the policy applied
only to unmanned aircraft systems rather than piloted airplanes.
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Associated Press writers Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City;
Joan Lowy and Ted Bridis in Washington; Randall Chase in Wilmington, Delaware;
and news researchers Monika Mathur in Washington and Rhonda Shafner in New York
contributed to this report.
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