#Obama nominates mastermind of controversial drone strike programme as next #CIA director - #DropTheDrone

The man who has masterminded the expansion of a drone programme that has carried out more than 300 remote strikes against terrorist targets, killing some 2,500 people, is to be nominated as director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

John Brennan, 57, the current head of counter-terrorism, has also provoked ire on the Left because of his connection during the Bush administration, when he was a senior CIA officer, to ‘Enhanced Interrogation Techniques’ such as water-boarding, which many regard as torture.

President Barack Obama intended to nominate Brennan for the CIA post in 2009 but changed his mind following opposition from Democrats. Instead, Brennan became his top counter-terrorism adviser in the White House and went on to play a key role in the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Brennan angered many on the Right and some senior Obama administration officials, most notably Robert Gates, the then Pentagon chief, by delivering a briefing about bin Laden’s death that contained significant inaccuracies.

Full article here

#MSM - Brandon Bryant: Drone operator followed orders to shoot a child... and decided he had to quit - #DropTheDrone

‘Did we just kill a kid?’: The moment drone operator who assassinated Afghans with the push of a button on a computer in the U.S. realized he had vaporized a child… and could not go on

A former U.S. drone operator has opened up about the toll of killing scores of innocent people by pressing a button from a control room in New Mexico.

Brandon Bryant, 27, from Missoula, Montana, spent six years in the Air Force operating Predator drones from inside a dark container.

But, after following orders to shoot and kill a child in Afghanistan, he knew he couldn’t keep doing what he was doing and quit the military.

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Too much: Brandon Bryant, 27, pictured, from Missoula, Montana, spent six years in the Air Force operating Predator drones from inside a dark container

Too much: Brandon Bryant, 27, pictured, from Missoula, Montana, spent six years in the Air Force operating Predator drones from inside a dark container

‘I saw men, women and children die during that time,’ he told Spiegel Online.’I never thought I would kill that many people. In fact, I thought I couldn’t kill anyone at all.’

Bryant joined the military by accident when he accompanied a friend who was enlisting in the army and heard that he could go to university for free if he signed up to the Air Force.

He excelled in his course and was assigned to an intelligence collection unit where he soon learned how to control the cameras and lasers on a drone, to analyse ground images, maps and weather data.

He was made a sensor operator, the equivalent of co-pilot, and at just 20 flew his first mission over Iraq - seated in the safety of a control room in Nevada.

Drone operators: A drone pilot, left, and a drone sensor operator practice on a simulator at Holloman Air Force base in New Mexico

Drone operators: A drone pilot, left, and a drone sensor operator practice on a simulator at Holloman Air Force base in New Mexico

But it began to take its toll immediately.

The first time he fired a missile, he killed two men instantly and cried on his way home.

‘I felt disconnected from humanity for almost a week,’ he said.

But it was an incident when a Predator drone was circling above a flat-roofed house made of mud in Afghanistan, more than 6,250 miles away, that really sticks in his mind.

The hut had a shed used to hold goats and when he received the order to fire, he pressed a button with his left hand and marked the roof with a laser.

The pilot sitting next to him pressed the trigger on a joystick, causing the drone to launch a Hellfire missile. There were 16 seconds left until impact.

‘These moments are like in slow motion,’ he told the website.

As the countdown reached seven seconds, there was no sign of anyone on the ground.

Bryant could still have diverted the missile at that point.

But when it was down to three seconds, a child suddenly walked around the corner.

The next thing he saw was a flash on the screen - the explosion. The building collapsed, and the child disappeared.

Bryant had a sick feeling in his stomach, he told the website.

‘Did we just kill a kid?’ he asked the pilot next to him.

‘Yeah, I guess that was a kid,’ the man replied.

Thoughts jotted in his diary on uneventful days clearly show the heavy burden his job was placing on him.

‘On the battlefield there are no sides, just bloodshed. Total war. Every horror witnessed. I wish my eyes would rot,’ he wrote on one occasion.

He began to shut himself off from his friends, and his girlfriend complained about his bad moods.

‘I can’t just switch and go back to normal life,’ he said to her. He stopped sleeping and began to exercise instead.

Drones: Bryant worked as a sensor operator, the equivalent of a drone co-pilot (stock photo)

Drones: Bryant worked as a sensor operator, the equivalent of a drone co-pilot (stock photo)

One day he collapsed at work, doubling over and spitting blood. The doctor ordered him to stay home, and not to return to work until he could sleep more than four hours a night for two weeks in a row.

‘Half a year later, I was back in the cockpit, flying drones,’ Bryant told Spiegel Online.

But he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Now Bryant has left the military and is living back at home in Montana where he feels he is slowly recuperating.

‘I haven’t been dreaming in infrared for four months,’ he said with a smile.

VIDEO: Inside the Air Force’s Unmanned Drone Control Center:

Dennis J. Kucinich: “An Examination of the United States’ Drone Policy” - #DropTheDrone

Dennis Kucinich

By | Dennis John Kucinich is the U.S. Representative for Ohio’s 10th congressional district, serving since 1997. He was candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in the 2004 and 2008 presidential elections. He is author of A Prayer for America and The Courage to Survive.

 
Over the past four years, drone strikes have increased in number dramatically and are occurring in countries such as Pakistan and Yemen. In many cases, these drone strikes are occurring far from any internationally recognized battlefield. Despite claims by the Administration that the strikes cause few – if any – civilian casualties and are vital to our national security, there is increasing evidence that such strikes cause significant harm to civilian populations and serve as a powerful recruitment tool for terrorists.

