Military Satellites Spying on Americans...??????

[RedEarth]

from War and Piece........

My God. This is turning into a twisted, 1984 version of the back story to the leak investigation on the now sadly defunct West Wing. Check out Russell Tice's letter (.pdf), and the very strong hint that the matter to be disclosed involves military satellites being used to spy on Americans. It's staggering if true. The specter of this whole architecture of futuristic warfare, being used to experimentally target the communications of the American citizenry, is profoundly disturbing. Truly, could Orwell have even imagined this? Even the West Wing never fully took on the most ominous elements of the current moment: that the war could be used to justify vast domestic surveillance.

And it's getting harder and harder to understand, given the fact that the government has apparently gone to some lengths to track every single AT&T, Verizon and Bell South customer's communications, how it has not managed to find Osama. He probably doesn't even use a phone, so he's seemingly a difficult target for the NSA. We Americans and our telephones and Internet, on the other hand, offer a target rich environment, it's hard not to see, given the devotion of what seems considerable US government resources to targeting our communications. Kind of like when there were no good targets in Afghanistan, the Defense Secretary expressed the thought that Iraq might have some better ones. I guess this is a long way of saying, They'e got a hammer, and they appear to be searching for the perfect nail. And it may be us, because the terrorists don't seem to be very suitable nails at all, or else conceivably we would not be seeing bin Laden and Zarqawi and Zawahiri on TV so recently.

pdf file at this link

http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/004190.html

[Webster Green]

1. I just went out in the front yard and flipped them the bird...

I feel better already.

[redqueen]

2. Here's the AP story:

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060513/D8HIRAK80.html

[bdamomma]

3. what's next survelliance cameras on every street in Amerika.

[walldude]

5. That's already here, or haven't you noticed those little cameras

on top of damn near every traffic light in every major city in America?

[paparush]

4. Jeezus Christ on a Crutch..

I mean, c'mon, i KNOW they're digging through my garbage. Are they going through my dirty laundry too? Are they gonna blackmail me via the websites I surf??

Where are the burning dumpsters, the blazing cars, the smashed glass? Why aren't taking to the streets to reclaim our country and our rights?

[WePurrsevere]

6. It wouldn't surprise me at all & if you think about it would anyone here

truly be all that surprised? Heck we don't even need the gov/military to go out of their way to "spy", numerous satellite pictures are taken on a fairly regular basis for a variety of reasons. For instance how many of us have enjoyed looking at our own home (etc) with "Google Earth" and such? Does anyone here truly believe that those are the closest and most detailed pictures that can be, and are, gotten with today's technology?

Here's one rather basic example I remember well from a few years ago. An anonymous satellite was used to get a search warrent on an American citizen: (bolding mine): Man says he killed thousands of dogs for $10. a piece
"State officials obtained a search warrant Tuesday to search the 18 acres owned by Robert Rhodes after receiving a tip from Florida investigators. Satellite images showed animal bones strewn about the property and investigators used the photographs to convince a judge to issue the warrant."

[redqueen]

7. K&R

:kick:

[sentelle]

8. Nothing surprises me anymore

Seriously.

It surprised me a bit when on the evening of 9-11 my wife (living in NYC at the time) showed me a black twin-rotored helicopter circling the neighborhood with searchlights on.

It surprised me a little when my office was asked by homeland security to provide information on one of our co-workers. You see, he's a bit of a libertarian.

At this point, should anything surprise any of us?

[The2ndWheel]

9. Absolutely shocking

Who could ever have seen the day when agencies such as the NSA and DARPA would do this? Who could have known? Giant secret agencies, with who knows how much money, with all the time in the world to sit there every damn day and think up new technologies that do exactly what they're doing today? Wow!!!! Unreal!!!!