Federal agency developed UAVs years ago to keep tabs on land use
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
Following a mainstream media backlash that claimed to
“debunk” fears that the EPA was using spy drones to monitor pollution
and land use, a method of surveillance that threatened to ensnare
farmers and ranchers, it actually turns out that the federal agency is
doing precisely that.
Following confusion over a claim
that the EPA was using unmanned drones to spy on cattle ranchers in
Nebraska and Iowa, when in fact the federal agency was taking pictures
from manned aircraft, the establishment media went on the offensive,
characterizing fears that the federal agency was using the excuse of
environmental regulations to keep tabs on farmers as paranoid delusions.
The Washington Post led the charge, debunking the “menacing tale of government gone too far,” quickly followed by the L.A. Times
and innumerable other news outlets who seized upon the error to portray
opponents of drone surveillance as reactionary lunatics.
Leftist blogs like Mediaite
and scores of others placed the blame squarely on the Drudge Report and
Infowars, noting how, “The story originally appeared on several blogs,
picking up traction after the Drudge Report linked to an InfoWars
article on the story,” before it appeared on Fox News.
The very real and alarming fact that the EPA is sending
its agents up in manned aircraft to spy on farmers over their disposal
of waste water was hastily brushed aside in favor of pursuing the witch
hunt against those who mistakenly claimed the spying missions involved
UAVs.
“It was never true. The EPA isn’t using drone aircraft —
in the Midwest or anywhere else,” reported the Post’s David A.
Fahrenthold with a triumphant sneer.
You probably won’t be too surprised to learn that the
Post – along with dozens of blogs who parroted Fahrenthold’s article –
got it completely wrong.
A search of the EPA’s own website proves that the
federal agency has been developing spy drones (unmanned aerial vehicles)
for the purpose of monitoring pollution and land use for years.
An EPA project entitled Landscape Characterization and Change Detection Methods Development Research,
which was scheduled for completion in 2009, describes how the EPA would
use “UAV and satellite based remote sensor data to provide a continuous
environmental monitoring capability.”
The report describes how the EPA used technologies
developed by the Department of Defense and NASA “to develop terrestrial,
coastal ocean, and surface-troposphere flux unmanned aerial vehicle
(UAV) missions” in order to “support environmental decision making” and
measure “biogenic emissions” (emissions produced by living organisms or
biological processes).
In other words, the EPA has since at least 2009
developed the capability to use unmanned drones to monitor man-made
pollution and spy on farms and ranches for the purpose of land
management.
In addition, a separate 2005 EPA report
details how the agency planned to use “Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV),
in a multi-stage approach to meet EPA information needs.”
Not only has the EPA developed its own spy drones for
the task of monitoring the environment, it has also given grants to
other organizations for the same purpose.
A 2008 progress report found on the EPA website
describes a a four-year grant to Syracuse University. One “major
outcome” of the project is listed as the, “Successful development and
testing of an unmanned aerial vehicle for urban airshed monitoring to
measure pollutant levels above buildings.”
So yes, despite what you read in the Washington Post and
the rest of the establishment media echo chamber, the EPA is using
drones to spy on land use and monitor pollution.
The EPA is using unmanned aerial vehicles to conduct surveillance of ranches and farms and has been doing so for years.
Given the EPA’s close relationship with NASA in working
with the space agency to create satellites to monitor land use, the
future seems geared not around spy drones but spy satellites like the
ones already under development in Europe
that will measure man-made carbon emissions from space in order to
“hunt down” violators of international climate agreements, allowing Big
Brother to enforce a future tax on CO2 emissions.
And when such a program is ready to be launched, expect
the establishment media to pull the same trick of obfuscating the truth
by claiming none of it is happening.
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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com.
He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular
fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show and Infowars Nightly News.