Thus far, Congress has been denied the right to read the legal framework used by the Administration to justify the drone strikes. This means that these strikes are being carried out with virtually no transparency, accountability or judicial review. Victims or targets of the strikes are denied the right to due process. Innocent civilians and American citizens are getting the death penalty without so much as a trial. We do not know what measures, if any, the Joint Special Operations Command or the Central Intelligence Agency have for recognizing harm to civilian populations or to conduct investigations of who was killed.

As the use of drone strikes abroad becomes a permanent feature of our counterterrorism policy, it is more critical than ever that we push for increased transparency and accountability. We must reject the notion that Congress and the American people have to be kept in the dark on U.S. counterterrorism strategies. Simply put, drones must be subject to the same scrutiny and laws that other weapons the United States employs.

This is the new war. It is defined less by geography, than technology. This change in definition allows the President – Democrat or Republican – to concentrate the power of declaring war into his or her hands. This change in war governance also allows the President to bypass the now out of date legal and constitutional infrastructure that was constructed to ensure war is a last resort, not a first resort. This is a critical time for us to stand up and say “we see what is happening here and we won’t stand for it.”

We have a great set of panelists who will be addressing multiple aspects of our combat drone policy:

Professor James Cavallaro is the founding director of Stanford Law School’s International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic. He has dedicated his career to human rights, working on human rights issues in Latin America and in developing countries around the world. He is an expert on International Human Rights law and practice and is the coauthor of a recent report on drones titled: “Living Under Drones: Death, Injury and Trauma to Civilians From U.S. Drone Practices in Pakistan.”

Mr. Frank Jannuzi is the Deputy Executive Director of Amnesty International USA and is head of their Washington, D.C. office. He is an international affairs policy and political expert who most recently served Chairman John Kerry as Policy Director for East Asian and Pacific Affairs for the Democratic staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. While in the Senate, Mr. Jannuzi worked on human rights legislation and conducted field investigations into human rights and security concerns in numerous East Asian countries.

Mr. Bob Naiman is the Policy Director at Just Foreign Policy and writes on U.S. foreign policy. He is president of the board of Truthout and has previously worked as a policy analyst and researcher at the Center for Economic and Policy Research and Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch.

Medea Benjamin is cofounder of the international human rights organization Global Exchange and CODEPINK. She has been an advocate for social justice for more than 30 years and is the author of “Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control.”

A model of a Reaper Drone is pushed past the Duke Energy building as activists marched in the Coalition to March on Wall Street South, a 3-mile march Sunday, September 2, 2012, to spotlight Charlotte as the United States’ second-largest financial center, behind New York. Activists stopped in front of the headquarters of Bank of America and Duke Energy as they took to the streets in downtown Charlotte, site of the 2012 Democratic National Convention. 
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A model of a Reaper Drone is pushed past the Duke Energy building as activists marched in the Coalition to March on Wall Street South, a 3-mile march Sunday, September 2, 2012, to spotlight Charlotte as the United States’ second-largest financial center, behind New York. Activists stopped in front of the headquarters of Bank of America and Duke Energy as they took to the streets in downtown Charlotte, site of the 2012 Democratic National Convention. 

#DropTheDrone ~ #Drones: Part 1: Targeted Killings

*     *     *

Drones, Part 2: Drones Go Domestic

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have changed the nature of war. But where are they flying, and what are they doing? The answers might surprise you. Tune in to learn the Stuff They Don’t Want You To Know about drones in the second part of this series.


Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, or UAVs, have fundamentally changed the nature of warfare. But who controls them? What are they doing, and why? Tune in to learn more Stuff They Don’t Want You To Know about drones.

http://howstuffworks.com
http://facebook.com/ConspiracyStuff
http://twitter.com/conspiracystuff
http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/stuff-they-dont-want-you-to/

Source: youtube.com

fuckyeahmarxismleninism: Los AngelesIn early February, a US-sponsored drone airstrike reportedly killed 15 members of the Abu Sayyaf, (a CIA-trained and backed extremist group) in the Southern Philippines. This recent attack counters the claims of the Philippine president, Noy Noy Aquino that it will not allow drone airstrikes and US forces to participate in any combat operations. The US has increased their supply of unmanned killer drones to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) as part of their counter-insurgency operations against terrorism-linked rebel groups. The reality is that unarmed civilians are the largest group of casualties in counter-insurgency operations in the Philippines. With the blatant strategy of lumping combatants and civilians into one group or targets, more than 1,100 civilians have been extra-judicially killed in the last 10 years. How many more lives will be targeted for death thanks to US drones? These drones are weapons of mass destruction and its use by the AFP will inevitably lead to casualties of innocent civilians.  
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fuckyeahmarxismleninism:

Los Angeles

In early February, a US-sponsored drone airstrike reportedly killed 15 members of the Abu Sayyaf, (a CIA-trained and backed extremist group) in the Southern Philippines. This recent attack counters the claims of the Philippine president, Noy Noy Aquino that it will not allow drone airstrikes and US forces to participate in any combat operations. The US has increased their supply of unmanned killer drones to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) as part of their counter-insurgency operations against terrorism-linked rebel groups. The reality is that unarmed civilians are the largest group of casualties in counter-insurgency operations in the Philippines. With the blatant strategy of lumping combatants and civilians into one group or targets, more than 1,100 civilians have been extra-judicially killed in the last 10 years. How many more lives will be targeted for death thanks to US drones? 

These drones are weapons of mass destruction and its use by the AFP will inevitably lead to casualties of innocent civilians.
 

