Writing in the Bangor Daily News today, Mal Leary reported that Maine lawmakers and the ACLU of Maine are concerned about drones. We appreciate the coverage of this important issue, and we certainly appreciate the company when it comes to insisting on safeguards of this powerful new technology.
For those who don't know, drones are remote control aircraft equipped with weapons and surveillance technology. They have been used on the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq, and in other countries far from any recognized battlefield. The government has praised the predator drone program in public, while refusing to confirm its existence in the courts.
Now, there are plans in the works to make it easier to use this technology here at home, to spy on us. These eyes in the sky have the potential to significantly alter the relationship between the people of this country and the government. Our most basic right, as Justice Brandeis once wrote, is the right to be left alone. If the government is allowed to conduct surveillance from the skies at all times, that right would be a memory.
