Drones

Police, FBI, DEA Use Predator Drones From U.S. Air Force Base In Domestic Operations

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– Police employ Predator drone spy planes on home front (Los Angeles Times, Dec. 10, 2011):

Unmanned aircraft from an Air Force base in North Dakota help local police with surveillance, raising questions that trouble privacy advocates.

Reporting from Washington — Armed with a search warrant, Nelson County Sheriff Kelly Janke went looking for six missing cows on the Brossart family farm in the early evening of June 23. Three men brandishing rifles chased him off, he said.

Janke knew the gunmen could be anywhere on the 3,000-acre spread in eastern North Dakota. Fearful of an armed standoff, he called in reinforcements from the state Highway Patrol, a regional SWAT team, a bomb squad, ambulances and deputy sheriffs from three other counties.

He also called in a Predator B drone.

As the unmanned aircraft circled 2 miles overhead the next morning, sophisticated sensors under the nose helped pinpoint the three suspects and showed they were unarmed. Police rushed in and made the first known arrests of U.S. citizens with help from a Predator, the spy drone that has helped revolutionize modern warfare.

But that was just the start. Local police say they have used two unarmed Predators based at Grand Forks Air Force Base to fly at least two dozen surveillance flights since June. The FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration have used Predators for other domestic investigations, officials said.

“We don’t use [drones] on every call out,” said Bill Macki, head of the police SWAT team in Grand Forks. “If we have something in town like an apartment complex, we don’t call them.”

The drones belong to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which operates eight Predators on the country’s northern and southwestern borders to search for illegal immigrants and smugglers. The previously unreported use of its drones to assist local, state and federal law enforcement has occurred without any public acknowledgment or debate.

Read morePolice, FBI, DEA Use Predator Drones From U.S. Air Force Base In Domestic Operations

Iran Shows Off Captured US Drone, Claims To Have Overridden Drone Flight Control Systems (Video)

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YouTube Added: 08.12.2011

– Iran shows off captured US drone (Telegraph, Dec. 8, 2011):

Iran triumphantly displayed one of America’s most advanced intelligence-gathering aircraft on Thursday after a spy drone crashed on its territory, leading Russia and China to ask to inspect its technology.

The RQ-170 Sentinel, supposedly the CIA’s unseen “eye in the sky”, capable of beaming back a trove of imagery and electronic intercepts, was broadcast on Iranian state television.

The aircraft was shown beneath an Iranian flag, apparently intact after crashing 140 miles inside the country last Sunday. State television claimed that an electronic attack had forced it down by overriding flight systems. American officials acknowledged the loss of the aircraft, but said it was more likely the drone had simply crashed.

Read moreIran Shows Off Captured US Drone, Claims To Have Overridden Drone Flight Control Systems (Video)

US Drone Lost Over Iran Was On CIA Operation – Rep. Dennis Kucinich: ‘The Events Have Been Confirmed, So When You Start To Connect The Dots, Those Dots Start To Spell The Word WAR’ (Video)

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Yes, just imagine Iran would have done the same to the US!

Ouch!

– US Drone Lost Over Iran Was On CIA Operation (Sky News, Dec. 7, 2011):

The US military has said a missing unmanned spyplane was involved in a joint CIA military operation on Afghanistan’s border with Iran.

The Pentagon has admitted the RQ 170 Sentinel drone is lost somewhere in Iran.

But the US disputes Iranian claims to have shot down the state-of-the-art spy aircraft.

News of the CIA involvement is causing controversy in Washington.

Congressman Dennis Kucinich told Sky News the involvement of America’s spy agency was a worrying development.

“We have to be very careful that we don’t stumble into a wider war here. If we are in Iran’s airpace with anything that belongs to the US, that’s a provocation,” he said.