#Australia may host US #drones at #Cocos ~ #DropTheDrone

A controversial proposal for a joint Australian-US military air base  in the  Indian Ocean could lead to the launch of drone spy flights across  the region,  according to officials quoted in Washington.

The proposed base on the Australian-controlled Cocos Islands would form  part  of a major expansion of  ties between Canberra and Washington as  the Pentagon  looks to shift its forces closer to south-east Asia.

Discussion of the proposal could spark further tensions with China. It  comes  after the agreement announced by US President Barack Obama and  Prime Minister  Julia Gillard in November to station up to 2500 US  marines in Darwin.

Australia may host US drones at Cocos [continued]

The #Drone of Permanent War - #DropTheDrone

But the real game-changer embedded in the law is the opening of U.S. airspace to unmanned drones. Although Predator drones already patrol our border with Mexico, and some police forces have obtained smaller drones of their own, the legal ability of federal agencies to fly unmanned missions over civil space was unclear, unwritten. Now they’ve got a big green light, and “the only barrier to the routine use of drones for persistent surveillance are the procedural requirements imposed by the FAA for the issuance of certificates,” says Amie Stepanovich of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. Eerily, the law also makes way for the use of commercial drones: it’s not clear what Google, GE, or General Motors would do with a drone, but it’s hard to imagine something benevolent. The FAA projects that there could be 30,000 drones in American skies by 2020.

Which dystopian novel is it where thousands of surveillance robots constantly monitor us from the stratosphere? The chilling effects this could have on protest, not to mention acts of more militant resistance, should be obvious. And it’s hard to imagine that, in terms of day-to-day policing, this will mean less police violence and fewer arrests. Add the Department of Justice’s secret memoranda giving the president power to declare U.S. citizens enemies of the state and have them assassinated, and the legal framework now exists to make all U.S. citizens Awlakis, which is to say, blown up by missiles fired from an invisible robot by executive fiat. Is there a moment when the transition to police state actually occurs, or if you’re asking that question has it already happened?

(via socialuprooting)

Source: azspot

10 "fun" facts about #drones

And the slide to the complete police state slips even closer. 

1. There could be 30,000 drones overhead in the U.S. by 2020, reports the Washington Times.

2. Reaper drones’ “unblinking stare” can currently take in a 4 kilometer by 4 kilometer area — about the size of Fairfax — but that will soon be expanded, said Air Force Lieutenant General Larry James, to a 10 kilometer by 10 kilometer stare, or two-thirds the size of Washington, D.C. They call this the “Gorgon Stare” — named for the terrifying females of Greek mythology, the best known being the snake-headed Medusa. No drones have the ability to turn you to stone with their gaze (yet).

3. There’s a fair amount of disagreement about what to call drones. The industry refers to them as UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles). Though one manufacturer, MLB Company, which launched its business in the late 1990s when no one knew what a “UAV” was and associated “drones” only with Office Space, coined the name “spy planes” for the flying machines. The Air Force calls them RPAs (remote piloted aircraft) because “they aren’t unmanned; there are pilots involved,” protested one Air Force lieutenant general. When not talking about massive Predator type drones, but instead referring to the type you can fit in the trunk of your car, many call them sUAS (small unmanned air systems). Opponents meanwhile have coined the catchy “killer drones” to describe the not-so cuddly flying machines.

4. The surveillance industry wants drones to be more cuddly, though. In Britain, manufacturers have suggested painting drones bright colors as a way to make them seem friendlier and less reminiscent of war zones, reports The Guardian. Because Big Brother is a lot more appealing wearing hot pink, quips Slate.

5. To drone manufacturers, resistance is futile… but hilarious. California Congressman Buck McKeon, a proud member of the Unmanned Systems Caucus, gave a keynote hoorah at the AUSVI conference Wednesday morning. His speech lamenting cuts to the military budget over the last 50 years was interrupted by a middle-aged woman who rushed the stage saying, “We want spending on education, not war.” This got a few laughs from the hundreds of drone industry members in the audience. As she was physically lifted and carried off the stage, she chanted, “Stop killer drones.” That got some boos and even heartier laughs from the audience.

 

6. The Air Force has 65,000 – 70,000 people working to process all of the data and footage it’s currently collecting from drones. Lt. Gen. James says the analysts’ work includes “watching life in Afghanistan and looking for patterns,” and that a Rand review suggested they need 100,000 people devoted to the task. The military hope is that better computer algorithms and software analysis can be developed to combat their drowning in data.

7. Cape Canaveral is now a drone base. Since the space program is now on a death watch, it’s good to know they’ve found a way to repurpose this base. U.S. Customs and Border Protection flies drones on our northern, southern, and southeastern borders. The base previously used primarily to launch shuttles is now a drone practice spot and sends out a General Atomic Guardian drone to monitor the SE border and fly over the ocean to make drug busts.

8. The FAA Reauthorization Act calls for six drone test sites around the U.S. Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security plans to launch a site in June — likely in the Southeast — devoted to testing drones for use by first responders (local and state police, firefighters, etc.). DHS is looking to provide funds to industry partners so they can bring their drone technology in for test drives. This is how they will ensure that drones are safe for use — and have mastered the “sense and avoid” features that are so important to the FAA, so that a drone doesn’t fly into a plane engine or crash into a home — and how drones will more easily be making their way to your local police station.

