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Feb. 8, 2013
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Jewish World Review
May 17, 2012/ 25 Iyar, 5772
Drones Against Democracy
By
Arnold Ahlert
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
In one of the most disturbing developments of our technology-obsessed times, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has approved the expanded use of unmanned drones--over domestic airspace. The FAA Modernization and Reform Act, signed by President Obama on Feb. 14, enables the integration of drones into its National Airspace System by 2015. A government report published March 9th notes that the "FAA Administrator is required to establish a program to integrate unmanned aircraft systems into the national airspace system at six test ranges." How large is the rollout? A Freedom of Information Act filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation reveals that at least 60 entities including the military, universities, police departments and sheriff offices have received Certificates of Authorizations (COAs). Privacy rights? MIA.
The fallback position for advocates of using technology designed to carry surveillance equipment, including video cameras, infrared thermal imagers, radar, and wireless network detectors? They are a "force-multiplier" for local cops. A logical extension of that argument? A camera on every street corner. Cameras that are now powerful enough to zoom in and read one's text messages, a reality revealed at at a privacy conference in Wellington, New Zealand. It was further revealed that since 9/11 attacks the number of surveillance cameras in the U.S has increased by about 30 million, including a 400 percent increase in Manhattan between 1998 and 2005.
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And now the use of drones, courtesy of HR658. And lest anyone think the vote on this was close, think again. In a rare show of bipartisanship, the House approved the bill by a vote of 248 to 169 on February 3rd. The Senate approved it by a margin of 75-20 with 5 abstentions on February 6th. 38 Republicans, 36 Democrats and one Independent voted in favor of expanded drone use. The result?
The FAA estimates 30,000 drones could be in the nation's skies by 2020. And as usual, a big part of the reason behind the effort is money-related. Some estimates, conclude the commercial drone market in the United States could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Behind those dollars is the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVS), a private lobbying federation made up of drone companies. It doubled its Congressional lobbying expenses from 2010 to 2011, and set up a congressional pro-drone caucus headed by Reps. Buck McKeon (R-CA) and Henry Cuellar (D-TX).
Thus, it was unsurprising that Gretchen West, executive vice president of the AUVS, tried to downplay public concerns regarding drone use. "They're not going to be used for constant surveillance--typically they can stay in the air for about 30 minutes, so they're only going to be used for specific missions," she said. Fox News also made a rather dubious effort to do the same, noting that "(U)nlike some of the drones used overseas, these will not be equipped with missiles. They are to be used purely for surveillance." In other words, Americans should be comforted by the fact that citizens, while being subjected to high-altitude surveillance, cannot be dispatched from the sky absent some sort of due process.
Make that on American soil. Precedent for taking out American citizens from the sky abroad has already been established with the elimination of Anwar al-Awlaki, whose well-deserved killing was considered an act of war against a terrorist. Yet one is left to wonder who determines what constitutes an act of war or a "domestic terrorist" on American soil. An unmanned drone has already been used to facilitate the arrest of Rodney Brossart, who was involved in a 16-hour standoff with a SWAT team at his North Dakota farm. Brossart claimed six cattle that had wandered onto his property as his own. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) lent the SWAT a drone to monitor Brossart's activities and make sure it was safe to arrest him.
Furthermore, as most Americans are well aware, incremental additions to law have been an integral part of the ongoing diminution of freedom in our nation. Today's unarmed drone could be the armed drone of tomorrow should a "national emergency" be declared. Considering how easily the current administration has engaged in Constitutionally dubious adventures under the banner of "never letting a crisis go to waste, such concerns are entirely legitimate. In a blog entry at their website, the ACLU reveals that such incrementalism is already in play. "Drone manufacturers are also considering offering police the option of arming these remote-controlled aircraft with (nonlethal for now) weapons like rubber bullets, Tasers, and tear gas," it says.
Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) offered "legitimate uses" for drones followed by the obvious caveat. "It would be okay for a drone to be used in order to make sure that all the cattle on a ranch are identified on an ongoing basis, said Markey. "It's okay ... to survey a forest to make sure there are no forest fires. But it would not be okay if that individual who purchased the drone then decided 'I think I'll go and check and see what's going on over in my neighbor's backyard.' That would be wrong and that has to be protected against."
If that is the case, why were no specific protections written into the law itself?
Jay Stanley, Senior Policy Advisor for the ACLU is seemingly resigned to accepting the new policy. "Drones are coming," he explained at an April 26 press conference. "There are increasing demands by police departments to use them for surveillance. Drones are cheap. Currently there are 300 authorizations to use them. Current privacy laws are not enough in the face of this technology." Stanley then added something chilling. "The U.S. Supreme Court ruled you don't have Fourth Amendment rights to privacy from aerial surveillance," he said. "Drones will be an eye in the sky tracking our every move … police should not be able to use drones unless under specific conditions." Stanley is correct. In a 1989 case, Florida v. Riley, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that police officials do not need a warrant to observe an individual's property from public airspace.
