Don’t be alarmed!

1.) The following is from:  [ http://www.ksdk.com/news/article/324989/3/US-Army-training-in-St-Louis ]  June 21, 2012:

U.S. Army training in St. Louis

10:35 PM, Jun 21, 2012

WATCH KSDK VIDEO REPORT HERE:  [ http://www.ksdk.com/video/default.aspx?bctid=1701255554001  ]

Written by

Kristen Gosling

Video:  Don’t be alarmed; U.S. Army training in North City

 

St. Louis (KSDK) — St. Louis City residents should not be alarmed if they see military vehicles in their neighborhoods.

The U.S. Army is conducting training in St. Louis June 21-28.

Police said residents in the police department’s sixth district may be most likely to see the vehicles.  The sixth district includes neighborhoods in north St. Louis.

The vehicles will be like the one in the above photo.

KSDK

2.) The following is from: [ http://www.alt-market.com/articles/866-military-tanks-on-st-louis-streetsbut-why ]  June 23, 2012:

Military Rolls Tanks Onto St. Louis Streets…But Why?

Saturday, 23 June 2012 03:05 Brandon Smith

 

I have to say that this event, which is being labeled a “training exercise”, makes very little sense to me.  U.S. Army troops all the way from Maryland running open exercises in armored personnel carriers on the busy streets of St. Louis?  I know Maryland is a small state, but is there really not enough room at Ft. Detrick to accommodate a tank column and some troops?  Are there not entire fake neighborhood and town complexes built with taxpayer dollars on military bases across the country meant to facilitate a realistic urban environment for troops to train in?  And why travel hundreds of miles to Missouri?  At the very least, this is a massive waste of funds.

On the other hand, such an action on the part of the Department of Defense makes perfect sense if the goal is to acclimate citizens to the idea of seeing tanks and armed military acting in a policing capacity.  Just check out the two random idiots the local news affiliate picked to interview in St. Louis on the subject.  Both state that they think the exercise is a “great idea”, because having the military on the streets would help to “reduce crime”:

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/06/us-military-to-run-urban-exercises-in-north-st-louis-residents-hope-it-will-cut-down-on-crime/

I suspect that the news affiliate did not go out of its way to get any counter-opinions, even though they admitted to being contacted by those voicing concerns over martial law.

Even so, it’s sad and simultaneously terrifying that there are plenty of mindless dupes out there who do not understand the dangers of the Army crossing the Rubicon and acting in a civil law enforcement capacity, never mind that they are completely ignorant of the fact that it violates the Posse Comitatus Act.  One of the interviewees even points out that in some countries they don’t use police at all; only military.  This is true.  We call those countries “tyrannies”…

Add to the mix the reality that the DOD refuses to respond to any further inquiries by the press concerning details of the training, and you get yet another suspicious instance of behavior on the part of the establishment that seems preparatory for domestic action.  I believe that the high frequency at which these activity reports have been coming in over the past year is certainly cause for alarm…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NlLRx-uSXtA

3.) The following is from:  [ http://www.myfoxchicago.com/story/17510860/blackhawks-circle-low-through-chicago-skies-as-secret-service-releases-security-details-20120417 ]  July 10, 2012:

Blackhawks circle low through Chicago skies as Secret Service releases security details

Posted: Apr 17, 2012 8:53 AM MDT Updated: Apr 17, 2012 8:57 AM MDT

Updated: Tuesday, July 10 2012 1:42 PM EDT2012-07-10 17:42:45 GMTJul 10, 2012 11:42 AM MDT

CHICAGO (FOX Chicago News) -Blackhawks and A/MH-6 Little Bird helicopters used by special forces circling low through downtown Chicago skies made for a scary scene along the Chicago River, as they rattled windows flying among the city’s skyscrapers.

The training exercise comes as the city found out some of the details of what the Secret Service wants for security at next month’s summit at McCormick Place.

FOX Chicago News has their terror prevention shopping list, courtesy of the Chicago Sun-Times:

• Portable high security barriers
• Crowd control barriers
• 10-12 portable light towers
• Sandbags, port-a-potties
• Mobile offices
• 5-10 golf carts

The Chicago Tribune reports that the most traffic for NATO dignitaries will be between McCormick place and downtown hotels in the Loop, River North and the Gold Coast.

