Drones Watch: January 2014
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2014-01-16 09:40:59 UTC
- Modified: 2014-01-16 09:40:59 UTC
Summary: The latest news and analysis about a controversial strategy of assassinating people (and those around them) selected by the NSA
-
The future has sneaked up on us unnoticed. What was science fiction a couple of decades ago is now everyday reality. But it’s not only computers and smartphones – the progress has brought us new war machines – unmanned drones striking from the skies are no surprise for anyone today. But what has the progress of warfare prepared for us in the coming years? Today we speak to a Nobel Peace Prize-winning woman, who has fought against landmines – and won. Now she is on a crusade against the new deadly threat – killer robots. Jody Williams is today’s guest on Sophie&Co.
-
Yemeni legislators are aware that the drone war is deeply unpopular. Since the Dec,. 12 strike, our parliament has unanimously voted to ban drone flights in Yemeni airspace, declaring them a “grave breach” of the country’s sovereignty. For a country so often divided, this unanimity from Yemen’s most representative bodies testifies to the strength of opinion against drones. But their calls have thus far met only with more bombings from the skies. How can the people of Yemen build trust in their fledgling democracy when our collective will is ignored by democracy’s greatest exponent?
-
On December 12 a bride and groom traveled to their wedding in al-Baitha province, Yemen. It was supposed to be a day of celebration. Instead, in a few seconds, their happiness was obliterated. A U.S. drone fired at the wedding procession, destroying five vehicles and killing most of their occupants. Not even the bride's car, beautifully decorated with flowers, was spared from the carnage.
-
First it was “extraordinary rendition,” sending people we suspected of being terrorists or being affiliated in some vague way with terrorists, to friendly countries whose enthusiasm for brutalizing folks exceeded our proclaimed standards. That policy emerged in the Clinton administration. Second was condoning torture (a Bush-Cheney policy). Next, drones that kill our enemies and also cause “collateral damage,” a sanitized term for murdering innocent bystanders, including babies (refined to a high art in the Obama administration).
-
Invasion of the drones. As corporations and government agencies alike prepare for their part in the coming drone invasion--it is expected that at least 30,000 drones will occupy U.S. airspace by 2020, ushering in a $30 billion per year industry--it won't be long before Americans discover first-hand that drones--unmanned aerial vehicles--come in all shapes and sizes, from nano-sized drones as small as a grain of sand that can do everything from conducting surveillance to detonating explosive charges, to middle-sized copter drones that can deliver pizzas to massive "hunter/killer" Predator warships that unleash firepower from on high.
-
To the left is an F-35. It is -- at least in theory -- the pinnacle of American military aviation.
-
And so, for the first time in recent history, it seems that the “war against terror” – and specifically against al-Qa’ida – is being fought by Middle East regimes rather than their foreign investors.
Sure, American drones still smash into al-Qa’ida operatives, wedding parties and innocent homes in Pakistan. But it’s General al-Sisi of Egypt, President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of Iraq, President Hassan Rouhani of Iran – even powerless President Michel Sleiman of Lebanon – who are now fighting “terrorists”.
-
But then, on the following night after the government began broadcasting the videos, and as rage against Aqap was reaching a fevered pitch, an unmanned American military drone flying over the Radaa province, some 150 kilometres south-east of Sanaa, fired a missile into Yemen. It struck a vehicle in a wedding procession, killing 12 people and wounding dozens more. Almost instantly, the public discourse shifted, the anger redirected. Al Qaeda had almost destroyed itself but America came to its rescue.
-
At least ten states will be sites for testing drones — unmanned aircraft — in the next couple of years, the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) announced on Monday. Six institutions have been authorized to operate test locations for the use of drones and for studying how they will interact with air traffic systems.
The drones are not the Predators, Global Hawks or other government-operated long-range planes but aircraft with potentially commercial and other uses. For instance, a Styrofoam helicopter powered by lighter fluid could be sent over fields to detect agricultural pests. An electric helicopter could be dispatched to the roof of a building to check on a water tower.
-
A recent report by the U.S. Department of Defense highlights the Pentagon’s desire to adapt roughly 11,000 drones for “lightweight, precision-guided weapons” for emerging threats in the Asia-Pacific region,
-
The Syracuse Post-Standard reports: "For protesters of U.S. military drone use in Afghanistan, [the recent FAA] announcement that Central New York would become a test site for integrating drones into commercial air space was unwelcome news.
-
The drones which today indiscriminately kill men, women and children in Pakistan and Yemen appeared first in the history of the technology as children’s toys, not weapons.
