The Air Force is investigating whether military aircraft were improperly used to monitor crowds during recent protests over the death of a black man in police custody despite the Pentagon’s top intelligence policy official already having told Congress that the demonstrations were not spied upon, the New York Times reported.
The USAF is conducting the inquiry apparently at the behest of lawmakers, according to the Times, who complained to the Pentagon believing that the civil rights of the protesters were violated by the surveillance.
“Following discussions with the secretary of defense about shared concerns, the secretary of the Air Force is conducting an investigation into the use of Air National Guard RC-26 aircraft to support civil authorities during recent protest activity in U.S. cities,” Air Force spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder told the Times.
The probe comes following a letter last week from Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security Joseph D. Kernan to the House Intelligence Committee in which he said he had received no orders from the Trump administration to conduct surveillance.
It also highlights the political divisions between those such as President Donald Trump and Sen. Tom Cotton, who called for the use of military personnel to quell protests in cities, and those who decried the deployment of troops against the protesters.
More than 5,000 National Guard troops were deployed to Washington and thousands more to other cities to help quell protests, the Times said.
On June 2, a message seen by the Times sent by National Guard officials told their commanders that the West Virginia Air National Guard had sent a RC-26B to help observe the protests.
An RC-26B is a military variant of a turboprop civilian transport plane, built by Fairchild Aircraft, modified with electronic surveillance equipment mostly for drug interdiction missions.
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