Department of Defense Caught Lying About Use Of Domestic Spy Drones

Offices of two US Senators contradict statements of Special Operations Command

Steve Watson
Prisonplanet.com
June 29, 2012

The U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), part of the Department of Defense, has denied operating surveillance drones in two different states, issuing statements that have been proven to be completely false.

Headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, USSOCOM is the Unified Combatant Command charged with overseeing the various Special Operations Commands of the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps.

As reported by the open information advocacy group Public Intelligence:

Following our publication last week of a map of current and proposed Department of Defense drone activities within the U.S., several journalists with local publications around the country wrote articles regarding drone activities that were listed in their area.  David Brooks of the Nashua Telegraph wrote about the listing of New Hampshire’s Mt. Washington as the site of a USSOCOM drone activity involving small unmanned aerial vehicles including the Raven and Wasp.  Corey Pein of the Willamette Week wrote about a planned USSOCOM drone activity in Portland that was listed as utilizing the same types of drones.

The drone activity map was constructed using public U.S. Air Force presentations from 2010 and 2011 (image below). Portland, Oregon was listed as as a proposed drone site controlled by USSOCOM.

Public Intelligence notes that when the reporters contacted USSOCOM for clarification and further details, they were told that the information on the map was inaccurate and that USSOCOM does not operate drone bases in either area.

However, further investigation revealed that activities and exercises using surveillance drones in both areas were indeed carried out under the authority of USSOCOM in 2010 and 2009 respectively.

Furthermore, the use and storage of drones was confirmed by the offices of Senators in both states:

In New Hampshire, a local newspaper has now confirmed with the office of Senator Kelly Ayotte that in 2010, Navy Special Operations Forces utilized areas around Mt. Washington to conduct training operations using Wasp and Raven drones.  David Brooks of the Nashua Telegraph was further able to confirm via Army Lt. Col. James Gregory that similar exercises were also conducted in 2009 using the same types of drones.

In Oregon, the Willamette Week was able to confirm with the office of Sen. Ron Wyden that drones are currently stored in Portland for several military units in the area.

“If the military wishes to counter controversy from the increasing integration of drones into domestic airspace, then it may help to not make statements to press that are inaccurate or disproved by publicly available congressional reports.” the group notes, adding that USSOCOM “denied or misrepresented” its involvement in domestic drone activities and actively sought to shut down any exchange of information on the matter.

A recently uncovered Air Force document raised alarms over military use of spy drones in US skies. The document outlines how to circumvents privacy laws and clears the way for the Pentagon to use drones to monitor the activities of Americans.

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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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Unmanned drones pose Olympic risk

Matthew Finnegan
Tech Eye
June 25, 2012

London residents may be concerned about the military sticking missiles on top of their roofs over the Olympics, but that might not be only danger from the skies at the Games.

According to Professor Robert Dewar, former Emeritus Professor at New York University  and founder of software firm AdaCore, rumoured plans to use unmanned aerial drones to monitor crowds at the events could have catastrophic consequences.

He believes that there are concerns that unmanned aircraft could malfunction if the software code used in operating them is not up to a sufficiently high standard.

“We do have to worry about them falling down on somebody’s head,” he said, speaking with TechEye.  “The repercussions from an accident of that kind at the Olympics would be huge, it would set back the cause for using drones for surveillance indefinitely, I would expect.”

“The consequences of misjudging it are very significant,” Dewar said. “If someone was to be injured due to a drone crashing, it would really be a major issue, and the Olympics would be remembered for that incident.”

While there has been no official confirmation that drones will be used by the police to monitor crowds during the games, there has been speculation in the press, and Dewar is concerned that without proper planning the drones could present a risk.

Full article here

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New Research: Drones Can Easily Be Hijacked

Steve Watson
Infowars.com
June 25, 2012

As exponentially more government and law enforcement drones take to the skies over America, new research has highlighted the fact that the unmanned vehicles are extremely vulnerable and can be relatively easily hijacked and controlled.

Professor Todd Humphreys and his team at the University of Texas at Austin’s Radionavigation Laboratory are warning that the drones could be “spoofed” and taken over by anyone with the right readily available equipment.

Fox News reports that Humphreys built an advanced spoofer at a cost of just $1000, and has successfully infiltrated the GPS systems of several drones. All he has to do is send a more powerful signal to the drone than it is receiving from an orbiting satellite and he can make the vehicle do anything he commands.

“In 5 or 10 years you have 30,000 drones in the airspace,” Humphreys told Fox News. “Each one of these could be a potential missile used against us.”

What’s more, both the Department of Homeland Security and the FAA are aware of the issue, but are doing little to alleviate the problem.

Last week, Humphreys demonstrated to officials from both agencies how he could repeatedly take control of a drone and fly it where ever he liked.

The majority of drones that are being deployed in US airspace now function using unencrypted civilian GPS, leaving them wide open to attack.