-
Drones will soon take to the skies across the United States in federally approved tests that are meant to clear the way for the commercial use of unmanned aircraft. But before that happens, lawmakers and regulators need to deal with a host of unresolved privacy and safety concerns.
-
Drones will soon be buzzing over every city in America.
-
The US is due to release a new national security strategy early this year to define targets for the next stage of fighting Al-Qaeda. The document is being drafted amid the growing criticism of the ways of the fighting in question. The extensive use of drones in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen raises numerous legal and other questions.
-
Two alleged Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) affiliates were killed in a drone strike on Tuesday in the Al-Mahfad district of Abyan governorate in southern Yemen, according to the Interior Ministry. Three others, also alleged to be associated with AQAP, were injured in the aerial attack.
-
Our government lies to itself -- and to us. Like Edward Snowden, it is time for us all to stand up for our values
-
Members of the Yemeni Tays and Bin Amr tribes were returning home from a wedding ceremony on December 12. The convoy of cars was heavily armed, which isn’t surprising in a country where gun ownership is as culturally acceptable as it is in the United States.
-
Two suspected al Qaeda militants were killed in a U.S. drone strike in the southeastern province of Hadramout on Wednesday, residents and local officials said.
-
It is troubling that the American, Israeli, Iraqi and Egyptian governments last week have all signaled their determination to make poor policy decisions that are certain to lead to higher levels of violence, resistance, militancy, terror and instability in the months and years ahead. These and other governments have been doing this for years, without learning the lessons of their own sustained failures.
-
The US said it is mapping out a new national security strategy that will be announced in early 2014. The white paper on the next stage of Washington’s war on al-Qaeda will be released at the time of mounting international criticism of US drone strikes in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen.
-
Nearly 25 percent of the 68 countries surveyed by WIN/Gallup International named the US the biggest threat to world peace today.
-
Finding inspiration from the ancients, Stanford philosopher Christopher Bobonich underscores the moral consequences of reflecting upon bad means to good ends.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- Destruction and Distortion of Information, Including Facts About Linux (Bonus: This is Destroying the Planet)
- All that LLMs have going for them is hype, and moreover media that intentionally misrepresents them and their supposed capabilities
- Google Seems to Have Just Killed All Instances of Invidious
- YouTube is rapidly becoming just "another Neflix"
-
- Italian Media Covers Richard Stallman's English Talk Ahead of Tonight's Public Appearance
- article in La Stampa
- Microsoft Skype in a Freefall: About 20% Decrease in Site Traffic in 3 Months (Amid Microsoft Phasing Out Credits)
- Microsoft axing more services/features may mean that now they scrape the bottom of the barrel and Skype will simply die, discontinuing service (like ICQ) in a matter of years
- Gemini Links 12/02/2025: Depression, Gabbro, WikiTok, and More
- Links for the day
- Links 12/02/2025: Health, Security, and Monopolies
- Links for the day
- Gemini Protocol is Increasingly Important to the Net
- Gemini Protocol will turn 6 this summer
- Former EPO Manager Warns That the Illegal 'Court' for "Unitary Patents" Enables “Law Shopping”
- Daniel X. Thomas opposed the very existence of the UPC, which any honest person could recognise was both illegal and unconstitutional
- Like GAFAM, the EPO is Passing the Financial Pains to Staff
- the EPO is operating illegally at this point
- Morale at Microsoft Ruined by the Company Labelling Thousands of Workers 'Low Performers', Sacking Them on the Spot and Denying Them Basic Benefits
- people laid off as "low performers" go to social control media to bemoan the label
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, February 11, 2025
- IRC logs for Tuesday, February 11, 2025
- Links 11/02/2025: Current state of the Internet and Smallnet Information Services (SIS)
- Links for the day
- Conservative Estimate: Over 10,000 IBM Workers to Be Laid Off in the Next Two Waves
- The morale is low and layoffs are expected soon, with mass layoffs likely happening next month and then again later
- Links 11/02/2025: Trade Wars and "Crisis for American Universities"
- Links for the day
- Parasitic LLM Slop Sites Destroy the Ability to Find "Linux" News in Google News
