Army Has Eye In DC Sky

By Sam Felder on September 29, 2004 3:14 PM | | Comments (1)

Walking back to my office from lunch I looked up in the sky and saw a dirigible meandering through the sky.

This white unlabeled blimp is, according the Washington Post, owned by the Army and contains "electro-optical and infrared cameras." The flights over DC, to take place throughout this week, are ostensibly to evaluate how effective the onboard cameras are at "detecting potentially threatening movements on the ground."

Because this equipment is already being used in Iraq and Afghanistan, I cannot help but be skeptical that the DC flights represent more than a test.

Anyone who has attended a protest or other action in the District remembers the number of helicopters buzzing overhead at all times. We will see how temporary this Army blimp is when we look into the sky at the next protest.

This development is disturbing because it represents the involvement of the military in domestic monitoring and security. It is one thing for these high-tech cameras to be turned on the residents of a combat zone to help deploy US troops. By training the same equipment on our nation's capitol, the military and the administration have taken a dangerous step against privacy and civil liberties.

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1 Comments

Reid said:

Well, the national guard, which is supposed to be doing all the domestic military work, certainly can't handle it - they're all in iraq. It is a rather disturbing occurence. In discussions with Bush-voting republicans I continually hear "I don't like bush much, but kerry scares me." in some form or another. However, it seems to me that Bush is far scarier for the incursions into civil liberties under his watch. The only solace I've found thus far is the statement that ashcroft wouldn't be AG in a Bush II presidency.

September 29, 2004 8:13 AM

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Sam Felder is a web designer and occasional writer in Los Angeles, CA.

Born in Washington, DC, Sam and his family moved to Peoria, IL, where he grew up and went to school. He returned to DC in 2003 and left for the west coast in late 2005.

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