Fifty heads of state will attend, with delegates, and will be moving multiple times each day.

FOX Chicago News viewers called in, describing men with automatic weapons, hanging out of helicopters. 

The city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications on Monday announced that Chicago is the site of a military training exercise this week involving personnel and at least three helicopters. 

But the bland press release from City Hall did nothing to prepare folks for the jarring scene that unfolded Monday evening.

“It was frightening,” Jessica Hill said. “I was definitely alarmed.”

At least three Blackhawk helicopters flying at time in close order formation – at other times separating fairly widely – zoomed around office and residential towers for several hours.

“I was pretty amazed,” Felise Llano said, “because they were definitely military.”

Witnesses described three to four very heavily armed men in each chopper.  Several said some of the men appeared to be tethered and were at times literally hanging out of the choppers, and looked ready to jump.

Calling it routine training, city officials said in a statement such exercises are conducted by military personnel in various cities around the country.  They say the exercises are designed to improve the military’s ability to operate in urban environments.

Emergency management officials said the training sites have been selected to minimize the impact on residents’ daily routines.

The timing of the drills led some to wonder if they’re in preparation for next month’s NATO summit.

But officials said that the summit and the drills are unrelated.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

[ ***Please see my separate heading on “Creepy Technology” for explorations of this line of thought. ]

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DRONE! In 3D surround sound (and odorama?)

From:  TheBlaze.com:

Expanding Drone Legislation ‘Raising an Alarm With the American Public’

• Posted on June 19, 2012 at 11:12pm by Liz Klimas
• http://www.theblaze.com/stories/expanding-drone-legislation-raising-an-alarm-with-the-american-public/

(Image: Wikimedia)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Thousands of drones patrolling U.S. skies?

Predictions that multitudes of unmanned aircraft could be flying here within a decade are raising the specter of a “surveillance society” in which no home or backyard would be off limits to prying eyes overhead.  Law enforcement, oil companies, farmers, real estate agents and many others have seen the technology that was pioneered on battlefields, and they are eager to put it to use.

It’s not just talk:  The government is in the early stages of devising rules for the unmanned aircraft.

So far, civilian use of drones is fairly limited.  The Federal Aviation Administration had issued fewer than 300 permits for drones by the end of last year.

(Related: Where are the 63 drone sites approved by the FAA in the U.S.)

Public worries about drones began mostly on the political margins, but there are signs that they’re going mainstream.

Jeff Landry, a freshman Republican congressman from Louisiana’s coastal bayou country, says constituents have stopped him while shopping at Walmart to talk about their concerns.

“There is a distrust amongst the people who have come and discussed this issue with me about our government,” Landry said.  “It’s raising an alarm with the American public.”

Fear that some drones may be armed, for example, has been fueled in part by a county sheriff’s office in Texas that used a homeland security grant to buy a $300,000, 50-pound ShadowHawk helicopter drone for its SWAT team.  The drone can be equipped with a 40mm grenade launcher and a 12-gauge shotgun.

Randy McDaniel, chief deputy with the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, told The Associated Press earlier this year his office had no plans to arm the drone, but he left open the possibility the agency might decide to adapt the drone to fire tear gas canisters and rubber bullets.

Earlier this year Congress, under pressure from the Defense Department and drone manufacturers, ordered the FAA to give drones greater access to civilian airspace by 2015.  Besides the military, the mandate applies to drones operated by private companies or individuals and civilian government agencies, including federal, state and local law enforcement.

Below is a timeline created by the Electronic Frontier Foundation of drone integration in the United States. See the larger image here.

(Image: EFF.org)

The military, which is bringing home unmanned aircraft from Afghanistan, wants room to test and use them.

But the potential civilian market for drones may far eclipse military demand.  Power companies want them to monitor transmission lines.  Farmers want to fly them over fields to detect which crops need water.  Ranchers want them to count cows. Journalists are exploring drones’ newsgathering potential.  Police departments want them to chase crooks, conduct search and rescue missions and catch speeders.

(Related: See other articles on the Blaze covering drone use by civilians and local law enforcement)

But concern is spreading.  Another GOP freshman, Rep. Austin Scott, said he first learned of the issue when someone shouted out a question about drones at a Republican Party meeting in his Georgia district two months ago.

When Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, a Republican, suggested during an interview on Washington radio station WTOP last month that drones be used by police since they’ve done such a good job on foreign battlefields, the political backlash was swift.  NetRightDaily complained:  “This seems like something a fascist would do. … McDonnell isn’t pro-Big Government, he is pro-HUGE Government.”

(Related: Drones over D.C.? Metro police chiefs grilled on UAVs, illegal immigrants, cops on cellphones — see how they respond)

John Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute of Charlottesville, Va., which provides legal assistance in support of civil liberties and conservative causes, warned the governor, “America is not a battlefield, and the citizens of this nation are not insurgents in need of vanquishing.”

Drone operators (Photo: Wikimedia)

There’s concern as well among liberal civil liberties advocates that government and private-sector drones will be used to gather information on Americans without their knowledge.  Giving drones greater access to U.S. skies moves the nation closer to “a surveillance society in which our every move is monitored, tracked, recorded and scrutinized by the authorities,” the American Civil Liberties Union declared in a report last December.

An ACLU lobbyist, Chris Calabrese, said that when he speaks to audiences about privacy issues, drones are what “everybody just perks up over.”

“People are interested in the technology, they are interested in the implications and they worry about being under surveillance from the skies,” he said.

The anxiety has spilled into Congress, where lawmakers from both parties have been meeting to discuss legislation that would broadly address the civil-liberty issues.  A Landry provision in a defense spending bill would prohibit information gathered by military drones without a warrant from being used as evidence in court.  A provision that Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., added to another bill would prohibit the Homeland Security Department from arming its drones, including ones used to patrol the border.

Scott and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., have introduced identical bills to prohibit any government agency from using a drone to “gather evidence or other information pertaining to criminal conduct or conduct in violation of a regulation” without a warrant.

“I just don’t like the concept of drones flying over barbecues in New York to see whether you have a Big Gulp in your backyard or whether you are separating out your recyclables according to the city mandates,” Paul said in an interview, referring to a New York City ban on supersized soft drinks.

(Related: Cola Wars: Full-page ads in the New York Times challenge and mock Bloomberg’s sugary drink ban)

He acknowledged that was an “extreme example,” but he added:  “They might just say we’d be safer from muggings if we had constant surveillance crisscrossing the street all the time.  But then the question becomes, `What about jaywalking?  What about eating too many donuts?  What about putting mayonnaise on your hamburger?’  Where does it stop?”

Calabrese, the ACLU lobbyist, called Paul’s office as soon as he heard about the bill.

“I told them we think they are starting from the right place,” Calabrese said.  “You should need some kind of basis before you use a drone to spy on someone.”

In a Congress noted for its political polarization, legislation to check drone use has the potential to forge “a left-right consensus,” he said.  “It bothers us for a lot of the same reasons it bothers conservatives.”

The backlash has drone makers concerned.  The drone market is expected to nearly double over the next 10 years, from current worldwide expenditures of nearly $6 billion annually to more than $11 billion, with police departments accounting for a significant part of that growth.

“We go into this with every expectation that the laws governing public safety and personal privacy will not be administered any differently for (drones) than they are for any other law enforcement tool,” said Dan Elwell, vice president of the Aerospace Industries Association.

Discussion of the issue has been colored by exaggerated drone tales spread largely by conservative media and bloggers.

Scott said he was prompted to introduce his bill in part by news reports that the Environmental Protection Agency has been using drones to spy on cattle ranchers in Nebraska.  The agency has indeed been searching for illegal dumping of waste into streams, but it is doing it with piloted planes.

In another case, a forecast of 30,000 drones in U.S. skies by 2020 has been widely attributed to the FAA.  But FAA spokeswoman Brie Sachse said the agency has no idea where the figure came from.  It may be a mangled version of an aerospace industry forecast that there could be nearly 30,000 drones worldwide by 2018, with the United States accounting for half of them.

Reps. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Joe Barton, R-Texas, co-chairs of a congressional privacy caucus, asked the FAA in April how it plans to protect privacy as it develops regulations for integrating drones into airspace now exclusively used by aircraft with human pilots.  There’s been no response so far, but Acting FAA Administrator Michael Huerta will probably be asked about it when he testifies at a Senate hearing Thursday.