Read moreUS Drone Lost Over Iran Was On CIA Operation – Rep. Dennis Kucinich: ‘The Events Have Been Confirmed, So When You Start To Connect The Dots, Those Dots Start To Spell The Word WAR’ (Video)

NATO Attack Kills 24 Pakistani Soldiers – Pakistan Demands US To Vacate Air Base Within 15 Days, Blocks Vital Afghanistan Supply Routes

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– NATO attack allegedly kills 24 Pakistani troops (AP, Nov. 26, 2011)

Updated:

– Pakistan demands US vacate suspected drone base (AP, Nov. 26, 2011):

ISLAMABAD — The Pakistani government has demanded the U.S. vacate an air base within 15 days that the CIA is suspected of using for unmanned drones.

The government issued the demand Saturday after NATO helicopters and jet fighters allegedly attacked two Pakistan army posts along the Afghan border, killing 24 Pakistani soldiers.

Islamabad outlined the demand in a statement it sent to reporters following an emergency defense committee meeting chaired by Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.

Shamsi Air Base is located in southwestern Baluchistan province. The U.S. is suspected of using the facility in the past to launch armed drones and observation aircraft to keep pressure on Taliban and al-Qaida militants in Pakistan’s tribal region.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan blocked vital supply routes for U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan on Saturday after coalition helicopters and fighter jets allegedly killed 24 Pakistani troops at two posts along a mountainous frontier that serves as a safe haven for militants.

Read moreNATO Attack Kills 24 Pakistani Soldiers – Pakistan Demands US To Vacate Air Base Within 15 Days, Blocks Vital Afghanistan Supply Routes

New Police Drone Could Carry Weapons (Video)

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Watch the video here.

– New Police Drone Near Houston Could Carry Weapons (Houston News, Oct. 28, 2011):

CONROE, Texas — A Houston area law enforcement agency is prepared to launch an unmanned drone that could someday carry weapons, Local 2 Investigates reported Friday.

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office in Conroe paid $300,000 in federal homeland security grant money and Friday it received the ShadowHawk unmanned helicopter made by Vanguard Defense Industries of Spring.

A laptop computer is used to control the 50-pound unmanned chopper, and a game-like console is used to aim and zoom a powerful camera and infrared heat-seeking device mounted on the front.

“To be in on the ground floor of this is pretty exciting for us here in Montgomery County,” Sheriff Tommy Gage said.

He said the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) could be used in hunting criminals who are running from police or assessing a scene where SWAT team officers are facing an active shooter.

Gage said it will also be deployed for criminal investigations such as drug shipments.

“We’re not going to use it to be invading somebody’s privacy. It’ll be used for situations we have with criminals,” Gage said.

US Drone Wars – Obama: ‘I Have Two Words For You, Predator Drones’ – ‘You Will Never See It Coming’ – ‘You Think I’m Joking’ (Video)

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YouTube Added: 30.10.2011

See also:

– US Drones Kill 6 In Pakistan

– President Obama To Jay Leno: Libya Is ‘A Recipe For Success’

– CIA Assassinates 16-Year-Old American Citizen From Denver In Yemen

– Killing Gaddafi: Longstanding US Policy

– Why Libya Was Attacked

US Drones Kill 6 In Pakistan

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– Suspected US drones kill 6 in Pakistan (Guardian, Oct. 30, 2011):

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Suspected U.S. unmanned aircraft fired six missiles at a vehicle in Pakistan’s tribal region near the Afghan border Sunday, killing six alleged militants, Pakistani intelligence officials said.