9. The Coast Guard thinks that drones will increase their prosecutions by 95%. Coast Guard Captain Chris Martino says the Coast Guard is currently restricted in its use of drones, and has to partner with the Navy to use theirs, but projects that integrating unmanned vehicles into the Coast Guard’s array of tools will increase their surveillance of U.S. waters by 70%, meaning they’ll catch (and prosecute) far more drug runners, among others.

“The 20th century was the era of manned aircraft; the 21st Century is the era of unmanned aircraft,” said Martino.

10. Drones can tase you, bro.

(via antinwo)

Source: moralanarchism

#Anonymous #AnonOps #Operation #DROPtheDRONE #Drones #FightBack

#Operation #DROPtheDRONE

#NDAA Trojan Unleashed – Massive Military #Drone Deployment In U.S. Airspace - #NWO

Despite promises the 2012 NDAA did not apply to military operations on U.S. soil or against American Citizens, a massive military drone deployment into U.S airspace has been approved by Congress.

Despite all of the concerns regarding the language of the NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act) for fiscal year 2012 our beloved politicians once again turned a deaf to the American people and the atrocious bill was pushed into law.

We now learn that of the NDAA is being interpreted as authorization to deploy military drones (unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs) into United States airspace in the latest escalation of U.S. military actions in the War of Terror. To support the deployment a massive overhaul of the FAA control system is underway.

NDAA TROJAN UNLEASHED - MASSIVE US DRONE DEPLOYMENT OVER US SKIES

NDAA TROJAN UNLEASHED - MASSIVE US DRONE DEPLOYMENT OVER US SKIES

The Congressional Record makes it clear the act will deploy military drones controlled by NASA and the DOJ under authorization contained with the 2012 NDAA. The deployment of the military drones will be rolled out following the establishment test ranges to develop the system needed to integrate military drones into the U.S Airspace System.

CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 658, FAA REAUTHORIZATION AND REFORM ACT OF 2012

[page h280] … Instead, the Administrator is directed to coordinate with, and leverage resources from, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Department of Defense to select the test ranges based on the criteria set forth in this section. This language is consistent with legislative direction in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 (Public Law 112-81)

H326 [House Bill] Section 326 directs the Administrator no later than one year after enactment to establish a program to integrate UASs into the national airspace system at no fewer than four test ranges. The program will include safely designating nonexclusionary airspace for integrated unmanned flight operations, develop certification standards and air traffic requirements, coordinate and leverage the resources of National Air and Space Administration and Department of Defense, address both civil and public UAS, ensure the program is coordinated with NextGen, and provide for verification of safety of UASs. In determining test range locations the Administrator shall consider geographic and climate diversity and consult with NASA and the Air Force.

Senate bill

Section 607(c) is a similar provision, but it allows the Administrator to include testing at three test sites as part of the integration plan by 2012. It directs the FAA to work with DOD to certify and develop flight standards for military UASs and to integrate these systems into the NAS as part of the UAS integration plan. Section 320 establishes a test range program for 10 sites.

Source: The Congressional Record Via the Federation of American Scientists

As noted in the Congressional Record:

Conference Substitute House and Senate bills merged into language that is included in Section 332 “Integration of civil unmanned aircraft into the national airspace system”.

To put that into terms simpletons can understand, the Senate and House versions have been “merged” substituting the word “Military” with the word “Civil” when referring to the integration of the drone program into U.S Airspace.

The Activist Post also cites the report in the Congressional record – “CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 658, FAA REAUTHORIZATION AND REFORM ACT OF 2012”

Congress Welcomes Drones Into American Skies ASAP

The stage has already been set and played upon for divisions of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to patrol and strike undeclared war zones abroad.

Even though lip service has been paid to express minor outrage over villages bombed in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, or someplace “over there,” there has been relatively little true outrage by countries heretofore unaffected by computer bombing raids upon their own Homeland — countries like America.

Well, seeing is believing they say.

Americans are next in line to get their chance to see firsthand what has been happening overseas — a close-up view of what takes place on computer screens in Tel Aviv or Las Vegas.

The Boomerang Effect has taken flight.

The treason of American Congress seems to know no bounds, as it has submitted an urgent official request to the Secretary of Transportation to invite potential remote-controlled war upon American soil by integrating Unmanned Aerial Systems into civilian airspace to be overseen by the FAA. (Source)

The drone program inside the United States has advanced at warp speed since 2007 when tests were first captured by the media.  Since that time, we have witnessed local police departments such as Miami-Dade County, FL outfit their force with micro-drones.

However, it wasn’t until the first drone test-run for law enforcement was conducted in North Dakota, that even staunch naysayers to claims of militarization had to pay closer attention.  Drones for cattle rustling?  WTF?

Now, just a couple of months later, we can read the “Conference Report on FAA Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2012,” which does nothing less than give approval to turn American skies into a virtual battlefield that threatens to mirror the declaration of the NDAA that America (indeed the entire planet) should be outfitted with the tactics and technology of the War on Terror.

An open fly zone for drones has been declared, with Department of Defense authorization to maximize capabilities.

The report’s opening paragraph ends with ominous foreshadowing after stating the normal bureaucratic political lingo about an effort to “streamline programs” and “create efficiencies.”

Mr. Mica submitted the following conference report and statement on the bill (H.R. 658) to amend title 49, United States Code, to authorize appropriations for the Federal Aviation Administration for fiscal years 2011 through 2014, to streamline programs, create efficiencies, reduce waste, and improve aviation safety and capacity, to provide stable funding for the national aviation system, and for other purposes:

“And for other purposes…”

Source: Activist Post

Watch: The Future Of Warfare – Predator Drones.


Watch: Police Secretly Using DRONES to spy on AMERICANS!


