How I tracked FBI aerial surveillance by John Wiseman.
John give full details of how he scooped AP by 25 days on FBI aerial surveillance. Not to mention that he links to how you can build a similar setup. A setup that uses Clojure! (Plus a software defined radio for you hobbyists out there.)
Assembling a cast of watchers/employees at airports who can photograph people exiting specific planes would be a big step towards matching people up to surveillance flights. Not to mention running photo searches to identify the people themselves.
A gold fish bowl world isn’t the best choice but the government has made that choice. It is up to the rest of us to see that they enjoy the full benefit of that choice. Perhaps they will choose differently at some point in the future.