[mattduke]

Perhaps because in Obama's America whistle-blowers are sent to the gulag.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')img]http://wttg.images.worldnow.com/images/1665696_G.jpg[/img]



WASHINGTON -A saucer-shaped object on a very wide flatbed truck had some people wondering if the government was moving a UFO in or near Washington, D.C., Wednesday night. The truck came south on I-270, then took the inner loop of the Capital Beltway from Montgomery County into Prince George's County.

Well, it turns out the mysterious object on the truck cruising around the Beltway is capable of flight. It's an experimental, unmanned aircraft called an X-47B, according to Northrop Grumman spokesman Brooks McKinney.

The company spokesman said the saucer-like shape of the aircraft is a deliberate effort to make it harder to detect.

"[It's] a shape that minimizes its refection of potential ... enemy radar signals," said McKinney, who also pointed out that the aircraft has no tail.

The spacy-looking aircraft was being delivered to Patuxent Naval Air Station for testing. The manufacturer hopes that someday the government will purchase many of the drones so they can be stationed aboard U.S. Navy aircraft carriers. McKinney said the remotely-piloted aircraft can be used for surveillance or can be rigged to carry weapons.

Two of the experimental aircraft are now in Maryland.

Why not fly the drones from their previous base in California? McKinney said the FAA is not currently keen on unmanned transcontinental flights.
http://www.myfoxdc.com/story/18785637/beltway-ufo-said-to-be-military-drone-aircraft?clienttype=printable

[Tanada]

Skynet here we come! Why is it that cautionary tales are so frequently ignored? Before written language was available for the average human Tall Tales were passed down by our elders to help us figure our way when we made decisions. Now even fewer listen than ever before.

[Ferretlover]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]Drones over America: Are they spying on you?
Thousands of them could be flying in US skies within the next 10 years
By Brad Knickerbocker, Staff writer, , updated 6/16/2012
Most Americans have gotten used to regular news reports about military and CIA drones attacking terrorist suspects – including US citizens – in Pakistan, Yemen, and elsewhere abroad.
But picture thousands of drone aircraft buzzing around the United States – peering from the sky at breaches in border security, wildfires about to become major conflagrations, patches of marijuana grown illegally deep within national forests, or environmental scofflaws polluting the land, air, and water.
By some government estimates, as many as 30,000 drones could be part of intelligence gathering and law enforcement here in the United States within the next ten years. Operated by agencies down to the local level, this would be in addition to the 110 current and planned drone activity sites run by the military services in 39 states, reported this week by the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), a non-government research project. …
“Air Force Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) operations, exercise and training missions will not conduct nonconsensual surveillance on specifically identified US persons, unless expressly approved by the Secretary of Defense, consistent with US law and regulations,” according to an instruction on oversight of Air Force intelligence. …

[mattduke]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '�')��I do not want a drone monitoring where I go, what I do and for how long I do whatever it is that I'm doing,” US Senator Rand Paul, (R) of Kentucky, wrote on CNN’s website this week. “I do not want a nanny state watching over my every move. We should not be treated like criminals or terrorists while we are simply conducting our everyday lives. We should not have our rights infringed upon by unwarranted police-state tactics.”
Legislation introduced by Sen. Paul – the “Preserving Freedom from Unwarranted Surveillance Act of 2012” – would force police officials to obtain a warrant before using domestic drones.
“If the warrant is not obtained, this act would allow any person to sue the government,” Paul writes. “This act also specifies that no evidence obtained or collected in violation of this act can be admissible as evidence in a criminal, civil or regulatory action.”

[Ferretlover]

Consider the logistics of such a program! How many people would it take to build, maintain, And monitor a possible drones? Our national debt is over 15 trillon dollars--who's paying?
Would they be info gathering only (probably--at first), and not able to zap unruly citizens?

[seanpualion]

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Text deleted

[Ferretlover]

If anyone sees Skynet listed on the stock exchange, let me know, please!

New Army radar could put drones in domestic airspace in 2014
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he U.S. Army announced that it has completed a two-week test of its Ground-Based Sense and Avoid system, which will allow drones and unmanned aircraft to fly more safely in domestic airspace. The system will allow for safer flights with less manpower and oversight, though it doesn't address the concerns citizens might still have regarding UAVs in their neighborhoods.
Drones have been on the fast track at the FAA ever since their latest budget arrived with language suggesting they get moving on legalizing them. Police, national guard, scientists, everyone wants a drone, and while caution is a virtue at the FAA, sometimes things need to be expedited. Late 2015 is the hard limit on having regulations in place, and so the FAA is working with drone makers and operators to set down, for lack of a better term, some ground rules.
… If things go well, drones could be flying above a number of US forts as early as March of 2012. This doesn't mean they'll be hovering outside your window, but it is a step in that direction. Privacy and reasonable use by the authorities will be a completely different set of decisions and legislation, though; first they have to be air-legal, then they can be put to use.

