The Pentagon's Spy Balloons Violate Your Rights
Gorgon Stare - Sinister Several-Eyed Serpentine Surveillance System
The U.S. federal government initiated a spy balloon program in 2019 according to a FCC document.1 It isn’t as clear as one might hope, but the following can be derived without looking at any media coverage about the document or what it pertains to.
In violation of the U.S. Constitution, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) gave the OK for an “operation” to “conduct high altitude MESH networking tests” that they say would “provide a persistent surveillance system to locate and deter narcotic trafficking and homeland security threats”2 but which would inevitably spy on innocent citizens, thereby intruding upon their 4th Amendment right to be secure from unreasonable searches.3
This is based on an “experimental temporary authorization” from the FCC (the Federal Communications Commission) granted to the Sierra Nevada Corporation but with the provision that it “shall not vest in” the corporation “any right to operate the station nor any right in the use of the frequencies” and in fact it states that the test it pertains to is “subject to the right of use of control” of “the Government of the United States.”4
One is reminded of the media monopolies that though publicly funded, are supposedly private, but which are ultimately under the control of the federal government.5
But then the document states, “Special Temporary Authority is hereby granted to operate the apparatus described below” which seems to contradict what it states above. They do not clearly state what sort of “apparatus” it is. However the maximum altitude of operations would rule out drones, helicopters,6 satellites,7 and most almost all types of airplanes as we’ll see.
This is higher than drones or helicopters fly, higher than commercial airplanes8 but lower than satellites. What do you suppose these airborne mobile units might be?
As per the document, the altitude for this spy-program is well within range of high altitude balloons9 because they can go as high as 159,000 feet.10
The document details frequencies of 2380 MHz (megahertz), 9510 MHz and 2345-2390 MHz. These frequencies are far higher than commercial AM and FM radio11 or old television frequencies or Citizens band (CB) radio, higher than air traffic control bands, even higher than deep space radio communication bands which are 2290 megahertz to 2300 megahertz.12
Apparently the frequencies in the document encompass “Special Airport Surveillance Radars”, “mobile military battlefield radars” and the higher end mention, 9510 MHz, “favours military use as airborne radar” and “is mainly used in civil and military applications for maritime navigation radar systems.”13
Ah, the wonders of nature! Electromagnetic radiation travels in wavelengths of different sizes all through the universe at the speed of light14 or faster,15 through interstellar space, through the air, through metal, through water, through you. Plants live and grow on certain wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation in the form of sunlight.16 You can see because your eyes can react to a certain spectrum of electromagnetic waves, what is to us the visible light spectrum, and translate that into signals in the brain, imagery. Some animals can see colors we can not because their eyes can react to wavelengths of this electromagnetic energy that our eyes aren’t equipped for.
Just higher in frequency along the electromagnetic energy spectrum than the rainbow bandwidth of what we can see with our organic satellites, our eyes, is ultra violet radiation or “UV light”. UV radiation can be useful, for example, in medicine despite what TDS suffering hysteric would have you believe.17 Just lower in frequency than what we can see with the naked eye is infra-red. Night-vision technology utilizes this bandwidth. Along the electromagnetic frequency spectrum also lies radio waves, microwaves, X-rays and so on.
I don’t know much about communications technology but “the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) decides who is able to use which frequencies for which purposes, and it issues licenses to stations for specific frequencies”18 so I guess they reserve some frequencies for their own covert operations.
Ah, the wonderful mysteries of the cosmos! Humanity has only begun to tap into what the electromagnetic spectrum has for us to discover! And the federal government has a steel-fisted grip around the throat of this magical cosmic rainbow serpent.
Getting back to this spy balloon program, the FCC document mentions “Emission Designator” “20M0D7W” and “600MM3N”. According to the Searchable FCC ID Database, both of these signify, “wireless radio which transfers data over a modulated wave,” that the first uses, “two or more digital channels signal” and the second uses, “Single analog channel signal.”19
Notice that under “Authorized Power” it states “8 W (ERP)” and “24280 W (ERP)”. This must refer to the amount of Watts in effective radiated power which pertains to the power used for antennae.20
The FCC authorization document refers to the “station location” as being “MOBILE: Baltic, SD” which seems to refer to Baltic, South Dakota, “within the requested radius along the flight plan, Airborne max altitude 65,000 ft. AGL, within 400 km, centered around NL 43-42-02; WL 96-42-28”.21
Surely this would mean 43°42'02" North Latitude, 96°42'28" West longitude which is indeed Baltic, South Dakota. Notice that the locus of those coordinates is nestled in some wide open farmland outside of the center of town among some large agricultural structures that could house large scale field equipment, with lots of room to spread out a pre-inflated spy balloons with protection from the elements if needed and with plenty of room to inflate and launch them.
As one can see on Google Earth at the scale of 400 kilometers, something with a 400 kilometer radius centered in Baltic, South Dakota would extend out into much of South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Missouri and Illinois.