Cloaking Military Drone Deployment By Using The Term “Civil”

While the most recent version of the act, which has been passed by the House and The Senate refers to the deployment of a “Civil Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS)”  and integration into the National Airspace System, the terms “Civil” is mere doublespeak meant to cloak the deployment of Military drones into U.S. airspace. This is clear as you read through the bill text and note the references to two separate systems, the “Civil” drone system and the “Public” drone system and the designation of test ranges to plan and integrate the two separate drone systems.

FAA Upgrades Underway In Your Neighborhood To Support Massive Military Drone Deployments

While the deployment of military drones into the skies over your house may seem like a disconnected, abstract idea make no mistake about it. This bill authorizes the modernization FAA and the truth be told the aviation control systems near you will be upgraded for the mass deployment of military drones in the skies above your house. Just do a Google search for the NextGen systems that will be rolled out in your area.

Here’s an article from a local representative touting what the bill means to residents in my area and the passage of the act as a political victory. The article also gives you stunning insight into how the threat of the shutdown of the FAA has been used to push though congress such an egregious bill containing authorization of military drones in U.S. airspace.

LoBiondo Applauds Passage of FAA Reauthorization Bill

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Working with his colleagues on both sides of the aisle for months, U.S. Representative Frank A. LoBiondo (NJ-02) today applauded the passage of H.R. 658, the “Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Modernization & Reform Act of 2012.” The legislation includes a number of provisions benefiting South Jersey and would reauthorize the FAA for four years, preventing another partial shutdown that affected thousands of employees including those at the William J. Hughes FAA Technical Center in Egg Harbor Township last summer.

“This is outstanding news for the FAA Tech Center, its employees and the entire region. This bill reaffirms the exceptional work being conducted at the Tech Center to modernize the nation’s antiquated air traffic control system and will ensure reliable funding for the next four years so that substantial work on NextGen can be completed,” said LoBiondo, the only New Jersey Representative on the House Aviation Subcommittee.

“I applaud Rep. LoBiondo’s relentless efforts to bring all sides together to pass a multi-year FAA authorization. Modernizing our aviation network through the NextGen project, increasing safety for the flying public, and ensuring thousands of FAA employees along with hundreds of thousands of contractors remain working is a key priority of House Republicans. I appreciate Rep. LoBiondo’s hard-work and leadership on this critical bill,” said House Speaker John Boehner.

In addition to protecting the jobs of the estimated 1,500 FAA employees and related service providers in South Jersey, LoBiondo was pleased that the multi-year FAA Reauthorization bill included a number of provisions he had sought, such as:

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL MODERNIZATION AND NEXTGEN

  • $10.9 billion for FAA Facilities & Equipment to accelerate the implementation of the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen), which is currently being developed at the FAA Technical Center in Egg Harbor Township. This funding would also enable FAA to make needed repairs and replacement of existing facilities and equipment and also provide for the implementation of high-priority safety-related systems.
  • Strengthens accountability and oversight of the NextGen program by:
  •         Clarifying new authorities for the FAA to acquire and fund expenses related to the NextGen program;
  •         Directing the Secretary of Transportation to give priority to NextGen specific programs when allocating funds; and,
  •         Establishing timelines and milestones for the FAA to bring NextGen technologies online and requires the FAA to establish performance metrics to meet these goals.

CENTER OF EXCELLENCE

  • Establishes a Center of Excellence in the research and development of  NextGen - Long advocated for by LoBiondo, the FAA Administrator will now have the option to establish a Center of Excellence for NextGen that would bring together professionals at the FAA Technical Center with experts in the aviation industry and academia to research and develop the new technologies that will power the next generation of air travel in the U.S.  It also allows the FAA to provide funding to support such activities. If established, the Center of Excellence would build on efforts already underway locally by Atlantic County, the Richard Stockton College, local industry and the FAA Technical Center thus strengthening the NextGen Aviation Research & Technology Park.

GENERAL FUNDING LEVELS

  • $13.4 billion for the Airport Improvement Program (AIP), which distributes formula grants to airports across the country, such as the Atlantic City International Airport, to improve safety and reduce congestion;
  • $38.4 billion for FAA Operations which includes the daily operating costs and payroll of FAA employees.

After twenty-three extensions and a two-week partial shutdown that affected nearly 4,000 FAA employees nationwide including approximately 650 at the FAA Technical Center in South Jersey, Congress has approved the 4-year reauthorization bill which funds FAA programs through fiscal year 2015.

Since the partial shutdown that began at midnight on July 22, 2011 and ended on August 5, 2011, LoBiondo has aggressively pushed both parties in the House and Senate to come to a multi-year agreement on the FAA’s authorization. He joined Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt at a private townhall meeting with employees at the FAA Technical Center. And LoBiondo authored legislation to ensure back-pay for furloughed FAA employees, who received compensation in mid-October.

“While Congress cannot erase the damage it caused by allowing a partial shutdown of the FAA last summer, it has begun to redeem itself by approving this four year authorization with strong bipartisan support. We must continue in this bipartisan fashion throughout the NextGen project and on other critical issues facing our country,” concluded LoBiondo.

The Senate is expected to pass the “Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Modernization & Reform Act of 2012” early next week, thus sending the bill to the President for his signature.

Source: Liobondo.House.Gov

The NDAA Authorization Of Global War Spreads To The Homeland

Make no mistake about it the NDAA officially authorized an endless global war with no borders and no clearly defined enemies. Critics of the bill quickly pointed out that the bill suspended the constitutional rights of U.S. citizens and authorized military strikes against U.S. citizens even within the U.S.