[Sixstrings]

Air Force drone pilots train by targeting American cars on the highway:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')hen I visited the base earlier this year with a small group of reporters, we were taken into a command post where a large flat-screen television was broadcasting a video feed from a drone flying overhead. It took a few seconds to figure out exactly what we were looking at. A white S.U.V. traveling along a highway adjacent to the base came into the cross hairs in the center of the screen and was tracked as it headed south along the desert road. When the S.U.V. drove out of the picture, the drone began following another car.

“Wait, you guys practice tracking enemies by using civilian cars?” a reporter asked. One Air Force officer responded that this was only a training mission, and then the group was quickly hustled out of the room.

...

Even the pilots we interviewed wore black tape over their nametags. The Air Force, citing concerns for the pilots’ safety, forbids them to reveal their last names.

It is widely known that the United States has three different drone programs. The first is the publicly acknowledged program run by the Pentagon that has been operating in Iraq and Afghanistan. The other two are classified programs run separately by the C.I.A. and the military’s Joint Special Operations Command, which maintain separate lists of people targeted for killing.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/08/magazine/the-drone-zone.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all

[Tanada]

http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/20 ... future.php

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')t’s real, it’s inspired by maple seeds, and the company behind it, Lockheed Martin, envisions a future in which swarms of the new drones can be deployed at a fraction of the cost and with greater capabilities than drones being used today by the military and other agencies.

Borgia said that the drone, or unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), was designed to be deployed in confined settings, such as urban environments or even inside buildings, where it could be piloted into different rooms and hover outside of windows, collecting surveillance footage with ease.

The technology behind the drone is even more sophisticated than it looks. There are only two moving mechanical parts in the entire tiny 30-cm aircraft: The piece that makes the propeller rotate and a flap on the large wing that comprises most of the drone’s form.

Then there’s the Samarai’s realtime video feed, which an operator can pan and tilt in a full 360 degrees, a capability not found on any other drone of its class, this despite the fact that the drone only contains one camera which is constantly being whipped around by the rotating motion of the aircraft itself.

In order to obtain a steady video feed with the ability to virtually pan and tilt, Lockheed relies on a series of image processing algorithms, Borgia told TPM.

[mattduke]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', ' ')It took a few seconds to figure out exactly what we were looking at. A white S.U.V. traveling along a highway adjacent to the base came into the cross hairs in the center of the screen and was tracked as it headed south along the desert road. When the S.U.V. drove out of the picture, the drone began following another car.

“Wait, you guys practice tracking enemies by using civilian cars?” a reporter asked. One Air Force officer responded that this was only a training mission, and then the group was quickly hustled out of the room.

[mattduke]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]Russia Is Stockpiling Drones to Spy on Street Protests
By Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai, July 25, 2012
Small surveillance drones are starting to be part of police departments across America, and the FAA will soon open up the airspace for more to come. This drone invasion has already raised all kinds of privacy concerns. And if you think that’s bad, across the ocean, Russia seems hell-bent on outdoing its former Cold War enemy.
Russia’s leading manufacturer of unmanned aerial vehicles, Zala Aero, has provided the Russian government with more than 70 unmanned systems, each containing several aircraft. According to an article published yesterday on Open Democracy Russia, the Kremlin’s romance with drones started in 2006, when the Interior Ministry deployed a Zala 421-04M to monitor street protests at a G8 summit in St. Petersburg. The Russian government has also bought drones from Israel.
Vladimir Putin himself is ready to jump on the drone bandwagon. “We need a program for unmanned aircraft. Experts say this is the most important area of development in aviation,” he said in early June. “We need a range of all types, including automated strike aircraft, reconnaissance and other types.” Indeed, Russia is going to allegedly spend around $13 billion on unmanned aerial vehicles through 2020. ...

[gollum]

IMO drones are almost exclisivley for controlling your own population or dominating a third world country and would be of almost no use against a well equipped enemy.

[Ferretlover]

And, if it is your own government?
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]'Judge, jury and executioner': Legal experts fear implications of White House drone memo By Erin McClam, Staff Writer, NBC News, 5 Feb 2013:
Legal experts expressed grave reservations Tuesday about an Obama administration memo concluding that the United States can order the killing of American citizens believed to be affiliated with al-Qaida — with one saying the White House was acting as “judge, jury and executioner.” …
The memo, made public Monday, provides detail about the administration’s controversial expansion of drone strikes against al-Qaida suspects abroad, including those aimed at American citizens. …
Attorney General Eric Holder, in a talk at Northwestern University Law School in March, endorsed the constitutionality of targeted killings of Americans provided that the government determines such an individual poses “an imminent threat of violent attack.”
But the memo obtained by NBC News refers to a broader definition of imminence and specifically says the government is not required to have “clear evidence that a specific attack on U.S. persons and interests will take place in the immediate future.” …
“If you believe the president has the power to order U.S. citizens executed far from any battlefield with no charges or trial, then it’s truly hard to conceive of any asserted power you would find objectionable,” he wrote.
The attorney general told reporters Tuesday that the administration’s primary concern is to keep Americans safe, and to do it in a way consistent with American values. He said the administration was confident it was following federal and international law. …
The memo lays out a three-part test for making targeted killings of Americans lawful. The suspect must be deemed an imminent threat, capturing the target must not be feasible, and the strike must be conducted according to “law of war principles.” …

[argyle]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sixstrings', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')img]http://wttg.images.worldnow.com/images/1665696_G.jpg[/img]



WASHINGTON -A saucer-shaped object on a very wide flatbed truck had some people wondering if the government was moving a UFO in or near Washington, D.C., Wednesday night. The truck came south on I-270, then took the inner loop of the Capital Beltway from Montgomery County into Prince George's County.

