• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Coyote Chronicle CSUSB

The Independent Student Voice of CSUSB Since 1965

  • News
  • Community
  • Politics
  • Opinions
  • A & E
  • Features
  • Sports
  • Expressions
  • Multimedia

FBI spies on Americans

June 7, 2015 by Archived posts Leave a Comment

Plane-FBI-LogoBy Randall Higgins |Staff Writer|

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is behind fictitious companies who hire small, civilian planes and pilots to fly advanced spy technology over American cities.

The Associated Press (AP) traced at least 50 aircraft to the FBI and identified more than 100 flights in 11 states over a 30-day period since late April flying over both major cities and rural areas.

“It’s important that federal law enforcement personnel have the tools they need to find and catch criminals,” said Charles Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“But whenever an operation may also monitor the activities of Americans who are not the intended target, we must make darn sure that safeguards are in place to protect the civil liberties of innocent Americans,” according to AP.

For years the FBI  has used the planes to provide support to FBI operations on the ground.

Today however, aircraft are equipped with high-tech cameras and are outfitted with technology capable of tracking thousands of cellphones, raising questions about how these surveillance flights affect Americans’ privacy.

“The FBI’s aviation program is not secret,” said spokesman Christopher Allen. “Specific aircraft and their capabilities are protected for operational security purposes.”

The false front companies are there for protection of the pilots and for the anonymity of the planes so they can’t be identified by the suspects being followed, according to Allen.

The FBI are not the only ones that do this. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has 92 of its own planes and the U.S. Marshalls have their own fleet, according to a Justice Department report and a report by The Wall Street Journal.

 

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: News

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Footer

Newsletter

Search the website

About Us

Location : University Hall, Room UH-018
+1-(909) 537 - 5815

Pages

  • About
  • Advertising
  • Alumni
  • Archives
  • Contact
  • Multimedia
  • Newsletter Signup
  • Submissions

Meta

Login

Copyright © 2021 · News Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in