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Several high-priority and high-priced satellites crucial to U.S. national security are slated to launch over the next 15 to 18 months, according to Bruce Carlson, director of the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). During a keynote address here at the Strategic Space Symposium, Carlson did not provide details of the upcoming missions. Most of the NRO’s satellite programs are classified. Carlson noted the launches to make the point that the NRO continues to perform its mission despite having had its struggles in recent years. But Carlson also said the NRO has suffered a steep decline in its research and development...

KIRKUK — The Iraqi Air Force (IqAF) significantly enhanced its air defense capabilities recently with the arrival of a digital air surveillance radar system. The DASR system, which includes the radar and the radar control facility, allows Iraqi air traffic controllers to monitor aircraft up to 120 nautical miles away, permitting them to detect aircraft along their borders with Syria, Turkey and Iran. Brig. Gen. Ahmed Ghani, IqAF communications director, called the arrival of the system "another historical day" for the service. "Through that system, we will identify more ... aircraft entering our sovereignty," he said at an Oct. 26...

I’ve written previously on HUMAN EVENTS about the state of Big Brother Britain, and things are only getting worse. News broke this week that the police have a series of databases recording the personal details of thousands of people who attend protests or rallies, which are searchable by a number of officers and come complete with color photographs assembled and printed onto “spotter cards” which are then distributed to enable agencies to monitor attendees at events. Cost of this part of the surveillance state alone? Over nine million pounds. Moreover, we have the most CCTV of any country, we have...

SNIPPET: "Search at Grundy County plant called part of ongoing probe" SNIPPET: "But a source said the owner of the plant, which processes lamb and goat, was taken into custody at his home in Chicago. Documents and records were taken from the plant and from a Chicago travel agency on West Devon Avenue, also owned by the same person, the source said."

POOLE, England — It has become commonplace to call Britain a “surveillance society,” a place where security cameras lurk at every corner, giant databases keep track of intimate personal details and the government has extraordinary powers to intrude into citizens’ lives. A report in 2007 by the lobbying group Privacy International placed Britain in the bottom five countries for its record on privacy and surveillance, on a par with Singapore. But the intrusions visited on Jenny Paton, a 40-year-old mother of three, were startling just the same. Suspecting Ms. Paton of falsifying her address to get her daughter into the...

Parking attendants in Malmö are to have miniature video cameras attached to their caps as part of a bid to increase the safety of members of a profession often exposed to threats and harassment. Starting this Wednesday, a number of meter maids from municipal firm Parkering Malmö will begin wearing the cap-borne cameras, which can register sound and video and are activated when an inspector pushes a button. The resultant video clips will be saved, and may be used as evidence for incidents that are reported to the police or go to trial. All other clips will be erased. "By...

Homeland Security: Provisions of the law that spared New York another 9/11 are set to expire Dec. 31. So why do Democrats want to gut this law and remove the immunity telecom companies have for helping protect America? To borrow a British expression from World War II, it was a very near thing. The capture, arrest and indictment of 24-year-old Afghan immigrant Najubullah Zazi before he could set off bombs made from store-bought chemicals prevented a tragedy of potentially devastating proportions. It wouldn't have happened if the critics of Patriot Act had their way. The capture of Zazi was made...

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- It could be a van with a plumber logo on it or a yellow livery cab. Or maybe it's a generic gray sedan, driven by a man who looks like an accountant. The only way you will really know what the top-secret surveillance vehicle that recently hit the streets of the Mid-Island's 122nd Precinct looks like is if you get busted in some criminal act. Similar to the one launched by the Island's MTA police two years ago, the $55,000 high-tech ride was funded by City Councilman James Oddo (R-Mid-Island/Brooklyn) to help combat quality-of-life crimes. The...

Next time you're in Afghanistan, make sure to keep an eye out for the U.S. Army's Space and Missile Defense Command's giant blimp-like surveillance airship

These are grim times indeed. This nation is beset on all sides by virtually every imaginable scourge: war, the H1N1 virus, economic disaster…However, I question the pall of hopelessness that has descended...Our government’s most effective problem-solving agency...

