The United States Air Force has allegedly been targeting and trailing civilian auto traffic on New Mexico highways.
According to The Atlantic, the reasons behind the Air Force's use of high caliber drones to map auto traffic is unknown. But early reports indicate the air crafts are not "armed drones," and are simply being used for training.
In a New York Times Magazine article published last Sunday's edition, Mark Mazzetti described the event:
"When I visited the base [Holloman Air Force Base, N.M.] earlier this year's previous Sunday group of reporters, we were taken into a command post where a large flat-screen television was broadcasting a video feed from a drone flying overhead. It took a few seconds to figure out exactly what we're looking at. A white SUV travelling along a highway adjacent to the base came into the cross hairs in the center of the screen and was tracked as it headed south along the desert road. When the SUV drove out of the picture, the drone began following another car.
"'Wait, you guys practice tracking enemies by using civilian cars?' a reporter asked. One Air Force officer responded that this was only a training mission, and the group was quickly hustled out of the room. "
After the news exploded in The New York Times, defense experts have defended the move, saying the drones aren't a threat to civilians.
Similar reports are also being published in a blog titled Loss of Privacy, which reads that unarmed drones at Grand Forks Air Force Base are being used for civilian surveillance. And it further reports in an article that "former California Congresswoman and now Wilson Centre for international Scholars President Jane Harman have reportedly helped to lead efforts to block expansion of drone hardware and related intelligence to the U.S. domestic theatre."
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