As far as I am able to understand it, the document does not mention cameras. It seems they relied on radar alone to spy in this particular test. Radar does allow for the visual tracking of objects that cameras can not necessarily ‘see’. Radar is also used in communication and it seems to me that the specs given in the document indicate that the radar technology was used to relay information in addition to detecting and tracking.
The operation was temporarily temporary. In other words, it was to end September 1st, 2019 unless it has been extended.
“AGL” must refer to above ground level.22 65,000 feet AGL is above the Armstrong Limit or Armstrong's Line where “people don’t do so well” due to the low pressure. Pilots must purge their body of nitrogen by breathing in pure oxygen for an hour before flight and must wear special suits with breathing masks with tubes hooked up inside a specially pressurized cabin “where if you took a cup of water at altitude outside the plane, the water would boil just because of the low pressure there, even though it’s super cold.”23
At that maximum height, a pilot explained “from the cockpit of NASA’s high-altitude ER-2 research aircraft” that “the view is incredible. You can see 300 miles away,” and, “You can see the curvature of the Earth. If you look up, the sky is very dark blue.” We’re talking operations at up to “twice the altitude of commercial airliners”24
By the way, according to an article from Space.com from 2013,25 “High-altitude balloon flights are becoming cheaper and more widely available, expanding research opportunities for scientists and hobbyists, as well as young people just learning how science works.”
Just sayin’. Private entities, individual citizens, can compete. At increasing lower costs and increasing availability, citizens can spy on the government spy balloons. Some corrupt, depraved, degenerate government agents motivated by petty greed and power, which indicates weakness is no match for a voluntary network of decent human beings motivated by liberty and patriotism. Just saying’.
Under “Special Conditions” it states “This frequency assignment in one of the bands 1435-1525, 2310-2320 and 2345-2390 MHz was coordinated prior to its authorization with AFMO CONUS, Ft. Sam Houston, TX, who also coordinated it, as appropriate, with the Aerospace and Flight Test Radio Coordinating Council. Use of this frequency under the authority of this assignment is subject to such further coordination with AFMO CONUS, Ft. Sam Houston, TX, as necessary to ensure compatibility with existing uses.”
Anyway, that was what I was able to gain from the document without recourse to news coverage. What would we glean if we were to look into media coverage on this particular spy balloon program?
In Pentagon testing mass surveillance balloons across the US, published August 2, 2019, the Guardian citing the same FCC document reported that the program was run by the Pentagon. They report “up to 25 unmanned solar-powered balloons are being launched from rural South Dakota and drifting 250 miles through an area spanning portions of Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Missouri, before concluding in central Illinois.”
They do not cite sources for the quantity of “up to 25” or for the claim that the balloons are solar powered. The number 25 does not appear in the document nor does the word ‘solar’. Their figure of 250 miles is correct enough when you convert metric to English but they use that figure vaguely. The FCC document speaks of a radius of that distance (250 miles or 400 kilometers) from the center point. That indicates a circle with a diameter of 500 miles and an area of almost 200,000 square miles (a bit over 500,000 square kilometers).
The Guardian reports, “The tests, which have not previously been reported, received an FCC license to operate from mid-July until September, following similar flights licensed last year.”
The FCC document does mention the July 12 to September 1 time period but it does not indicate previous test flights. The Guardian also gives no citations where they report that Southcom (U.S. Southern Command) commissioned the tests. They wrote, “Southcom is a joint effort by the US army, navy, air force and other forces, and one of its key roles is identifying and intercepting drug shipments headed for the United States.”
Furthermore, they report, “For many years, Sierra Nevada has supplied Southcom with light aircraft packed with millions of dollars’ worth of sensors, which then flew over Mexico, Colombia, Panama and the Caribbean sea. But planes require expensive crews and can only fly for a few hours at a time.”
Also, “The new balloons promise a cheap surveillance platform that could follow multiple cars and boats for extended periods. And because winds often travel in different directions at different altitudes, the balloons can usually hover over a given area simply by ascending or descending.”
Furthermore, “The FCC documents show that Southcom’s balloons are carrying small, satellite-like vehicles housing sophisticated sensors and communication gear. One of those sensors is a synthetic aperture radar intended to detect every car or boat in motion on a 25-mile swath beneath the balloon.
The balloons also have advanced mesh networking technologies that allow them to communicate with one another, share data and pass it to receivers on the ground below.”
They included an image of, wouldn’t you know it, the exact location we found in what seems to be an innocent large scale farm.
The Guardian also states, “The FCC filing notes that this networking includes video information. That suggests that the balloons might also carry a Sierra Nevada video capture system called Gorgon Stare. This wide-area surveillance system comprises nine cameras capable of recording panoramic images across an entire city simultaneously.”
Notice the implications of the name “Gorgon Stare”. In ancient myths, a gorgon’s stare turns one to stone. Gorgons also have serpents where their hair would be if they were human. What a sinister name! It sort of rubs it in, doesn’t it? It also implies many eyes looking in many directions.