The language in the NDAA is equivalent to the official declaration of World War III. The legislation gives unchecked authority for the president to launch military strikes against any and all nations across the word without any need for congressional approval, including attacks within the United States. Skeptics said the bill would never be interpreted for use on U.S. soil. Still the was widespread public outcry demanding the language of the bill be changed to make it clear the bill was not to be used against U.S citizens of on U.S soil.  The calls to change the language from the public, the media and many organizations, including the ACLU, went ignored.

Another provision of the bill  that conjured wave of widespread opposition was the authorization to permanently detain American citizen’s indefinitely without trial for as long as the War on Terror continues.

To placate the public President Obama asserted while signing the bill into law that NDAA did not apply to American citizens or operations on U.S. soil.

However, there is plenty of evidence to show that in actual practice and implementation of the law, nothing could be further from the truth. For example, the American college student accused of having ties to terrorism who was gun downed, kidnapped, and hauled off to a secret CIA torture prison.

Then there is the targeted assassination U.S citizen, accused of having ties to terrorism, using a drone strike. Truth be told there is no evidence the assassination victim, Anwar al-Awlaki, has done anything more than give speeches that denounce the U.S. government for their illegal activities and call for people to stand against and fight against what he viewed as an evil empire responsible for the death of millions.  Then there are the plethora of allegations of many other U.S. citizens being placed on the U.S. assassination list, a list which may include Judicial reform activist William (Bill) Windsor  Let’s not forget the targeted assassination of Osama Bin Laden.

Nor can we forget the targeted assassination of thousands of Iraqi citizens by U.S. death squads.

While many can justify the need for such assassination alleged terrorist in the name of the War on Terror, the bottom line is our Founding Fathers gave their blood to give us the Bill of Rights and the U.S. Constitution to assure that anyone accused of crimes have a right to trial by jury and to the opportunity to defend themselves against any evidence against them. The problem is the U.S. government has established a pattern of lying to the public and to nation’s around the world to justify the invasion of sovereign nations that do submit to U.S. imperialism. Take for example the fabrication of intelligence reports that saying Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

Unsubstantiated allegations to justify attacks are not just limited to opposing nation states.

The truth is an overbearing government with power to commit such actions can simply accuse anyone of being a terrorist, supporting terrorism, or having ties to terrorism just to crush any dissent or political views in opposition to the government.

Take for example Obama’s Department of Justice has taken the opinion one step farther and released a publication that states Constitutionalists, Anti New World Order Activists, and Survivalists such as the Tea Party, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Ron Paul, and Rand Paul are all “potential terrorists”.

Or consider the Feds charging a man as an enemy combatant supporting terrorism for uploading YouYube videos.

For example the Government think tank, DEMOS, has recently released documents labeling conspiracy theorists as potential terrorists calling conspiracy theories “dangerous thoughts” that “lead to violence”.

In fact Demos has responded to public outrage over the report and has specifically called The Intel Hub a conspiracy echo chamber, which is a site that “echoes” my writings on The Alexander Higgins Blog in their “conspiracy echo chamber”. That would imply that I am a “potential terrorist” pushing “dangerous thoughts” that could “lead to violence”.

Clearly the NDAA’s legalization of the U.S. government’s policy of torture, abduction, assassination and violation of human rights is not aimed at actual terrorists. To contrary, the U.S. government has aimed their cross hairs on every single political dissident who disagrees with any aspect of the tyrannical totalitarian oppression the U.S. government imposes both at home and abroad.

Recently, Occupy Wall Street was officially labeled as a terrorist organization by the United States greatest ally, Great Britain. Yes, Occupy Wall Street protestors are now being listed as a Domestic Terrorist Group being disseminated on a list that includes Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations.

Being labeled as a terrorist  for such a simple public displays of government dissent is extremely alarming when Uncle Sam has turned its multi-billion dollar spy network against U.S. citizens. Once that spy network targets you their is no legal recourse.The Supreme has already legalized CIA abduction, indefinite overseas detention, and the torture of innocent American citizens

Even more alarming is you don’t have a right to defend yourself or to any legal recourse when the government claims you a threat national security, e.g. being a so-called “terrorists”. In fact, as a terrorist you may not even be able to hire a lawyer, as it is illegal for anyone, including lawyers, to do business with terrorists.

We witness 1 in 7 drone strikes around the world killing a child. Even worse is alarming 1 and 3 drone strikes in Pakistan killing a child.

Now that the U.S military is preparing for a massive military drone deployment into U.S. Airspace. It is only a matter of time before targeted “terrorist” assassinations using drone strikes are launched on U.S. soil.

Obama terror #drones: CIA tactics in Pakistan include targeting rescuers and funerals - #NWO

Hellfire missiles being loaded onto a US military Reaper drone in Afghanistan

Missiles being loaded onto a military Reaper drone in Afghanistan.

The CIA’s drone campaign in Pakistan has killed dozens of  civilians who had gone to help rescue victims or were attending funerals, an investigation by the Bureau for the Sunday Times has revealed.

The findings are published just days after President Obama claimed that the drone campaign in Pakistan was a ‘targeted, focused effort’ that ‘has not caused a huge number of civilian casualties.’

Speaking publicly for the first time on the controversial CIA drone strikes, Obama claimed last week they are used strictly to target terrorists, rejecting what he called ‘this perception we’re just sending in a whole bunch of strikes willy-nilly’.

‘Drones have not caused a huge number of civilian casualties’, he told a questioner at an on-line forum. ‘This is a targeted, focused effort at people who are on a list of active terrorists trying to go in and harm Americans’.