Suggesting they wanted to pack it with explosives...Investigators probed a failed Queens truck rental for ties to a possible Al Qaeda bomb plot yesterday as a chief terror suspect tried making a deal to save his skin. The New York end of the expanding federal probe centered on seven Afghan men who tried to rent the biggest truck at a Queens U-Haul on Sept. 9, sources told the Daily News. The size of the vehicle involved - a 26-foot-long truck - suggested the conspirators wanted to pack it with explosives, sources said. A police source acknowledged there was "quite a...

By Jeremy Pelofsky Jeremy Pelofsky – 2 hrs 8 mins ago WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration has asked the U.S. Congress to extend three surveillance techniques for intelligence agencies tracking suspected militants that expire this year, according to a letter to lawmakers. Approved after the September 11 attacks in 2001 at the request of the Bush administration, techniques such as roving wiretaps and accessing all kinds of personal records drew criticism from civil liberties groups and some lawmakers who said they were unconstitutional and violated privacy rights...

The city just installed high-tech cameras that catch every car that rolls through the city limits. And city residents say they are willing to give up privacy for protection. Resident Kay Stelter says she feels a little better knowing that there are an extra set of eyes keeping tabs. "I do, even though it makes me nervous that it's me that they're seeing," she said. For years, people in Medina have relied on gates to protect their homes and property. But now they've added surveillance video. The Medina City Council approved the cameras after Medina reported 11 burglaries in 2008...

Few details available about military mission ... except that it succeeded An Atlas 5 rocket has lifted off from Florida carrying a highly classified military satellite. The rocket launched into a nearly cloudless sky at 5:35 p.m. ET Tuesday. United Launch Alliance, a joint venture involving Lockheed Martin and Boeing, handled the launch. Eric Brian, a spokesman for the 45th Space Wing at Patrick Air Force Base, declined to say which branch of the military will command the satellite in orbit. Brian said the rocket carried a $500 million payload. The satellite was made by Lockheed Martin. United Launch Alliance...

Here is a surveillance video of a 71 year-old gas station clerk that was beaten for refusing to sell cigarettes to a teenager. (Watch Video)

China demanded Thursday that the U.S. military cease its surveillance missions off the Chinese coast, reviving a dispute that continues to upset relations between the sides.

Police are removing valuables from unlocked cars to shock motorists into being more careful. Officers in London are taking everything from handbags to satnavs, and leaving a note telling drivers their property is at a local police station.

UFO files: secret US spy plane Aurora could be behind sightings A number of UFO sightings may have been caused by a secret US spy plane called Aurora, the existence of which has never been officially admitted, according to files released on Monday. Published: 8:00AM BST 17 Aug 2009 More than 70 witnesses including police and military personnel reported sightings in Devon, Cornwall, South Wales and Shropshire in the early hours of Wednesday March 31, 1993, with many describing a large, low-flying object which made a low humming sound. In a briefing note to the Assistant Chief of the Air...

Boeing has announced it will market an unmanned helicopter that flew at the Paris Air Show in June. The agreement is an early move by Boeing's new Seattle-based Unmanned Airborne Systems (UAS) division to expand its product offerings

The United Kingdom government has set aside £400million to pilot test a family surveillance program that advocates are calling a “path-breaking step toward stamping out social pathologies.” Under the program, 20,000 “problem families” will be subject to 24-hour closed circuit TV observation in their homes for the next two-years. The program, labeled “sin bins” by the media, is intended to discourage bad behavior. “People are more likely to conform to socially beneficial behaviors when they know they’re being watched,” said the Government’s Children’s Secretary Ed Balls. For now, the focus is mainly on the behavior of the children. “We’re going...

Communications firms are being asked to record all internet contacts between people as part of a modernisation in UK police surveillance tactics. The home secretary scrapped plans for a database but wants details to be held and organised for security services. The new system would track all e-mails, phone calls and internet use, including visits to social network sites. The Tories said the Home Office had "buckled under Conservative pressure" in deciding against a giant database. Announcing a consultation on a new strategy for communications data and its use in law enforcement, Jacqui Smith said there would be no single...

