Military Satellites Spy on Americans

As proud as Americans are of the military, we have never wanted to militarize the country. It was certainly never the intent of the founders to give the federal government the power to use the military to enforce domestic law and order.

Indeed, during the debate over ratification of the Constitution, the Federalist Papers assured Americans that the military would never be used against the American people. Besides a fear of the power that could accrue to the executive with this type of authority, Publius and company were concerned about the different functions of civil authorities and the military.

Civil law enforcement officers are trained to use force as a last resort, and to stay within the boundaries set by the constitution—with the military, as it says above the front door at West Point—war is our business—and many of the constitutional niceties are irrelevant.

In an attempt to to prevent the executive from ever establishing a federally enforced military police state, in 1878 Congress passed the Posse Comitatus Act, which prevents the use of the military for domestic law enforcement.

However, as we have evolved into Fear Nation, like with all rights and privacy interests, exceptions have been carved into Posse Comitatus—such as the Martial Law Enabling Act (passed the same day as the Military Commissions Act), which gave Secretary of Defense Robert Gates the authority to domestically deploy 20,000 troops to assist local law enforcement.

Our obsessive fear of Mexican immigration, and commitment to waging the War on Drugs, is now being used as a rationale for the military to begin using its surveillance satellites to spy on Americans and, despite Posse Comitatus, sharing their results with local law enforcement.

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency gathers satellite imagery for the Pentagon.

At a Phoenix conference on border security last week R. Scott Zikmanis, a deputy director at this intelligence agency, says his spooks have already supplied some data to the El Paso Intelligence Center, a federal law enforcement clearinghouse

Although Zikmanis claims they are circumspect in partnering with local law enforcement over border security, due to concerns over Posse Comatiatus, what he fails to mention is that in 1981 Congress created an exception for the drug war (just as the Supreme Court feels that the drug war creates an exception to the First Amendment).

The Posse Comitatus drug exception is a hole big enough to drive a paramilitary tank through. And Zikmanis admits he is quite proud of some of the eye in the sky shots they have taken of cocaine dealers in Florida.

There is really no doubt that the military is now spying on Americans, on American soil, and sharing it with local law enforcement.

With growing technology, and the blasé attitude of the public about principles the founders felt were primal and fundamental, we are entering a very dangerous period.

If you care, you might send a tweet or whatever to Barack Obama.

But, don't hold your breath.

Just keep smiling—you're on Candid Camera.