Nope, we don't make this stuff up! ... "A Domestic Civilian Spy Program"

U.S. Congress to Give All Clear to Aerial Domestic Spies Under “Drones for Drones” Program

by rogueoperator

While Americans were fuming about Condomgate, the latest Obama outrage about mandating the Catholic Church to dispense contraception to the unfaithful, the U.S. government has surreptitiously passed a domestic civilian spy program that can best be summed up as “drones for drones.”

WaPo reports – kind of:

The legislation would order the FAA, before the end of the year, to expedite the process through which it authorizes the use of drones by federal, state and local police and other agencies. TheFAA currently issues certificates, which can cover multiple flights by more than one aircraft in a particular area, on a case-by-case basis.

The Department of Homeland Security is the only federal agency to discuss openly its use of drones in domestic airspace.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection, an agency within the department, operates nine drones, variants of the CIA’s feared Predator. The aircraft, which are flown remotely by a team of 80 fully qualified pilots, are used principally for border and counternarcotics surveillance under four long-term FAA certificates.

Officials say they can be used on a short-term basis for a variety of other public-safety and emergency-management missions if a separate certificate is issued for that mission.

“It’s not all about surveillance,” Mr. Aftergood said.

What else is it about? Laser tag drone wars? Chicken hawk harassment? Redneck carpet-bombing?