China is the world's most successful Internet censor. While the Great Firewall of China isn't perfect, it effectively limits information flowing in and out of the country. But now the Chinese government is taking things one step further. Under a requirement taking effect soon, every computer sold in China will have to contain the Green Dam Youth Escort software package. Ostensibly a pornography filter, it is government spyware that will watch every citizen on the Internet. Green Dam has many uses. It can police a list of forbidden Web sites. It can monitor a user's reading habits. It can even...

THOUSANDS of the worst families in England are to be put in “sin bins” in a bid to change their bad behaviour, Ed Balls announced yesterday. The Children’s Secretary set out £400million plans to put 20,000 problem families under 24-hour CCTV super-vision in their own homes. They will be monitored to ensure that children attend school, go to bed on time and eat proper meals. Private security guards will also be sent round to carry out home checks, while parents will be given help to combat drug and alcohol addiction.

LANCASTER - In what they say is the first step toward a new era in law enforcement techniques, city officials are testing a small airplane mounting a high-tech surveillance camera to help fight crime. The aerial surveillance system features high-definition video recording technology that is capable of viewing people or objects several miles away and whose images can later be magnified to identify the individuals, officials said. "You never know when you are being watched or followed. It would be stupid to commit a crime. You see it with such detail," said Mayor R. Rex Parris, who took a ride...

"Last week, Etisalat told its 100,000 BlackBerry subscribers that a "performance enhancement patch" would be sent to them to "provide the best BlackBerry service and ultimate experience". But users who downloaded the software complained of dramatically reduced battery life and slower than usual performance of their devices. Nigel Gourlay, a Doha-based Sun-certified Java programmer who has been developing open source software for 15 years, analysed the patch after it was posted on BlackBerry's community support forum and he said that once installed, it potentially gives Etisalat the power to view all emails and text messages sent from the BlackBerry." "Gourlay...

China has a long history of restricting internet access, but the Green Dam initiative would have represented a new front in the war on information. For the last decade, China has been fighting – and largely losing – a running battle against the internet, and the free access to information it brings. The government, so used to managing and monitoring the flow of news and disemmination of information within its borders, has at times appeared impotent in the face of a universal technology that has no respect for time zones or geography.

The furore around the Chinese government’s Green Dam software has raised the issue of the way modern technology is used to monitor our daily lives. Here, we list seven of the technologies that can be used to keep track of your movements. CCTV Closed-circuit television cameras were first used in Germany in 1942 to remotely monitor the launch of V2 rockets. Since then, CCTVs have become one of the most contentious pieces of technology in public use. The government and law enforcement agencies claim the use of video monitoring technology can help reduce crime and improve public safety; critics argue...

Report: Bush-era surveillance went beyond wiretaps A government report raises new questions about how the Bush White House kept key Justice officials in the dark about the post-Sept. 11 program. By Josh Meyer July 11, 2009 Reporting from Washington -- The Bush administration's post-Sept. 11 surveillance efforts went beyond the widely publicized warrantless wiretapping program, a government report disclosed Friday, encompassing additional secretive activities that created "unprecedented" spying powers. The report also raised new questions about how the Bush White House kept key Justice Department officials in the dark as it launched the surveillance program. In a move that it...

The Bush administration authorized secret surveillance activities that still have not been made public, according to a new government report that questions the legal basis for the unprecedented anti-terrorism program. It's unclear how much valuable intelligence was yielded by the surveillance program started after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, according to the unclassified summary of reports by five inspectors general. The reports mandated by Congress last year were delivered to lawmakers Friday. President George W. Bush authorized other secret intelligence activities — which have yet to become public — even as he was launching the massive warrentless wiretapping program,...

WASHINGTON – The Bush administration built an unprecedented surveillance operation to pull in mountains of information far beyond the warrantless wiretapping previously acknowledged, a team of federal inspectors general reported Friday, questioning the legal basis for the effort but shielding almost all details on grounds they're still too secret to reveal. The report, compiled by five inspectors general, refers to "unprecedented collection activities" by U.S. intelligence agencies under an executive order signed by President George W. Bush after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Just what those activities involved remains classified, but the IGs pointedly say that any continued use...