The high number of missiles used in the attack in the Datta Khel area of North Waziristan seemed to indicate an important militant was targeted. But the identities of those killed were as yet unknown, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Read moreUS Drones Kill 6 In Pakistan

CIA Assassinates 16-Year-Old American Citizen From Denver In Yemen

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“Terrorism is the best political weapon for nothing drives people harder than a fear of sudden death.”
– Adolf Hitler

“By the skillful and sustained use of propaganda, one can make a people see even heaven as hell or an extremely wretched life as paradise.”
– Adolf Hitler

Don’t miss:

– Secret US Panel Can Put Americans On ‘KILL LIST’ (Reuters)

– Ron Paul: Obama Impeachment A Possibility (Politico)

– Dr. Paul Craig Roberts: The Day America Died – The Only Future For Americans Is A Nightmare

– The Secret Memo That Explains Why President Obama Can Kill Americans Without Due Process

– President Obama Argues His Unconstitutional Assassination Program Is A ‘State Secret’

– An American Teenager in Yemen: Paying for the Sins of His Father? (TIME, Oct. 27, 2011):

A wave of CIA drone strikes targeting al-Qaeda figures in Yemen is stoking widespread anger there that U.S. policy is cruel and misguided, prioritizing counterterrorism over a genuine solution to the country’s raging political crisis.

Politics has never been a concern to Sam al-Homiganyi and his fellow teenagers. This month, though, they were shocked by the sudden death of a friend and are struggling to understand why.

Fighting back tears, his gaze fixed downward, al-Homiganyi, a lean-looking 15-year-old from the outskirts of Sana’a, told TIME, “He was my best friend, we played football together everyday.” Another of his friends spoke up, gesturing to the gloomy group of jeans-clad boys around him: “He was the same as us. He liked swimming, playing computer games, watching movies … you know, normal stuff.”

The dead friend was Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, a 16-year-old born in Denver, the third American killed in as many weeks by suspected CIA drone strikes in Yemen. His father, the radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, also an American citizen, was killed earlier this month, along with alleged al-Qaeda propagandist Samir Khan, who was from New York. When Abdulrahman’s death was first reported in the Western press, his age was given as 21 by local Yemeni officials. Afterward, however, the Awlaki family put out a copy of Abdulrahman’s birth certificate.

Read moreCIA Assassinates 16-Year-Old American Citizen From Denver In Yemen

US Troops To Get ‘Switchblade’ Kamikaze Drones (Video)

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YouTube

– UAS Advanced Development: Switchblade™ (AeroVironment, Inc.)

– US Army to fly ‘kamikaze’ drones (Breitbart, Oct. 17, 2011):

A miniature “kamikaze” drone designed to quietly hover in the sky before dive-bombing and slamming into a human target will soon be part of the US Army’s arsenal, officials say.Dubbed the “Switchblade,” the robotic aircraft represents the latest attempt by the United States to refine how it takes out suspected militants.

Weighing less than two kilos, the drone is small enough to fit into a soldier’s backpack and is launched from a tube, with wings quickly folding out as it soars into the air, according to manufacturer AeroVironment.

Powered by a small electric motor, the Switchblade transmits video in real time from overhead, allowing a soldier to identify an enemy, the company said in a press release last month.

“Upon confirming the target using the live video feed, the operator then sends a command to the air vehicle to arm it and lock its trajectory onto the target,” it said.

The drone then flies into the “target,” detonating a small explosive.

– US Troops Will Soon Get Tiny Kamikaze Drone (Wired, Oct. 18, 2011):

AeroVironment calls its teeny-tiny killer drone the Switchblade. Essentially a guided missile small enough to fit in a backback and fire at a single foe, it might be the kind of blade U.S. troops soon bring to a gunfight with Afghan insurgents.

Read moreUS Troops To Get ‘Switchblade’ Kamikaze Drones (Video)

Here Is What DHS Does With It’s $98.8 Billion Budget

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See also:

– Homeland Security Moves Forward With ‘Pre-Crime’ Detection System ‘FAST’

– FBI To Launch Nationwide Facial Recognition Service

– Nowhere To Run: Drones – Facial Recognition – Soft Biometrics – Threat Assessments

Flashback:

– Former governor Jesse Ventura Conspiracy Theory: Police State (And FEMA Concentration Camps)

– The invisible surveillance state: DHS and the end of America as we know it (Activist Post, Oct. 9, 2011):

Since its inception in response to the September 11th attacks, the behemoth bureaucracy known as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has grown into an organization that is nothing short of nightmarish.

The DHS boasts 216,000 employees (as of 2010), a $98.8 billion budget in the 2011 fiscal year, and child agencies that include: Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Transportation Security Administration (TSA), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), United States Coast Guard (USCG), United States Secret Service (USSS), and the National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD).

The DHS has been behind countless highly controversial policies and incidents including (but definitely not limited to):

Read moreHere Is What DHS Does With It’s $98.8 Billion Budget

Computer Virus Infects US Drone Fleet

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– Exclusive: Computer Virus Hits U.S. Drone Fleet (Wired, Oct. 7, 2011):

A computer virus has infected the cockpits of America’s Predator and Reaper drones, logging pilots’ every keystroke as they remotely fly missions over Afghanistan and other warzones.

The virus, first detected nearly two weeks ago by the military’s Host-Based Security System, has not prevented pilots at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada from flying their missions overseas. Nor have there been any confirmed incidents of classified information being lost or sent to an outside source. But the virus has resisted multiple efforts to remove it from Creech’s computers, network security specialists say. And the infection underscores the ongoing security risks in what has become the U.S. military’s most important weapons system.

“We keep wiping it off, and it keeps coming back,” says a source familiar with the network infection, one of three that told Danger Room about the virus. “We think it’s benign. But we just don’t know.”

Read moreComputer Virus Infects US Drone Fleet

Top Al-Qaeda Bomb Maker Did NOT Die In Drone Strike: Top Yemeni Official

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– Top Al Qaeda bomb maker did NOT die in drone strike, claim Yemenis after body search (Daily Mail, Oct. 3, 2011):

Al Qaeda’s top bomb maker in Yemen did not die in a drone strike on a convoy, a top Yemeni official said today, dashing American hopes that the attack might have killed a trio of top terrorists.

The U.S. drone strike on Friday killed U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and an American propagandist, Samir Khan, who published a slick English-language web magazine that spouted al Qaeda’s anti-Western ideology.

U.S. intelligence officials had said it appeared that bomb maker Ibrahim al-Asiri was among the dead.

Read moreTop Al-Qaeda Bomb Maker Did NOT Die In Drone Strike: Top Yemeni Official

Nowhere To Run: Drones – Facial Recognition – Soft Biometrics – Threat Assessments

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– Nowhere to run: drones, facial recognition, soft biometrics and threat assessments (Activist Post, Sep. 30, 2011):

It is the stuff of science fiction: a drone flies hundreds of feet overhead, rapidly snapping images and collating them into a 3D model of your face, verifying your identity, recording your social interactions and even creating threat assessments of yourself and those you associate with.

Unfortunately, this is not science fiction. This is real technology being developed as you read this under several military contracts, all paid for by the American taxpayer adding on to the black hole of debt which continues to grow unabated thanks to unnecessary spending like this.

What is worse is that like most military technology, we can expect this new paradigm of war to bleed into domestic police activities and so-called homeland security operations.

Read moreNowhere To Run: Drones – Facial Recognition – Soft Biometrics – Threat Assessments

The Future For Drones: Automated Killing

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– A future for drones: Automated killing (Washington Post, Sep. 20, 2011):

One afternoon last fall at Fort Benning, Ga., two model-size planes took off, climbed to 800 and 1,000 feet, and began criss-crossing the military base in search of an orange, green and blue tarp.

The automated, unpiloted planes worked on their own, with no human guidance, no hand on any control.

After 20 minutes, one of the aircraft, carrying a computer that processed images from an onboard camera, zeroed in on the tarp and contacted the second plane, which flew nearby and used its own sensors to examine the colorful object. Then one of the aircraft signaled to an unmanned car on the ground so it could take a final, close-up look.

Target confirmed.

This successful exercise in autonomous robotics could presage the future of the American way of war: a day when drones hunt, identify and kill the enemy based on calculations made by software, not decisions made by humans. Imagine aerial “Terminators,” minus beefcake and time travel.

Read moreThe Future For Drones: Automated Killing

US: UAVs To Patrol Our Skies – They Can Taser You From Above!

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– Tased From Above! New Robot Copter To Begin Patrolling Our Skies (Video)


The new, heavily-armed ShadowHawk can track perpetrators using normal or infrared light.

Forget the idea that weaponized unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are only for military operations in wars fought in far off lands. Soon they’ll begin setting their sights on criminals within our borders. And they’ll be packing heat, not the long-range missiles of the X-47B, but with up close and personal stun guns, 12-gauge shotguns and, believe it or not, grenade launchers.

The ShadowHawk is the seven-foot, 50-lb copter that is the toy-sized dealer of destruction from Texas-based Vanguard Defense Industries. The copter is the result of three years of development. If being tased from above sounds frightening to you, I suggest you cease all criminal activities now (simply staying indoors is an option). There’s a good chance ShadowHawk’s spine tingling buzz could be heard approaching a city near you. As a sign of new law enforcement tactics to come, the Sheriff’s Office of Montgomery County, Texas was recently awarded a grant by the Department of Homeland Security for a squadron of ShadowHawks. Montgomery County’s Chief Deputy Randy McDaniel is psyched. “We are very excited about the funding and looking forward to placing the equipment into the field. Both my narcotics and SWAT units have been looking at numerous ways to deploy it and I absolutely believe it will become a critical component on all SWAT callouts and narcotics raids and emergency management operations.”

The Department of Homeland Security grant is just the latest indication that the US is taking the military’s lead – with over 7,000 drones in the skies of Iraq and Afghanistan – and using drones as a key tactical tool. In 2009 a surveillance drone called the Wasp was used during a SWAT raid in Austin, Texas. The Wasp climbed to 400 feet and beamed realtime video of a house in which an armed drug dealer was hiding. After the team had confirmed that there were no unforeseen dangers lurking in the backyard, they stormed the house and arrested the suspect. Drones are also helping the US to secure its borders against illegal immigration and drug trafficking. Just a few months ago the Obama administration began sending drones to Mexico to gather intelligence and help in the country’s war on drugs.

Read moreUS: UAVs To Patrol Our Skies – They Can Taser You From Above!

Pakistan Shuts US Out Of Drone Base

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– Pakistan shuts US out of drone base (Financial Times, June 29, 2011):

Pakistan has called a stop to US drone flights from a base that has launched strikes against Taliban and al-Qaeda militants on its border with Afghanistan.

In the latest sign of US-Pakistan tensions, Chaudhary Ahmed Mukhtar, defence minister, said on Wednesday that Islamabad had ended US operations at the Shamsi airbase in Baluchistan. The move comes after a surge of anti-American feeling in the wake of the killing of Osama bin Laden last month in a US raid on Abbottabad, a Pakistani hill station.

The Fukushima Fuku-Ups Continue: Robot Fail, HoverDrone Fail, Water Decon Fail – OK for Ft Calhoun Spent Fuel Dry Cask To Be Dunked

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– Fukushima Fuku-Ups Continue (Asian-Week, June 24, 2011):

AP reports that
the Japanese have finally brought out their own robots instead of the military-strength Roombas. Well, the Quince robot built by Chiba Institute of Technology specifically for nuclear disasters was sent to unit 2 to have a peek at the radioactive stew in the basement. but got stuck at a staircase landing. Plus the cable to drop a gauge into the basement didn’t work either. The T-hawk hover drone gizmo they got from the US military also landed or landed or crashed depending on who was writing on the roof of Unit 2, the building that still has a roof. It’s on its side, so I’d call that a crash.