- Remember that Google News laid off lots of its workers
- Richard Stallman's English Talk in Italy Less Than 24 Hours Away (Torino) and Then Another Talk in Italy Scheduled (University of Bozen-Bolzano)
- He's active and he travels a lot in spite of his medical condition
- IBM Layoff Rumours, Large-Scale Implementations Weeks Ahead (in March 2025)
- There are some people corroborating
- Links 11/02/2025: Nutritional Poverty, Closure of USAID, More Fictional 'Valuations' Around Buzzwords
- Links for the day
- Perl Programming Leftovers
- recently in perl.org
- Microsoft in Africa: From 98% to Less Than 10% in Just 16 Years
- Microsoft being on less than 1 in 10 Web-connected devices in Africa is a very big deal
- Almost as If MElon Reads Techrights
- The joke we started appears to be spreading
- Microsoft Blasted for Adding Insult to Injury: Workers Laid Off Without Prior Notice, Without Severance Payment and Basic Coverage (Like Health), Then Stigmatised as Bad Performers So They Cannot Find a Job Elsewhere
- Such stereotypes end entire careers
- Gemini Links 11/02/2025: NeoVim and Deploying Other People's Code
- Links for the day
- BetaNews is Still Publishing LLM Slop/SPAM About "Linux"
- Assuming it is indeed LLM slop, it seems clear BetaNews has no intention of improving or is simply unable/unwilling to improve
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Monday, February 10, 2025
- IRC logs for Monday, February 10, 2025
- Scheduled Maintenance Tomorrow and on Valentines
- If the site (or Gemini capsule) is offline for a bit, the maintenance windows are likely the root cause
- If Matthias Kirschner Loves Free Software, He'll Change the Name of the Microsoft-Sponsored Organisation He Governs (in Order to Avoid Confusion)
- The FSF-EEE does not really like Software Freedom, it just loves money (including Microsoft's)
- Soylent News Lessens the Scope of Discussion Due to Persistent Trolling and Online Abuse
- if they make it a lot harder for new people to participate, then they limit the "general appeal" and reach
- EPO's Local Occupational Health, Safety and Ergonomics Committee (LOHSEC) in The Hague: Workers Are Getting Sicker, Conditions in Which to Assess Patent Applications Deteriorate
- "According to the Office statistics the total number of days of absence has gone up from 12.4 to 13.1 total number of sick days per Full Time Equivalent (FTE) from 2023 to 2024."
- The Standard Needs to Improve Its Standards for Fact-Checking, Aaron Swartz Had Nothing to Do With Reddit and He Detested the Company That Created It
- The Web is already bad enough as it is
- When the Livestream of Richard Stallman is Apparently Bury-Brigaded Offline You Finally Learn to Avoid Google/YouTube for Streaming
- Please, people, stop uploading to Google/YouTube
- New Paper From the EPO Highlights Large-Scale Discrimination at the Office, Where People Are Rewarded for Granting More and More Illegal Patents
- Even the Kremlin is probably more competent than this
- Links 10/02/2025: Ban on D.E.I. Language, Listeria Risk/Outbreak
- Links for the day
- Links 10/02/2025: Announcing "Stringless" and Mental Health Improvement
- Links for the day
- Links 10/02/2025: Facebook Mass Layoffs, "Meta" Did What Aaron Swartz Had Done But to the Tune of 81.7 Terabytes
- Links for the day
- Microsoft Tarnishing the Brand of Arch
- Of course Arch can do whatever it wants, but being associated with Microsoft is a badge of shame
- The Ultimate and Inevitable Fall of OpenAI (Even Brave is 'Bigger' Now)
- "When you advertise at the Super Bowl, you’ve reached just about every consumer in America. It’s the last stop. If you’re not profitable yet, you never will be."
- Adding Slop to Your Blog Only Makes One Assume All the Text is LLM Slop
- Simon Coter from Oracle has turned to slop
- Macao is Leaving Microsoft Behind
- Windows is falling to new all-time lows
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Sunday, February 09, 2025
- IRC logs for Sunday, February 09, 2025
- Microsoft's WSL (LSW) Shows That It Can Never Love Linux, Only Windows
- that's just how Microsoft rolls
- Activism in Times of War and a Coup
- 'Linux' Foundation works for fascism
- What the Silencing of Neatnik Tells Us About Linus Torvalds Inside a Microsoft-Dominated 'Linux' Foundation
- Is Linus Torvalds free to express his mind as he wishes about every topic, even just any technical topic?
- Windows Down to 11.35% in Senegal, as Measured by statCounter
- Another all-time low (Windows was at 99% in 2009)
- "Latest Technology News" in BetaNews is LLM Slop Promoting OOXML and Proprietary Software at the Expense of LibreOffice and OpenDocument Format (ODF)
- Remember that "open-source" and Open Source aren't the same; the former is fake