FBI Confirms Drones Used for Surveillance in US

But don't worry! It's only a few of them and their use is totes limited! Nothing to see here! MOVE ALONG.

FBI Director Robert Mueller told senators the agency uses drones infrequently for surveillance in the U.S., and only in regards to specific investigations.

"Our footprint is very small," Mueller said in testimony. "We have very few and have limited use."

Mueller said the FBI was in "the initial stages" of developing privacy guidelines for how the agency balances civil liberty concerns with security threats.

Ha ha it's cool how they're in "the initial stages" of developing privacy guidelines, but in "the totally already fucking doing it stages" of using drones to spy on USians.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told Mueller that she believes drones are the most dangerous threat to the privacy of Americans, particularly the use of drones by private companies.

Mueller sought to assure Feinstein that the FBI's use of drones was "very seldom" and only used in isolated instances.

"It's very seldom used and generally used in a particular incident where you need the capability," said Mueller. "It is very narrowly focused on particularized needs in particularized cases, and that is the principle of privacy limitations we have."

Mueller said he wasn't certain whether the FBI had any official agreements with other agencies — such as the Department of Defense or the Department of Homeland Security — to receive assistance in the agency's use of drones.

"To the extent that it relates to the air space there would be some communication back and forth [between agencies]," Mueller said.

Well, this program just sounds TERRIFIC. No transparency in the development of parameters for drone use, no oversight from Congress, and no accountability because TRUST US. What could possibly go wrong? [Spoiler alert: Everything.]

I don't even know what I can possibly say anymore that I haven't already said in this space a thousand times, through the Bush administration and the Obama administration. We are tumbling ass-over-teakettle into a police state, and we're meant not to care; instead, we're meant to trust that the government institutions who weren't willing to have an open debate about these encroachments into our privacy won't abuse their power as they continue to operate in secret. Sure. Sounds legit.

And even if you're the most partisanny partisan who ever partisanned, and can excuse this gross breach of public trust on the basis that you believe this administration wouldn't abuse the immense power afforded a government allowed to use, in accordance with guidelines it self-defines, drones for surveillance of its population, this administration won't be in power forever. Someday, we're again going to have an administration that calls the citizens who disagree with their policies "traitors," and that administration is not going to voluntarily give up the power of using drones to spy on US citizens.

That administration? Is going to double-down.