While the alleged Chinese spy balloon, and the Biden administration’s abysmal handling of the situation, made headlines this week, a resurfaced 2019 report shows the Pentagon experimented with high-altitude balloons.
The Pentagon conducted “wide-area surveillance tests across six Midwest states using experimental high-altitude balloons,” The Guardian reported.
So, another tool to spy on American citizens?
To keep us safe?
The outlet cited documents filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
Social media users brought attention to the 2019 report.
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) February 5, 2023
Wonder if this is related at all?🤔 https://t.co/l1oz7rtEvQ h/t @369Cyrus
— LastAmericanVagabond (@TLAVagabond) February 5, 2023
What could possibly go wrong? I don’t see this ever being abused AT ALL. Just to keep us safe. If you’ve done nothing wrong what are you afraid of…(all sarcasm) https://t.co/fBc2qI6L5X
— Rich Zeoli 🇺🇸 (@Richzeoli) February 6, 2023
America has lost the Department of Defense.
There is not a single part of the federal government that is not corrupted by socialist fascism.https://t.co/fY1gTnWkjt
— 🇺🇸 Ely Brit! (@realelybritt) February 5, 2023
If it’s not Russias fault it’s Chinas!! Anybodies but our own. But truly it’s our own for believing them!! https://t.co/ylZbQhtjrY
— Couy Griffin (@CowboyCouy) February 3, 2023
From The Guardian:
Up to 25 unmanned solar-powered balloons are being launched from rural South Dakota and drifting 250 miles through an area spanning portions of Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Missouri, before concluding in central Illinois.
Travelling in the stratosphere at altitudes of up to 65,000ft, the balloons are intended to “provide a persistent surveillance system to locate and deter narcotic trafficking and homeland security threats”, according to a filing made on behalf of the Sierra Nevada Corporation, an aerospace and defence company.
The balloons are carrying hi-tech radars designed to simultaneously track many individual vehicles day or night, through any kind of weather. The tests, which have not previously been reported, received an FCC license to operate from mid-July until September, following similar flights licensed last year.
Arthur Holland Michel, the co-director of the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College in New York, said, “What this new technology proposes is to watch everything at once. Sometimes it’s referred to as ‘combat TiVo’ because when an event happens somewhere in the surveilled area, you can potentially rewind the tape to see exactly what occurred, and rewind even further to see who was involved and where they came from.”
The tests have been commissioned by the US Southern Command (Southcom), which is responsible for disaster response, intelligence operations and security cooperation in the Caribbean and Central and South America. Southcom is a joint effort by the US army, navy, air force and other forces, and one of its key roles is identifying and intercepting drug shipments headed for the United States.
Will this technology be used against “homeland security threats” or weaponized against law-abiding American citizens?
Will the Pentagon invade the privacy of Americans driving around the country in their own vehicles?
It’s easy to imagine this technology being utilized to strip away our inalienable rights.
Read the FCC documents HERE:
