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Thank you...Rand Paul needs to stage another filibuster because the real threat from domestic drones isn’t a Hellfire down your chimney, but their ability to collect/transmit vast amounts of information.

I had some experience with military drones, both as a military intelligence officer and later, as a civilian contractor. At the peak of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Air Force was responsible for up to 36 UAV orbits a day. Collectively, the intel “haul” from those missions was measured in terabytes, uplinked to satellites and downlinked to DCGS nodes around the world.

Within a few years, there will be dozens of daily drone missions across the U.S., run by local, state and federal law enforcement. As sensor technology advances, you’ll be able to hang an even wider variety of sensors on those platforms, and they will be gathering vast amounts of information and transmitting it God-knows-where. And don’t think for a moment that police at all levels will share this data, and with even more sophisticated data mining, video tagging and facial recognition software, your every move will be tracked and cross-referenced to media habits, financial transactions and personal relationships.

The perfect tools for a police state. Yet no one, not even Rand Paul, is talking about the real threat from drones.

BTW, I can almost predict one tactic that will be used. Law enforcement will stage some sort of event to stimuate cell phone and internet activity in a selected area. Meanwhile, an advanced version of Stingray, mounted on a drone will be sucking up all the cell traffic in that neighborhood. It will be instantly downlinked to a police fusion center, and available across law enforcement and intelligence networks.

Just like when the Air Force used to run an SR-71 along the edge of Russian or Chinese airspace to stir up air defense traffic, while an RC-135 orbited off the coast, recording all types of ELINT and voice traffic.

"...the real threat from domestic drones isn’t a Hellfire down your chimney, but their ability to collect/transmit vast amounts of information...Within a few years, there will be dozens of daily drone missions across the U.S., run by local, state and federal law enforcement...The perfect tools for a police state. Yet no one, not even Rand Paul, is talking about the real threat from drones."

Thank you. Agreed. Most readers do miss more relevant considerations because of the way "news" is sponsored by favored constituents of politicians. Hysteria and panic propaganda. Drones, operators and other services for them cost big bucks. That's one thing missing from the discussion.

"BTW, I can almost predict one tactic that will be used. Law enforcement will stage some sort of event to stimuate cell phone and internet activity in a selected area."

Hysteria and panic propaganda. It's a type of distraction/diversion propaganda. It looks like waves of conspiracy tales, insults readers and viewers, and before we know it, the whole dumbed down bandwagon is rolling with it. Quite a diversion, yes? Take news about something true, and slap gobs of exaggerations and lies on it for further consumption and rejection.

It's easy to notice from my age and perspective. Our forefathers in leadership went out of their way during spooky times, to avoid panicking a population.

There's something else missing from the news, opinions and hysterics about drones. Where's are the information, services and products for maintaining privacy against such surveillance?

Privacy can be done. [See soldiers' training, studies in technologies including various transducers, radio, optics, pretty camouflage, etc.] America hasn't lost all of its pool of ingenuity, even though leaders in business, politics and academia have done quite a job for over three decades of trying to eradicate real American ingenuity (real as in collaborations between low-techs. designing home energy systems and many other useful projects). ;-)

But for now, it's obvious, that many in leadership are involved in many efforts to produce panic and hysteria...or that many in leadership are panicking and hysterical, themselves (hags, their SNAGs: sensitive New Age guys,...). Anyway, it's quite a freak show. I'll stock up on popcorn to watch more of it.

So much focus on fear of little folks, who can adjust to any kind of government, fix anything, build anything, etc. Meanwhile, big manufacturing on our own soil isn't happening much. What will so many big-shot crooks (who produce nothing of value) do, when they lose all that they have in the great repudiation of debt?

How will the social pathologies pushed by so many business, academic and political leaders survive the economy of a de-industrialized, de-developed country? Have fun. Enjoy the slide.