What somebody called their try at making Fukushima Springs Bottled Water failed when their spectacular hacked together cesium filter essentially bottled up more radioactive bad crap to render the filter too hot for workers to even remove after a matter of hours when they were planning on the water being much less severely contamainated so that it was supposed to run for a month. That’s a problem because they can’t dump any more water to cool things if they don’t have any place to put it, and it goes into the ocean.

Read moreThe Fukushima Fuku-Ups Continue: Robot Fail, HoverDrone Fail, Water Decon Fail – OK for Ft Calhoun Spent Fuel Dry Cask To Be Dunked

War Evolves With Surveillance And Killer Drones, Some Tiny As Bugs, Hiding in Plain Sight

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– War Evolves With Drones, Some Tiny as Bugs (New York Times, June 19, 2011):

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio — Two miles from the cow pasture where the Wright Brothers learned to fly the first airplanes, military researchers are at work on another revolution in the air: shrinking unmanned drones, the kind that fire missiles into Pakistan and spy on insurgents in Afghanistan, to the size of insects and birds.

The base’s indoor flight lab is called the “microaviary,” and for good reason. The drones in development here are designed to replicate the flight mechanics of moths, hawks and other inhabitants of the natural world. “We’re looking at how you hide in plain sight,” said Greg Parker, an aerospace engineer, as he held up a prototype of a mechanical hawk that in the future might carry out espionage or kill.

Read moreWar Evolves With Surveillance And Killer Drones, Some Tiny As Bugs, Hiding in Plain Sight

Pentagon Contractor AeroVironment Developed World’s First Hummingbird Spy Drone

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Five years and $4 million later, AeroVironment has developed what it calls the world’s first hummingbird spy drone.


Matt Keennon, program director at AeroVironment, demonstrates a tiny, drone aircraft known as the ‘nano-hummingbird,’ during a briefing at the company’s facility in Simi Valley, Calif., Friday, Feb. 25, 2011. With a 6.5-inch wing span, the remote-controlled hummingbird plane weighs less than an AA battery and can fly at speeds of up to 11 mph, propelled only by the flapping of its two wings. It can climb and descend vertically, fly sideways, forward and backward, as well as rotate clockwise and counterclockwise, and hover.… Read more »
(AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

SAN DIEGO – You’ll never look at hummingbirds the same again.

The Pentagon has poured millions of dollars into the development of tiny drones inspired by biology, each equipped with video and audio equipment that can record sights and sounds.

They could be used to spy, but also to locate people inside earthquake-crumpled buildings and detect hazardous chemical leaks.

The smaller, the better.

Besides the hummingbird, engineers in the growing unmanned aircraft industry are working on drones that look like insects and the helicopter-like maple leaf seed.

Researchers are even exploring ways to implant surveillance and other equipment into an insect as it is undergoing metamorphosis. They want to be able to control the creature.

Read morePentagon Contractor AeroVironment Developed World’s First Hummingbird Spy Drone

New Air Force Stealth Bomber Could Control Drones, Fire Lasers, Bust Bunkers

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How many people are on food stamps in the US and can’t feed themselves anymore?

What could be more important than a new stealth bomber???

The Air Force’s new stealth bomber might do more than just drop bombs, top generals said in recent days. The so-called “Long-Range Strike” plane — likely to be designated B-3 — could also carry bunker-busting, rocket-boosted munitions, high-powered lasers for self-defense and datalinks, and consoles for controlling radar-evading drones.

These add-ons, described by Air Force generals Philip Breedlove, William Fraser and David Scott, are meant to make the new bomber more lethal and harder to shoot down, even in the face of rapidly-modernizing air defenses such as China’s. “The purpose of this aircraft is to survive in an Anti-Access Area Denial environment,”Scott said, using the latest Pentagon term for defended airspace.

To that end, the bomber’s lasers might zap incoming missiles and fighters; the drones could fly ahead to scout and disable air-defense radars; the bunker-busters should ensure the bomber can actually destroy the enemy’s facilities once it breaks through the defenses.

