Not only is the FBI operating it’s own little air force of surveillance planes, the agency created at least thirteen fictitious companies to conceal the fleet’s purpose from the public.
The Associated Press broke the story yesterday:
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.
The FBI 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.
In a statement, spokesman Christopher Allen said, ‘The FBI’s aviation program is not secret. Specific aircraft and their capabilities are protected for operational security purposes.’ He 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. And some of the planes can 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 into giving up basic subscriber information, is rare.
This post was published at The Daily Sheeple on June 2nd, 2015.
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