Indeed, in their report about this, Newsweek reported that Gorgon Stare “consists of nine cameras recording panoramic images, enabling operators to capture activity across an entire city at once.”26
The Guardian continues, “While Gorgon Stare is usually deployed on drones, Michel said that the US army has used tethered spy blimps in Afghanistan, and that US Customs and Border Protection has experimented with low-altitude balloons along the Mexico border.”
In their report on this, USA Today writes, “The technology is capable of recording and storing all public movement over entire cities or metro areas, and that level of mass surveillance destroys any level of anonymity South Dakotans have, according to Libby Skarin, policy director for the ACLU of South Dakota.
"There are so many unanswered questions here,” Skarin said. “What kind of information is being collected? What information is being stored? Who has access to this information? Is the surveillance for law enforcement purposes? At a minimum, there should be consultation and approval from local communities before the federal government subjects South Dakotans to area-wide surveillance."
The technology was developed for battlefield activities such as finding improvised explosive devices in Iraq and Afghanistan, and it has migrated to civilian use without any oversight, according to Skarin.
"Technology like this runs the risk of turning South Dakota into a surveillance stat and is violating the privacy of every South Dakotan. We're not talking about closed-circuit TV cameras or cameras in discrete places," Skarin said. "This is area-wide surveillance that essentially creates a pervasive checkpoint over entire cities and metro area."
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in favor of privacy three times in the last seven years when it comes to advances in technology. In the most recent case in 2018, the court ruled that the government violates the Fourth Amendment by accessing without a search warrant historical records containing the physical locations of cell phones.
The Court said that there's a distinction between being observable where law enforcement can follow a person and being observable in the day of technological advances where a camera can follow an entire area.”27
In their report on this on August 5, 2019, Interesting Engineering adds, “The tests come amidst rising fears over the way our data is being used to manipulate us, whether by private companies or governments.
The term 'surveillance capitalism' refers to the way our private data is now a trillion-dollar industry, meaning it is often sold without our knowledge.
The new FCC filings highlight a new way in which vast amounts of personal data might be collected without people's knowledge or consent.”28
If you are wondering, YES, I am in fact implying that the team of the resident-in-chief, the great pretender, the puppet of the highest bidders, may have just shot down the U.S. military’s own spy balloons. If his puppeteers are willing to have him say that the genocide waged by the Chinese government is acceptable, why wouldn’t they shoot down some U.S. military spy balloons while pretending they are shooting down Chinese spy balloons?29
Let’s end with a good defiant laugh from Rude Luke…
Thanks,
Justin Trouble
Liberty my Right ∴ Truth my Sword
Laughter my Shield ∴ Knowledge my Steed
Love my Nourishment ∴ Honor my Reward
F O O T N O T E S
Amendment IV of the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution (ratified by the states on December 15, 1791) describes the following pre-existing right of citizens that the government is to refrain from violating lest it render itself invalid;
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
The F.B.I./Biden/Twitter Files by Justin Trouble (ongoing)
Did you know that Helicopters can reach serious heights? by North Central Institute (no date)
The FCC authorized a maximum of 65,000 feet in elevation for the operation. It states in Solo Science Flying at 65,000 Feet by NASA (September 12, 2016) that 65,000 feet is “not as high as satellites”.
Ask the Captain: Highest altitudes for planes by USA Today (May 28, 2017)
World View Captures Spectacular Sunrise with High-Altitude Balloon (Video) by Space.com (December 19, 2014)
How the Radio Spectrum Works by How Stuff Works page 1 (no date, archived Feb 12, 2013)
How the Radio Spectrum Works by How Stuff Works page 2 (no date, archived Feb 12, 2013)
Waves and Frequency Ranges by Radar Tutorial.eu (no date, archived February 13, 2023)
electromagnetic spectrum by Britannica
Cherenkov radiation by Britannica
electromagnetic radiation by Britannica
Proof They Lied About COVID, UV Light, Ivermectin & Hydroxychloroquine by Justin Trouble (May 28, 2022)
How the Radio Spectrum Works by How Stuff Works page 1 (no date, archived Feb 12, 2013)
Effective Radiated Power by Science Direct (no date)
What Is the Difference Between AGL & MSL? by Sciencing
Solo Science Flying at 65,000 Feet by NASA (September 12, 2016)
Solo Science Flying at 65,000 Feet by NASA (September 12, 2016)
Balloon Flights Bring Near-Space Exploration to Masses by Space.com (March 7, 2013)
Pentagon Is Testing High Altitude Surveillance Balloons to 'Watch Everything at Once': 'It's Disturbing' by Newsweek (August 2, 2019)
Pentagon launching drug surveillance balloons over Midwest by USA Today (August 2, 2019)
The Pentagon Is Testing Mass Surveillance Balloons over the U.S. by Interesting Engineering (August 5, 2019)
RESIDENT BIDEN - CHINA'S PUPPET by Justin Trouble (February 22, 2021)