This small plane is among a fleet
of surveillance aircraft by the FBI, which are primarily used to target
suspects under federal investigation. Picture: AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
Source: AP
THE Federal Bureau of Investigation is operating a small air force
with scores of low-flying planes across the US carrying video and, at
times, mobile phone 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 were 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.
US 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 mobile phones they carry, even if
they’re not making a call or in public. Officials said that practice,
which mimics mobile phone 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 neighbourhoods. 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 aircraft,
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. He called
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 mobile phones using a
device known as a “cell-site simulator” or Stingray, to use one of the
product’s brand names. These can trick pinpointed mobile phones into
revealing identification numbers of subscribers, including those not
suspected of a crime.
Officials say mobile phone 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 analysing 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.
The FBI planes are capable of taking
video of the ground, and some — in rare occasions — can sweep up mobile
phone data. Picture: AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
Source: AP
Most flight patterns occurred in counterclockwise orbits up to
several miles wide and roughly one mile above the ground at slow
speeds. A 2003 newsletter from the company FLIR Systems, 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 analysed similar data since early May, while also
drawing upon aircraft registration documents, business records and
interviews with US 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 US 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
authorised investigations and activities. A department spokeswoman said
the policy applied only to unmanned aircraft systems rather than piloted
aeroplanes.
news.com.au 2 June 2015
This aerial surveillance also happens in Australia to the same manner.
Before the days of Google Maps, and Ausimage, the Australian government would send out small aircraft with high resolution cameras to take surveillance photos on its people, on a periodic basis, where the relevant information would be distributed to the various departments.
It's been going on in Australia for decades, before satellite technology made it more financially cost effective.
To each and every government, first and foremost the people are the number one threat/enemy, once (or rather if they ever are) awakened.