But research by the Bureau has found that since Obama took office three years ago, between 282 and 535 civilians have been credibly reported as killed including more than 60 children.  A three month investigation including eye witness reports has found evidence that at least 50 civilians were killed in follow-up strikes when they had gone to help victims. More than 20 civilians have also been attacked in deliberate strikes on funerals and mourners. The tactics have been condemned by leading legal experts.

Although the drone attacks were started under the Bush administration in 2004, they have been stepped up enormously under Obama.

There have been 260 attacks by unmanned Predators or Reapers in Pakistan by Obama’s administration – averaging one every four days. Because the attacks are carried out by the CIA, no information is given on the numbers killed.

Administration officials insist that these covert attacks are legal. John Brennan, the president’s top counterterrorism adviser, argues that the US has the right to unilaterally strike terrorists anywhere in the world, not just what he called ‘hot battlefields’.

‘Because we are engaged in an armed conflict with al- Qaeda, the United States takes the legal position that, in accordance with international law, we have the authority to take action against al-Qaeda and its associated forces,’ he told a conference at Harvard Law School last year. ‘The United States does not view our authority to use military force against al-Qaeda as being restricted solely to”hot” battlefields like Afghanistan.’

State-sanctioned extra-judicial executions
But some international law specialists fiercely disagree, arguing that the strikes amount to little more than state-sanctioned extra-judicial executions and questioning how the US government would react if another state such as China or Russia started taking such action against those they declare as enemies.

Related article: A question of legality

The first confirmed attack on rescuers took place in North Waziristan on May 16 2009. According to Mushtaq Yusufzai, a local journalist, Taliban militants had gathered in the village of Khaisor. After praying at the local mosque, they were preparing to cross the nearby border into Afghanistan to launch an attack on US forces. But the US struck first.


Not to mince words here, if it is not in a situation of armed conflict, unless it falls into the very narrow area of imminent threat then it is an extra-judicial execution.
Naz Modirzadeh, Harvard University

A CIA drone fired its missiles into the Taliban group, killing at least a dozen people. Villagers joined surviving Taliban as they tried to retrieve the dead and injured.

But as rescuers clambered through the demolished house the drones struck again. Two missiles slammed into the rubble, killing many more. At least 29 people died in total.

‘We lost very trained and sincere friends‘, a local Taliban commander told The News, a Pakistani newspaper. ‘Some of them were very senior Taliban commanders and had taken part in successful actions in Afghanistan. Bodies of most of them were beyond recognition.’

Related article: Witnesses speak out

For the Americans the attack was a success. A surprise tactic had resulted in the deaths of many Taliban. But locals say that six ordinary villagers also died that day, identified by Bureau field researchers as Sabir, Ikram, Mohib, Zahid, Mashal and Syed Noor (most people in the area use only one name).

Yusufzai, who reported on the attack, says those killed in the follow-up strike ‘were trying to pull out the bodies, to help clear the rubble, and take people to hospital.’  The impact of drone attacks on rescuers has been to scare people off, he says: ‘They’ve learnt that something will happen. No one wants to go close to these damaged building anymore.’

The legal view
Naz Modirzadeh, Associate Director of the Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research (HPCR) at Harvard University, said killing people at a rescue site may have no legal justification.

‘Not to mince words here, if it is not in a situation of armed conflict, unless it falls into the very narrow area of imminent threat then it is an extra-judicial execution’, she said. ‘We don’t even need to get to the nuance of who’s who, and are people there for rescue or not. Because each death is illegal. Each death is a murder in that case.’

Waziristan residents hold up missile fragments from drone strikes in October 2010 / Noor Behram

The Khaisoor incident was not a one-off. Between May 2009 and June 2011, at least fifteen attacks on rescuers were reported by credible news media, including the New York Times, CNN, Associated Press, ABC News and Al Jazeera.

It is notoriously difficult for the media to operate safely in Pakistan’s tribal areas. Both militants and the military routinely threaten journalists. Yet for three months a team of local researchers has been seeking independent confirmation of these strikes.

Eyewitness accounts
The researchers have found credible, independently sourced evidence of civilians killed in ten of the reported attacks on rescuers. In five other reported attacks, the researchers found no evidence of any rescuers – civilians or otherwise – killed.


Because we are engaged in an armed conflict with al- Qaeda, the United States takes the legal position that, in accordance with international law, we have the authority to take action against al-Qaeda and its associated forces.
John Brennan, counterterrorism adviser to Obama

The researchers were told by villagers that strikes on rescuers began as early as March 2008, although no media carried reports at the time. The Bureau is seeking testimony relating to nine additional incidents.

Often when the US attacks militants in Pakistan, the Taliban seals off the site and retrieves the dead. But an examination of thousands of credible reports relating to CIA drone strikes also shows frequent references to civilian rescuers. Mosques often exhort villagers to come forward and help, for example – particularly following attacks that mistakenly kill civilians.

Other tactics are also raising concerns.  On June 23 2009 the CIA killed Khwaz Wali Mehsud, a mid-ranking Pakistan Taliban commander. They planned to use his body as bait to hook a larger fish – Baitullah Mehsud, then the notorious leader of the Pakistan Taliban.

‘A plan was quickly hatched to strike Baitullah Mehsud when he attended the man’s funeral,’ according to Washington Post national security correspondent Joby Warrick, in his recent book The Triple Agent. ‘True, the commander… happened to be very much alive as the plan took shape. But he would not be for long.’