Drones ought to be a different case however, and syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer explains why. "Drones are instruments of war. The Founders had a great aversion to any instruments of war, the use of the military inside even the United States. It didn't like standing armies, it has all kinds of statutes of using the army in the country...Yes, you can say we have satellites, we've got Google Street View and London has a camera on every street corner but that's not an excuse to cave in on everything else and accept a society where you're always under--being watched by the government. This is not what we want."
He also made a prediction. "I would say that you ban it under all circumstances and I would predict, I'm not encouraging, but I am predicting that the first guy who uses a Second Amendment weapon to bring a drone down that's been hovering over his house is going to be a folk hero in this country," he warned.
One can only hope, just as one can hope such an assault on freedom--for the convenience sake of a law enforcement force multiplier effect, no less--will transcend an electorate divided by ideological partisanship. It is long past time that a public infatuated with the advances in technology recognize the inherent danger of those advances. It is not hard to image a day where an unmanned drone replete with a database of personal information, coupled with face and voice recognition technology along with thermal imaging, can make anything resembling privacy, even one's home, an historical anachronism.
"I'm going to go hard left on you here, I'm going ACLU," said Krauthammer. Every American dedicated to the Constitution should join him.
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Previously:
05/17/12: Pay Up --- Or Else
05/07/12: A Tale of Two Women
05/01/12: 2012: The Economic Paradox No One Wants to Talk About
04/23/12:2012: A Referendum on Our National Character
04/13/12: Feel This
04/11/12: Teaching Dependency
04/04/12: Network News Shapers
04/02/12: Stabbing Israel in the Back Is More Like It
03/19/12: Gas Pains and Debt Bombs
03/12/12: Israel Under the Bus
03/05/12: Baby Steps Down the Road to Depravity
02/27/12: Debasing Our Military, One Politically Correct Moment After Another
02/20/12: The 'New Normal' of Rampant Illegitimacy
02/13/12: Sandwiches or Freedom?
02/10/12: Progressive Obsolescence
02/06/12: Safeguarding Kids No Match for Following Procedure
01/29/11: 2016: R.I.P. GOP
01/26/11: Obama's Happy Talk Versus Bernanke's Action
01/23/11: South Carolina Goes for the Media-Masher
01/17/11: Nuking the Strait of Hormuz?
01/09/11: Coercion and Incentive Are Not Interchangeable Terms
01/06/11: Will We Retire Obama --- or the Constitution?
01/03/11: Dumb -- or ‘Disabled?’
12/27/11: Islamists ‘Celebrate’ Christmas
12/19/11: A Deficiency of Decency
12/16/11: Better a A War On Whiners Than Christmas
12/12/11: Anybody But Obama
12/07/11: Connecting the Feckless Foreign Policy Dots
12/05/11: Can We Keep Our Republic?
11/28/11: Cyber Crack-heads
11/21/11: Water Water Everywhere, But Not a Drop to Think
11/18/11: Walking along Avenue J(ew)
11/09/11: Military Scandal, Media Blackout
11/09/11: Open-Mics and Closed Minds
11/07/11: Back in the EU--SSR
10/31/11: Camping Out in La-La Land
10/14/11: Bagman Tim
10/13/11: Are Colleges Too Big to Fail?
10/11/11: Why aren't they upset when their child is mugged in school?
10/07/11: I Stand With the ‘One Percenters’
10/03/11: Can We Legalize Assassination?
09/29/11: Tim, Liz and Bev Equals Moe Larry and Curly
09/26/11: No Acknowledgment of Israel? No More Money
09/19/11: ‘Jobbing’ America
09/16/11: Carville knows a few things about ‘crazy’
09/12/11: Contemptible Krugman
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09/06/11: Our Progressive Economic Wrecking Crew
09/01/11: Summer Swoon
08/29/11: The Real American Fanatics
08/24/11:The Five Stages of (Progressive) Grief
08/22/11:The Inevitable Descent From Progressivism to Nihilism
08/22/11: Perry Stands Firm. Obama Stands Mute
08/15/11: Give Me a Flatscreen TV, or Give Me Anarchy!
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04/08/10: (Tea) Party On
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03/22/10: I Want My Country Back
03/18/10: A Perpetual Process
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03/15/10: A Light Bulb Moment of Clarity
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09/08/09: ‘Truthers’ and Consequences
09/01/09: A ‘Paper Trail’ Challenge for the Mainstream Media
08/31/09: Drowning in Amorality
08/26/09: The Republican Recovery Program
© 2011, Arnold Ahlert
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