With just $3.7 billion budgeted over the next five years to develop the bomber, lasers, bunker-busters, and drone-controls might seem unaffordable. And risky, considering the Air Force has said it must stick with “proven” technologies to keep the new bomber on-budget.

Read moreNew Air Force Stealth Bomber Could Control Drones, Fire Lasers, Bust Bunkers

Micro Drones to Fly Surveillance Missions Over The US

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Jan. 28 2011 — In 2007, it was revealed by reporters in Texas that unmanned drones were being used in supposed border control operations.  We detailed that report with supporting evidence that drones clearly were being used inland away from border control functions.

Recently, an article from Miami-Dade announced the arrival of a 16-pound micro drone T-Hawk surveillance model designed by Honeywell. The video below shows a more detailed view of the capabilities of this surveillance drone.  Keep in mind, this is only what is being announced at the moment, which has nothing to do with the massive amount of R&D that has being going on to reduce the size of flying surveillance.  There have even been reports about “wasp” drones to sniff out Wi-FI networks as well.

Pending FAA approval, these specific unmanned aerial vehicles are set to be used domestically throughout the United States. Besides the obvious uses for these drones such as during a legitimate raid, these drones may be used in order to further the police state and restrict free speech in America.

“U.K. police have used micro UAVs to monitor ‘anti-social behavior,’ writes Joseph Nevins of the Boston Review.

At this point, domestic UAV operations are extremely limited. But with the astonishing growth of the industry and the efforts of AUVSI, the UAV Caucus, and others to loosen FAA restrictions, we can expect an explosion of use by local and federal policing agencies in the near future. such as political protests. This is simply another push towards a complete police state.

What will be considered anti-social behavior remains to be seen, but if the ever evolving police state is any indication these drones will be used to spy on citizens who are against the private Federal Reserve, Obamacare, and the New World Order.

This information is right out there in the open yet it seems that the American people are once again asleep at the wheel. Where are the widespread protests against the aerial surveillance of any American that the corrupt federal government chooses to set their sights on?

We’re clearly entering some sort of science fiction reality where anything seems to be possible.  We have flying vaccines on the backs of GM mosquitoes, as well as the imminent arrival of nanotechnology and nanobots in our daily lives, which only portends more nightmarish developments from the Department of Defense.  But here is the latest from Honeywell, a huge military contractor working with DARPA:


Added: 28. January 2011

Friday, January 28, 2011
Michael Edwards and Alex Thomas

Source: Activist Post and The Intel Hub

US Air Force’s Revolutionary Airborne Surveillance System: ‘We can see everything’

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In ancient times, Gorgon was a mythical Greek creature whose unblinking eyes turned to stone those who beheld them. In modern times, Gorgon may be one of the military’s most valuable new tools.

This winter, the Air Force is set to deploy to Afghanistan what it says is a revolutionary airborne surveillance system called Gorgon Stare, which will be able to transmit live video images of physical movement across an entire town.

The system, made up of nine video cameras mounted on a remotely piloted aircraft, can transmit live images to soldiers on the ground or to analysts tracking enemy movements. It can send up to 65 different images to different users; by contrast, Air Force drones today shoot video from a single camera over a “soda straw” area the size of a building or two.

With the new tool, analysts will no longer have to guess where to point the camera, said Maj. Gen. James O. Poss, the Air Force’s assistant deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. “Gorgon Stare will be looking at a whole city, so there will be no way for the adversary to know what we’re looking at, and we can see everything.”

Read moreUS Air Force’s Revolutionary Airborne Surveillance System: ‘We can see everything’

Paparazzi ‘to Deploy Unmanned Drones’

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Celebrities could soon be running for cover as paparazzi deploy unmanned drones to take their pictures, according to reports.


Paparazzi could soon be using unmanned drones to take their photographs Photo: REX By Nick Allen in Los Angeles 6:11PM GMT 08 Nov 2010

So-called “personal drones” mounted with cameras have already been used by police in crime fighting and photographers believe they could also be used to track stars.