WASHINGTON, July 2, 2009 – A giant, unmanned airship capable of hovering at about 70,000 feet promises to give future warfighters an unprecedented eye on the battlefield. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Integrated Sensor is Structure program, ISIS for short, will provide a detailed, real-time picture of all movement on or above the battlefield. Defense DoD graphic courtesy of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Integrated Sensor is Structure program, ISIS for short, will provide a detailed, real-time picture of all movement on or above the battlefield, explained...

Two European companies — a major contractor to the U.S. government and a top cell-phone equipment maker — last year installed an electronic surveillance system for Iran that human rights advocates and intelligence experts say can help Iran target dissidents. Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), a joint venture between the Finnish cell-phone giant Nokia and German powerhouse Siemens, delivered what is known as a monitoring center to Irantelecom, Iran's state-owned telephone company.

The National Security Agency is facing renewed scrutiny over the extent of its domestic surveillance program, with critics in Congress saying its recent intercepts of the private telephone calls and e-mail messages of Americans are broader than previously acknowledged, current and former officials said. Brendan Smialowski for The New York Times Representative Rush Holt Readers' Comments Readers shared their thoughts on this article. Read All Comments (170) » The agency’s monitoring of domestic e-mail messages, in particular, has posed longstanding legal and logistical difficulties, the officials said. Since April, when it was disclosed that the intercepts of some private communications...

In spite of vilifying the Bush Administration during the '08 Presidential campaign for 'domestic spying' in response to 9/11, none other than the New York Times is reporting that Obama has continued these practices. Of course, the Times blames Bush. But the fact remains that a Democratic Congress is taking a look at email surveillance conducted by the NSA under Barack Obama.

Spies beef up surveillance of 11 sites for nuke test June 15, 2009 South Korean and U.S. intelligence officials have ratcheted up their monitoring of 11 underground facilities in North Korea after reports of a third possible North Korean nuclear test, sources told the JoongAng Ilbo. An intelligence source said the test would be in response to the recent United Nations Security Council’s resolution that condemns the North’s second nuclear test on May 25 and imposes tough sanctions on Pyongyang. According to the source, South Korea and the United States are using KH-12 spy satellites to monitor vehicle movements. They’re...

The 9/11 Commission made the case that state driver's licenses need to become a more secure cre­dential. Congress acted--twice, passing laws to establish national standards. Now this common-sense initiative is under attack and may never be implemented. Congress and the Administration must act decisively to make the REAL ID program a reality. They need a strategy that encourages states with the capac­ity to implement REAL ID to do so quickly, demonstrating its viabil­ity and value. Once REAL ID is underway, momentum will build for other states to join; their citi­zens will not want to be left out of a...

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon Tuesday played down a confrontation between Chinese vessels and one of its Navy surveillance ships, taking a decidedly more low-key tone than during similar incidents two months ago.

April was a cruel month indeed for new Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. The weeks before the Swine Flu outbreak found her stumbling through reporters’ questions about a DHS threat assessment memo on “Rightwing Extremism.” That memo urged law enforcers nationwide to monitor the allegedly gathering danger from Rightist radicals, including pro-lifers, immigration opponents, and those who reject “federal authority in favor of state and local authority.” Was this a sinister conspiracy by an administration full of Chard-sipping arugula eaters determined to spy on Red-State patriots? That‘s quite unlikely: The memo was commissioned during the Bush administration, as was a...

It is truly amazing how much news the American news media chooses to ignore. If one wants to discover what is actually going on in the world, he or she often has to go to the foreign press. This has again been the case with a story that every American should be extremely interested in, but which has been totally ignored by the American news media. I found this story in Russia Today. According to RussiaToday.com, "The personal computer may soon be not-so-private, with the U.S. and some European nations working on laws allowing them access to search the content...

WASHINGTON – Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is asserting that the description she initially gave of the border swine-flu monitoring effort no longer applies. Appearing Wednesday before a Senate panel, Napolitano said that "passive surveillance" is "not an accurate picture of what is going on" at U.S. entry points. She had used that term Tuesday morning to describe the nature of the monitoring for illness. On Wednesday, Napolitano said that U.S. officials are "actively" questioning visitors at the border, asking questions about "whether they are ill, their travel history and the like

Several recent reports suggest an emerging pattern of systematic abuse of federal law enforcement and intelligence assets to target law-abiding Americans engaged in the peaceful expression of political views.