Well, it turns out the mysterious object on the truck cruising around the Beltway is capable of flight. It's an experimental, unmanned aircraft called an X-47B, according to Northrop Grumman spokesman Brooks McKinney.

The company spokesman said the saucer-like shape of the aircraft is a deliberate effort to make it harder to detect.

"[It's] a shape that minimizes its refection of potential ... enemy radar signals," said McKinney, who also pointed out that the aircraft has no tail.

The spacy-looking aircraft was being delivered to Patuxent Naval Air Station for testing. The manufacturer hopes that someday the government will purchase many of the drones so they can be stationed aboard U.S. Navy aircraft carriers. McKinney said the remotely-piloted aircraft can be used for surveillance or can be rigged to carry weapons.

Two of the experimental aircraft are now in Maryland.

Why not fly the drones from their previous base in California? McKinney said the FAA is not currently keen on unmanned transcontinental flights.
http://www.myfoxdc.com/story/18785637/beltway-ufo-said-to-be-military-drone-aircraft?clienttype=printable

[Rod_Cloutier]

Obama called a 'War criminal' for his drone program in the Irish parliment this week:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... nJCvKA-oEU

Controversial journalist Michael Hastings killed by a drone strike inside the US?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvPW8qdx ... lpage#t=3s

Things are starting to unravel, both for the powers that be, and for the rest of us.

[Ferretlover]

So: We don't need pilots, but we do need over 2400 new planes. I wonder what new parameters have been added to the Wargame computers:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'P')lease take note certain details such as time and names of the pilots involved have to be changed in order to protect their interest. What matter the most all of the things mentioned -really happened.
21/02/00-ORANGELAND AF MAIN AIR BASE.
A pair of F16D Block 52 ready to perform SEAD 'operational training 'inside Malaysian airspace. Their objective is to gauge MAF air defense missiles/guns batteries reaction time + RMAF fighters scramble tactics. The F16Ds were equipped with ELSIRA advanced jammers + ASPJ pods, a pair of LANTRIN pods fitted on the first a/c, along with 2 drop tanks, a pair of AIM 9S, AIM 120 and PAVEWAY II bombs. The second a/c is fitted with a pair of drop tanks ,APSJ pods and a number of AIM 9S/AIM 120-purely air defense sorties. A E2C gives a details ground mapping details to the F16s once airborne via data link. Once airborne the F16s took the long route to gained access -inside Malaysian airspace by flying along the coastal area. At the same time Orangeland SIGINT C130 called in to the Malaysian ATC -pretending to be a commercial flight. Cruising at the level permitted only for civilian traffic-it is unlikely that the SIGINT a/c would be detected within the next 30 minutes.By then the above mentioned SEAD would be over. …
Zombie Watch

[Rod_Cloutier]

Now they have robotic war horses:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... Vw7nSg#t=5

Live horses were no longer up to spec.

Of all the good things we could use robots for; like robot maids, robot streetcleaners, ect. we choose this application instead:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... PXuQzo#t=0

[argyle]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sixstrings', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')img]http://wttg.images.worldnow.com/images/1665696_G.jpg[/img]



WASHINGTON -A saucer-shaped object on a very wide flatbed truck had some people wondering if the government was moving a UFO in or near Washington, D.C., Wednesday night. The truck came south on I-270, then took the inner loop of the Capital Beltway from Montgomery County into Prince George's County.

Well, it turns out the mysterious object on the truck cruising around the Beltway is capable of flight. It's an experimental, unmanned aircraft called an X-47B, according to Northrop Grumman spokesman Brooks McKinney.

The company spokesman said the saucer-like shape of the aircraft is a deliberate effort to make it harder to detect.

"[It's] a shape that minimizes its refection of potential ... enemy radar signals," said McKinney, who also pointed out that the aircraft has no tail.

The spacy-looking aircraft was being delivered to Patuxent Naval Air Station for testing. The manufacturer hopes that someday the government will purchase many of the drones so they can be stationed aboard U.S. Navy aircraft carriers. McKinney said the remotely-piloted aircraft can be used for surveillance or can be rigged to carry weapons.

Two of the experimental aircraft are now in Maryland.

Why not fly the drones from their previous base in California? McKinney said the FAA is not currently keen on unmanned transcontinental flights.
http://www.myfoxdc.com/story/18785637/beltway-ufo-said-to-be-military-drone-aircraft?clienttype=printable