By MassPrivateI

A recent article in the Texas Observer, revealed that the National Guard is using multi-protocol scanners and receivers to spy on everyone.

The National Guard and DEA, recently purchased two DRT 1301C portable receiver systems from Digital Receiver Technology Inc., (DRT).

DRTs or ‘dirt boxes’ allow the National Guard and DEA to secretly listen to 10,000 cell phones at once.

DRT’s multi-protocol scanners allow them to spy on “2G, 3G and 4G technologies including GSM, cdma2000, 1xEV-DO, UMTS WCDMA, TD-SCDMA and LTE, the MPS applications.”

DRT devices are “capable of intercepting the user’s location, phone numbers dialed, text messages and photos as well as recording or listening to phone calls.” 

“These DRT boxes are far more capable than the old Stingrays,” Austin attorney Scott McCollough said, “The old-style Stingrays were not able to capture content. Guess what? The DRT box is. … These newer ones get everything.” (Source)

Dirt boxes are far more invasive than Stingrays.

Dirt boxes can spy on individual cell phones for days

Image credit: CSU FabLab

The National Guard and DEA use ‘small, covert and accurate’ dirt boxes to spy on individual cell phones for days.

According to DRT,

Once the system decodes one cell, GPS access is no longer needed. In a typical case where there are only a small number of RF channels; the scanner can stay in sync for many hours or even days.

It’s not just the National Guard, we have to worry about.

A 2014 Wall Street Journal article revealed that the US Marshals are also using dirt boxes.

How do these government agencies get away with secretly spying on everyone?

National Guard uses front companies to secretly spy the public

According to an article in the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) the National Guard and law enforcement use front companies like Air Cerberus and Eagle Eye Investigations to secretly spy on everyone.

CJR used an algorithm called “random forest” to reveal the identities of secret surveillance planes run by the National Guard, DHS and law enforcement.

According to CJR they used ‘random forest’ and FAA registry lists to identify secret surveillance planes in Mesa and Phoenix, Arizona; sheriffs of Orange and Los Angeles counties in California; Palm Beach County sheriffs and the Ohio State Highway Patrol.

CJR also discovered a police plane that secretly spied on people during the Republican National Convention.

The Texas Observer asked the National Guard what legal authority allows a military force to secretly spy on Americans?

The answer they got was silence, which is not surprising since the National Guard, the DEA and law enforcement are run by DHS.

The vice chairman of the Texas House Committee, Cesar Blanco, warned that “there are really big privacy and constitutional due-process concerns with the use of this technology.”

What is wrong with this picture?

Companies are given DHS grants to develop and profit from secretly spying on Americans.

Secret government spying makes President Nixon’s Watergate scandal look like a child’s fairy tale.

You can read more from MassPrivateI at his blog HERE.

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