I confess; I am a domestic right-wing extremist. As I read the Law Enforcement Sensitive Information (LES) from the Department of Homeland Security, I realized that the innocuous white van parked across the street isn’t the milkman. Superficially, my family fits the DHS domestic terrorist profile--not the sleeper-cell Islamic extremists, but the target-shooting, Bible-toting, baby-loving, troop-cheering, tax-paying, God and country types. A quick scan of the document makes us likely surveillance candidates. DHS provides law enforcement with a handy checklist.

The National Security Agency intercepted private e-mail messages and phone calls of Americans in recent months on a scale that went beyond the broad legal limits established by Congress last year, government officials said in recent interviews. Several intelligence officials, as well as lawyers briefed about the matter, said the N.S.A. had been engaged in "overcollection" of domestic communications of Americans. They described the practice as significant and systemic, although one official said it was believed to have been unintentional. The legal and operational problems surrounding the N.S.A.'s surveillance activities have come under scrutiny from the Obama administration, Congressional intelligence...

It’s not just Paul Krugman anymore. A growing chorus on the legal left is cooling toward President Barack Obama as a result of recent actions by the Justice Department vigorously defending the Bush administration in what it termed the war on terror. “Obama Position on Illegal Spying: Worse Than Bush,” a large graphic declared over the weekend on the home page of a respected group advocating freedom on the Internet, Electronic Frontier Foundation. Obama has been pilloried by a liberal TV icon who was one of President George W. Bush’s most vociferous critics, MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann. “During his run for...

On 'State Secrets,' Meet Barack W. Obama April 10, 2009 9:20 AM In February, President Obama's Justice Department quietly argued in a San Francisco court that it was maintaining the same position as President Bush's Justice Department on a case involving detainees trying to sue a private company for its role in their (allegedly) extraordinary renditions. The Obama administration pushed the status quo administration argument by invoking the "state secrets" argument, also a Bush-era fave. "It is the policy of this administration to invoke the state secrets privilege only when necessary and in the most appropriate cases," said DOJ spox...

Turley on MSNBC says Obama is trampling on US Civil Liberties by going further than Bush on wiretapping.

April 7th, 2009 In Warrantless Wiretapping Case, Obama DOJ's New Arguments Are Worse Than Bush's Commentary by Tim Jones We had hoped this would go differently. Friday evening, in a motion to dismiss Jewel v. NSA, EFF's litigation against the National Security Agency for the warrantless wiretapping of countless Americans, the Obama Administration's made two deeply troubling arguments. First, they argued, exactly as the Bush Administration did on countless occasions, that the state secrets privilege requires the court to dismiss the issue out of hand. They argue that simply allowing the case to continue "would cause exceptionally grave harm to...

WASHINGTON -- The next Air Force spy craft is likely to be a giant, unmanned dirigible that can remain aloft at high altitudes, keeping an unblinking watch on vehicles, planes and even people. The dirigible is the brainchild of the Air Force and the Pentagon's research arm, which together will spend $400 million to develop a prototype that could pave the way for a fleet of spy airships, military officials said Thursday. The plans represent the final stage of work to develop agiant airborne radar system capable of providing ground operators with intricate detail over vast expanses, even if the...

The giant dirigible would use radar to closely and constantly monitor activity on the ground from 65,000 feet. The Pentagon said Thursday that it intends to spend $400 million to develop a giant dirigible that will float 65,000 feet above the Earth for 10 years, providing unblinking and intricate radar surveillance of the vehicles, planes and even people below. "It is absolutely revolutionary," Werner J.A. Dahm, chief scientist for the Air Force, said of the proposed unmanned airship -- describing it as a cross between a satellite and a spy plane. The 450-foot-long craft would give the U.S. military a...

THERE are plenty of people who can muster outrage at Alex Rodriguez, the Yankees third baseman who is the latest example of win-at-any-cost athletes. But I’d prefer to see him as at the cutting edge of another scourge — the growing encroachment on privacy. The way Mr. Rodriguez’s positive steroid test result became public followed a path increasingly common in the computer age: third-party data collection. We are typically told that personal information is anonymously tracked for one reason — usually something abstract like making search results more accurate, recommending book titles or speeding traffic through the toll booths on...