Unmanned Drones: It turns out we can spy too!

“Mechanical Hound never fails. Never since its first use in tracking quarry has this incredible invention made a mistake. Tonight, this network is proud to have the opportunity to follow the Hound by camera helicopter as it starts on its way to the target…” Ray Bradbury, Farenheit 451

In March of 2010, CNN reported that U.S. border control agents had begun using predator drones to silently patrol U.S. borders for illegals. At the time, I remember thinking that it wouldn’t be long before unmanned drones would be widely deployed to spy on U.S. citizens.  I even remember engaging in some rather unpleasant email discussions with friends who thought my concerns were absurd and that my tinfoil hat needed adjusting.

My concerns specifically centered around the potential for violation of the Posse Comitatus Act which forbids the U.S. military from engaging in police actions on U.S. soil. In 2010, Congresswoman Jane Harman admirably fought just such efforts by battling Homeland Security officials who wanted to use satellite imagery to help fight domestic terrorism in their never-ending security theater charade.

Well, here we are almost two years later and, lo and behold, two Predator drones on loan from U.S. Customs and Border Protection were used by local police this past June in North Dakota in a surveillance exercise that led to the arrest of 2 U.S. citizens accused of stealing cows.

The accused are allegedly part of the sovereign movement and reportedly chased off a Nelson County Sheriff brandishing a warrant as he looked for the six missing cows on the Brossart family’s 3000 acre farm back in June of this year. The accused may be guilty as sin. If they are, they should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. But set that aside for purposes of this discussion.

What anyone who cares one scintilla about the erosion of their civil liberties should be freaked about is this: The previously unreported use of drones from the U.S. Customs Service to assist local and state authorities occurred without our knowledge until the Sacramento Bee reported the story yesterday.  That’s right… Incredibly, no public acknowledgment or debate occurred whatsoever.

If you thought that the mandate of the U.S. Customs Service was customs and border protection, NOT helping round up local cattle rustlers in rural North Dakota, you’d be wrong. According to the Sac Bee, Congress gave Customs officials broad authority back in 2005 to work with local police, citing “interior law enforcement” as part of their mission. Wow!

And it’s not just Customs… Local police in Grand Forks have been using unarmed Predators at Grand Forks Air Force Base (yes, U.S. military drones on a U.S. military base) since June to fly dozens of surveillance flights to spy on U.S. citizens. How anyone could justify this as other than a blatant violation of the Posse Comitatus Act is a real head scratcher. The FBI and DEA have gotten in on the drone spying game as well, using the technology for domestic investigations.

So, here’s what comes next. Mark the date and time because you read it here first: Sometime in the next few years, we’ll see unmanned drones equipped with non-lethal weaponry for use on U.S. citizens in crowd control situations.  Think tear gas, rubber bullets or shock grenades installed on drones to disperse “unruly” protestors. That day is coming folks. Count on it.

The other side of the coin? It turns out that for every government tit there’s a civil liberties-loving citizen tat and that two can play at the drone game. Check out this incredible video of a homemade drone launched by a protestor at an Occupy Warsaw protest. As the prevalence of unmanned government drones spying on citizens increases, those fighting to preserve their civil liberties will respond in kind. Call it the war of the drones.

Unfortunately, this probably doesn’t end well.