Remote controlled flying devices about the size of pizza boxes are being developed by several companies and universities in the US and could be in use by the end of next year.

They are much smaller, simpler versions of the Predator drones used by the CIA to fire missiles in Afghanistan.

Ken Rinaldo, an associate professor at Ohio State University, is working on the “Paparazzi Drone.” At the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada earlier this year he deployed “Paparazzi Bots,” human-sized robots which followed athletes and spectators and took photographs of them.

Prof Rinaldo told the Wall Street Journal his drones would have “a lot of flash and bling, probably some lasers too.” The US Federal Aviation Administration advises that only the government should use unmanned drones over US airspace.

However, it does not have rules prohibiting the flying of mini-drones for recreational purposes, and only advises that such aircraft be flown at low altitude and away from airports.

Read morePaparazzi ‘to Deploy Unmanned Drones’

Iran unveils long-distance bomber drone intended to deter aggression ‘and keep the enemy paralysed in his bases’

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President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says craft has ‘main message of peace and friendship’ but is intended to deter aggression

mahmoud-ahmadinejad-iran-unveils-long-distance-bomber-drone
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at a ceremony inaugurating Iran’s new long-range unmanned bomber aircraft. The drone has been dubbed the Karrar, meaning ‘striker’ in Persian. (AP)

Iran has unveiled an unmanned, long-distance bomber drone described by the country’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as “an ambassador of death” to Tehran’s enemies.

At a ceremony today, Ahmadinejad said the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) – named Karrar, meaning “striker” in Persian – had “a main message of peace and friendship” but was intended to deter aggression “and keep the enemy paralysed in his bases”.

The presentation came as technicians began fuelling the Islamic republic’s first nuclear power station, at Bushehr, in a development Israel has described as “totally unacceptable”.

The US and Britain say the Bushehr plant, which is monitored by the UN’s nuclear watchdog, poses no proliferation threat because Russia is supplying the nuclear fuel and will remove the spent fuel rods, minimising any risk that they could be used to make nuclear weapons.

Iran is under UN sanctions to force a halt to uranium enrichment because of fears that it secretly plans to build nuclear weapons. It flatly denies having any such intention.

(Iran has not the capability to enrich uranium over 90%, which is neccessary to built a nuclear weapon.)

Ahmed Vahidi, the Iranian defence minister, said the Karrar had a range of up to 620 miles, which is not far enough to reach Israel.

Iranian state TV reported that the UAV could carry four cruise missiles, two 250lb bombs or one 500lb bomb.

The drone was the latest item of military hardware to be inaugurated by Iran against a background of continuing tension over the nuclear issue.

On Friday, Tehran test-fired a new surface-to-surface missile called the Qiam (meaning “rising”). It has already developed long-range missiles capable of hitting Israel and eastern Europe and of carrying a nuclear warhead.

Earlier this month, the Debka file website, which appears to have links to Israeli intelligence (LOL! Debka file is a Mossad asset!), reported that the father of Iran’s UAV programme, Reza Baruni, had been assassinated in a bomb attack in his home town of Ahwaz, in Khuzestan.

Read moreIran unveils long-distance bomber drone intended to deter aggression ‘and keep the enemy paralysed in his bases’

US Predator Drones to Surveil Mexican Border

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See also: Big Brother DHS And DOD Want To Open US Skies To Spy Drones

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A Predator drone takes off on a U.S. Customs Border Patrol mission from Fort Huachuca, Ariz.

WASHINGTON — The Homeland Security Department will use unmanned surveillance aircraft and other technological upgrades in its ongoing effort to protect the southern border of the United States.

The department said Wednesday it has obtained Federal Aviation Administration permission to operate unmanned planes along the Texas border and throughout the Gulf Coast region. Customs and Border Protection will base a surveillance drone at the Corpus Christi Naval Air Station in Texas.

Read moreUS Predator Drones to Surveil Mexican Border