“I’m worried about them crashing into other planes,” Humphreys told Fox News. “I’m worried about them crashing into buildings. We could get collisions in the air and there could be loss of life, so we want to prevent this and get out in front of the problem.”

“What if you could take down one of these drones delivering FedEx packages and use that as your missile? That’s the same mentality the 9-11 attackers had,” Humphreys said.

Last month it was reported that a mystery object, believed to be a surveillance drone almost did cause a mid air collision with with a commercial jet.

The federal government is in the process of rolling out new rules on the use of the unmanned drones, with the Federal Aviation Administration announcing procedures will “streamline” the process through which government agencies, including local law enforcement, receive licenses to operate the aircraft.

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.

Critics have warned that the FAA has not acted to establish any safeguards whatsoever, and that congress is not holding the agency to account.

In addition, A recently uncovered Air Force document circumvents laws and clear the way for the Pentagon to use drones to monitor the activities of Americans.

Professor Humphreys’ research indicates that, in addition to the threat to privacy, the aircraft will also make the skies less safe.

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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.

Tags: Domestic Spying, drones

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Yes, The EPA Is Using Spy Drones To Monitor Farms

Federal agency developed UAVs years ago to keep tabs on land use

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
Friday, June 22, 2012

Following a mainstream media backlash that claimed to “debunk” fears that the EPA was using spy drones to monitor pollution and land use, a method of surveillance that threatened to ensnare farmers and ranchers, it actually turns out that the federal agency is doing precisely that.

Following confusion over a claim that the EPA was using unmanned drones to spy on cattle ranchers in Nebraska and Iowa, when in fact the federal agency was taking pictures from manned aircraft, the establishment media went on the offensive, characterizing fears that the federal agency was using the excuse of environmental regulations to keep tabs on farmers as paranoid delusions.

The Washington Post led the charge, debunking the “menacing tale of government gone too far,” quickly followed by the L.A. Times and innumerable other news outlets who seized upon the error to portray opponents of drone surveillance as reactionary lunatics.

Leftist blogs like Mediaite and scores of others placed the blame squarely on the Drudge Report and Infowars, noting how, “The story originally appeared on several blogs, picking up traction after the Drudge Report linked to an InfoWars article on the story,” before it appeared on Fox News.

The very real and alarming fact that the EPA is sending its agents up in manned aircraft to spy on farmers over their disposal of waste water was hastily brushed aside in favor of pursuing the witch hunt against those who mistakenly claimed the spying missions involved UAVs.

“It was never true. The EPA isn’t using drone aircraft — in the Midwest or anywhere else,” reported the Post’s David A. Fahrenthold with a triumphant sneer.

You probably won’t be too surprised to learn that the Post – along with dozens of blogs who parroted Fahrenthold’s article – got it completely wrong.

A search of the EPA’s own website proves that the federal agency has been developing spy drones (unmanned aerial vehicles) for the purpose of monitoring pollution and land use for years.

An EPA project entitled Landscape Characterization and Change Detection Methods Development Research, which was scheduled for completion in 2009, describes how the EPA would use “UAV and satellite based remote sensor data to provide a continuous environmental monitoring capability.”

The report describes how the EPA used technologies developed by the Department of Defense and NASA “to develop terrestrial, coastal ocean, and surface-troposphere flux unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) missions” in order to “support environmental decision making” and measure “biogenic emissions” (emissions produced by living organisms or biological processes).

In other words, the EPA has since at least 2009 developed the capability to use unmanned drones to monitor man-made pollution and spy on farms and ranches for the purpose of land management.

In addition, a separate 2005 EPA report details how the agency planned to use “Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), in a multi-stage approach to meet EPA information needs.”

Not only has the EPA developed its own spy drones for the task of monitoring the environment, it has also given grants to other organizations for the same purpose.

A 2008 progress report found on the EPA website describes a a four-year grant to Syracuse University. One “major outcome” of the project is listed as the, “Successful development and testing of an unmanned aerial vehicle for urban airshed monitoring to measure pollutant levels above buildings.”

So yes, despite what you read in the Washington Post and the rest of the establishment media echo chamber, the EPA is using drones to spy on land use and monitor pollution.

The EPA is using unmanned aerial vehicles to conduct surveillance of ranches and farms and has been doing so for years.

Given the EPA’s close relationship with NASA in working with the space agency to create satellites to monitor land use, the future seems geared not around spy drones but spy satellites like the ones already under development in Europe that will measure man-made carbon emissions from space in order to “hunt down” violators of international climate agreements, allowing Big Brother to enforce a future tax on CO2 emissions.

And when such a program is ready to be launched, expect the establishment media to pull the same trick of obfuscating the truth by claiming none of it is happening.

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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show and Infowars Nightly News.

Tags: Domestic Spying, drones, Environment

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