Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Drones Used For Surveillance On U.S. Soil, FBI Director Admits

By Susan Duclos


Asked about the use of drones on U.S. soil at a Senate hearing, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), Robert Mueller, admitted that while no specific guidelines had been established yet on drone usage, they have been used on U.S. soil for surveillance.

RT:

Robert Mueller, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, confirmed to lawmakers that the FBI owns several unmanned aerial vehicles, but has not adopted any strict policies or guidelines yet to govern the use of the controversial aircraft.

“Does the FBI use drones for surveillance on US soil?” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) asked Mr Mueller during an oversight hearing on Capitol Hill Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“Yes,” Mueller responded bluntly, adding that the FBI’s operation of drones is “very seldom.”

The Atlantic Wire, via Yahoo News, points out the hypocrisy of liberal California Senator Dianne Feinstein:

Mueller's answer came following questioning from California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who said drones were the "biggest threat to privacy" in America today. This is funny, because Feinstein had just given a rousing defense of the National Security Agency's program to collect the metadata on all phone calls made by all Americans. Feinstein is the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and since Edward Snowden leaked the NSA programs, has dismissed concerns that the government is spying on Americans. At Wednesday's hearing, Feinstein said the NSA collects "not the names, but the data. Not the content, but the data." A drone wouldn't collect the content of your conversation, either. It would only show exactly where you are and when. Which is what your phone call metadata says, too. Nevertheless, Dianne Feinstein is anti-NSA paranoia but pro-drone paranoia.

Feinstein's NSA argument was debunked when two former NSA officials exposed how misleading the claim that  "NSA collects "not the names, but the data," really is.

Quick recap here:

• The DOJ has attacked the free media with warrants on reporters' personal and business phones, the AP and Fox News, as well as a Fox reporter's personal email.

• The NSA has been collecting data from at least nine major tech companies with their Prism program, obtain by secret FISA court orders as well as every single Verizon customers phone data, on an ongoing daily basis.

• Now the FBI is using drones for spying on U.S. soil.

Big Brother truly is watching us all.