The FBI now joins the list of other government agencies, running large fleets of aircraft over U.S. cities. The FBI has been busted running over 100 domestic flights, for the purposes of mass surveillance over U.S. cities including: Minneapolis, New York, Chicago, Phoenix, and Seattle. The planes are registered to dummy corporations and cutouts with names like: NG Research, FVX Research, and KQM Aviation. The original investigative leg-work was done by regular people on the internet, who had noticed small planes flying overhead during the recent riots in Baltimore.[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npXLdBG4r14[/youtube]
The AP has now "officially" broke the story, so you can talk about it with your friends, it's not some crazy conspiracy anymore. Of course the AP only dug into one hub, Bristow, VA, for these aircraft, so the story continues to widen. I will keep this topic updated as things progress.
AP story - http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_FBI_SURVEILLANCE_FLIGHTS?SITE=KYB66
AP Documents - https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2090186-fbi-surveillance-plane-documents.html
WaPo Story - http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/surveillance-planes-spotted-in-the-sky-for-days-after-west-baltimore-rioting/2015/05/05/c57c53b6-f352-11e4-84a6-6d7c67c50db0_story.html
TIMELINE OF EVENTS
- April 11, 2003. FBI admits to flying a spy-plane over Indiana University, searching for terrorists, despite no terrorist threat being identified at the University.
Source.- May 31, 2005. New York Times runs an article with some details on how front companies and cutouts are used to hide CIA airplanes.
Source.- June 2006. A report from WIRED Magazine details an unusual small aircraft circling Lodi, California. The cutout Northwest Aircraft Leasing Corp. in Newark, Delaware, was fingered as the owner. The report speculates that the plane is being used by the FBI for surveillance. Report also states that as far back as 2003, the FBI admitted to flying Cessna 182's in America for surveillance purposes.
Source.- February 5, 2014. A report detailing "persistent surveillance systems" is run in the Washington Post. It details the ability of surveillance devices attached to small planes to watch everyone and everything in a 5x5 square mile radius. The report nails several instances of the use of these planes.
Source.- May 9, 2013. In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing, mysterious planes are reported flying over Boston and surrounding areas during the day and night.
Source.- May 10, 2013. One of the spy-planes flying over Boston is identified as N906TM, registered to RKT Productions in Bristow, VA.
Source.- July 23, 2014 - Reddit user
jeandubrulee posts a comment about a mysterious airplane constantly circling over the McLean/Langley area in Virginia. The plane is identified as N539MY, belonging to NG Research.
Source.
- May 2, 2015. Tweets regarding a mysterious plane circling over the riots in Boston get the ball rolling. Plane is identified as N539MY, belonging to NG Research.
Source.- May 5, 2015. FBI admits that spy-planes were "provided" to law enforcement in Baltimore in the wake of rioting to "[provide] aerial imagery of possible criminal activity."
Source.- June 2, 2015. AP blows the story into the mainstream. Links FBI to dozen shell companies. FBI asks AP not to publish story for ludicrous reason that it "would saddle taxpayers with the expense of creating new cover companies to shield the government's involvement, and could endanger the planes and integrity of the surveillance missions." One Robert Lindley is linked as the CEO of NG Research.
Source.- Sen. Grassley is pressing the FBI for answers.
Source.[/size]
ADDITIONAL INFO & UPDATES
- Track Flight paths on your own -
http://www.flightradar24.com/data/-
Look up Plane Call Signs (N-Number).-
Images of the FBI spy-plane flight paths- ACLU story about why this type of persistent, wide-area surveillance is dangerous.
Source.- List of 115 spy-planes with links to their flight paths so you can track.
Source.- NSA whistle-blower Bill Binney thinks that the FBI spy-planes could be part of TREASUREMAP, an NSA program to map the internet and create a profile of everyone in the world.
Source.- Planes with JENA call signs are still operating around the phoenix area.
Source.- Chaparral Air Group in Texas coming under scrutiny as potentially operating a spy-helicopter.
Source.