Predator drone shoots a Hellfire missile

Summary: How adult males (also known as "militants") get killed by unmanned Linux-powered aircrafts, covertly flown by the CIA with NSA assistance

ONE of the regrettable uses of Linux is the assassination business of blowback experts at the CIA (those who ensure the terrorists keep hating us more and thus multiply through recruitment, necessitating higher black budget for the CIA and NSA).

Now that the CIA suffers major blowback in the press [1] (hundreds of articles confirming its role in the Iran coup following declassification) there is an attempt to stop further disclosures [2] and more violence [3] which does nothing more than add political enemies [4]. The CIA's recent propaganda film, ‘Zero Dark Thirty’, is getting criticised [5] not for its advocacy of torture (there are now movies in the pipeline to advocate surveillance and assassination, based on links we published in daily links) but for disclosing information selectively, not in order to serve justice but in order to drive agenda (more war, more aggression).

I have always found the use of Linux in predator drones absolutely gross. Before the migration the Linux these drones reportedly used Windows and failed on many levels due to that operating system (the British press had some reports on it half a decade ago). Linux is a lot more reliable, but its reliability in this case helps reliably kill people who are unknown adult males who engage in "suspicious activity" and are hence "imminent threat" in the eyes of the CIA. When you read about dead "militants" bear in mind that militant means adult male (or what appears like it after the body got too badly burned to be recognised). Only 2% of the deaths in drones strikes are confirmed to be deaths of Al-Qaeda leaders, as we've shown in recently-accumulated daily links. ⬆

Related/contextual items from the news:

1. CIA Admits It Hired People to Impersonate Enemies and Commit Terrorism in Iran





2. CIA closes office that declassifies historical materials

   The Historical Collections Division is the latest casualty of sequester cuts. The office handling Freedom of Information Act requests will take over the work.





3. Drowning out the drones in Yemen?

   The drone terrorism perpetrated by the United States does not justify a counter terrorism by local actors. But when I see a child crying from the sound of a hum, or wetting his pants from the sight of an approaching drone, or being pulled out dead from the aftermath of a drone killing; when I hear that I find it hard to resist wondering.





4. Punjab Assembly: Government avoids criticism of drone attacks

   Sanaullah said that the federal government was trying to develop a consensus on national security issues including drone attacks. He said that the draft of the resolution should at least be amended so that it stated that the house supported the federal government’s efforts to end drone attacks.

5. Gitmo defendant’s lawyer lawyers: CIA gave ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ makers more info than his defense

   Prosecutors in the Guantanamo war crimes tribunal are pushing the judge to set a September 2014 trial date in the 9/11 case, a decision that could hinge on how deeply the defense is allowed to delve into the defendants’ treatment in secret CIA prisons.
   
   A U.S. military judge, Army Colonel James Pohl, will hear arguments on the issue in a weeklong pretrial hearing that begins on Monday at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in Cuba.