The CIA duly killed Khwaz Wali Mehsud in a drone strike that killed at least five others. Speaking with the Bureau, Pulitzer Prize-winner Warrick confirmed what his US intelligence sources had told him: ‘The initial target was no doubt a target anyway, as it was described to me, as someone that they were interested in. And as they were planning this attack, a possible windfall from that is that it would shake Mehsud himself out of his hiding place.’

Up to 5,000 people attended Khwaz Wali Mehsud’s funeral that afternoon, including not only Taliban fighters but many civilians.  US drones struck again, killing up to 83 people. As many as 45 were civilians, among them reportedly ten children and four tribal leaders. Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud escaped unharmed, dying six weeks later along with his wife in a fresh CIA attack.

 A funeral for victims of a US drone strike.

Clive Stafford-Smith, the lawyer who heads the Anglo-US legal charity Reprieve, believes that such strikes ‘are like attacking the Red Cross on the battlefield. It’s not legitimate to attack anyone who is not a combatant.’

Christof Heyns, a South African law professor who is United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extra- judicial Executions, agrees. ‘Allegations of repeat strikes coming back after half an hour when medical personnel are on the ground are very worrying’, he said. ‘To target civilians would be crimes of war.’ Heyns is calling for an investigation into the Bureau’s findings.

One of the most devastating attacks took place on March 17 last year, the day after Pakistan had released American CIA contractor Raymond Davis, jailed for shooting dead two men in Lahore. Davis had been held for two months and was released after the payment of blood money said to be around $2.3m.

A case of retaliation?
The Agency was said to be furious at the affair. The following day when a massive drone strike killed up to 42 people gathered at a meeting in North Waziristan, Pakistani officials believed it to be retaliation.


Such strikes ‘are like attacking the Red Cross on the battlefield. It’s not legitimate to attack anyone who is not a combatant.
Clive Stafford Smith, Reprieve

The commander of Pakistan forces in the area at the time was Brigadier Abdullah Dogar. He admits that in drone attacks in general ‘people invariably get reported as innocent bystanders’. But in that case he has no doubt. ‘I was sitting there where our friends say they were targeting terrorists and I know they were innocent people’, he said.

Related article: Get the Data: Obama’s terror drones

The mountains in the area contain chromite mines and the ownership was disputed between two tribes, so a Jirga or tribal meeting had been called to resolve the issue.

‘We in the Pakistan military knew about the meeting’, he said, ‘we’d got the request ten days earlier.’

‘It was held in broad daylight, people were sitting out in Nomada bus depot when the missile strikes came. Maybe there were one or two Taliban at that Jirga – they have their people attending – but does that justify a drone strike which kills 42 mostly innocent people?’

‘Drones may make tactical gains but I don’t see how there’s any strategic advantage’, he added. ‘When innocent people die, then you’re creating a whole lot more people with an issue.’

Growing tensions
Drone attacks have long been a source of tension between the US and Pakistan despite the fact that the Pakistan government gave tacit agreement, even allowing them to fly from Shamsi airbase in the western province of Baluchistan, while publicly denouncing the attacks.

In return the US made sure that some of the terrorists killed were those targeting Pakistan.

However the relationship has been stretched to breaking point, first with the raid to kill Osama bin Laden in May and subsequent US accusations of Pakistani complicity, then the NATO bombing of a Pakistani post in November, killing 24 soldiers. In December Pakistan ordered the CIA to vacate the Shamsi base. For a while drone attacks stopped but they resumed two weeks ago.


I was sitting there where our friends say they were targeting terrorists and I know they were innocent people.
Brigadier Abdullah Dogar, former commander Pakistan forces

The US claims the drones are a vital tool that have helped them almost wipe out the leadership of al Qaeda in Pakistan. But others point out they have stoked enormous anti-American sentiment in a country with an arsenal of 200 nuclear weapons.

Peter Singer, director of the 21st Century Initiative at the Brookings Institution, points out the operation has never been debated in Congress which has to approve sending US forces to war.

So dramatic is the switch to unmanned war that he says the US now has 7,000 drones operating and 12,000 more on the ground, while not a single new manned combat aircraft is under research or development at any western aerospace company.

After a remarkable lack of debate, there is starting to be unease in the US at the lack of transparency and accountability in the use of drones particularly as the campaign has expanded to hit targets in Libya, Yemen and Somalia and until recently to patrol the skies in Iraq.

Three US citizens were killed by missiles fired from drones in Yemen last September. Anwar al Awlaqi, an alleged al Qaeda operative, was deliberately targeted in what some have described as the US government’s first ever execution of one of its own citizens without trial. His colleague and fellow citizen Samir Khan also died in the attack. Two weeks later Awlaqi’s 16 year old son Abdulrahman died in a strike on alleged  al Qaeda militants.

Such unmanned war is a politician’s dream, avoiding the inconvenience of sending someone’s son or daughter, mother or father, into harm’s way.

The fact that the operations are carried out by the CIA rather than the US military enables the administration to evade questions. The Agency press office responds to media inquiries on the subject with no comment and refusal to give names of those killed or who are on the target list.

Until Obama’s comments last week, the White House would not even confirm the programme existed.

‘We don’t discuss classified programs or comment on alleged strikes’, said a senior administration official in response to the findings presented by the Sunday Times.

Lawsuit
The ACLU filed a lawsuit last week demanding the Obama administration release legal and intelligence records on the killing of the three US citizens in in Yemen.

Privately some senior US military officers say they are extremely uncomfortable at the way the administration is carrying out these operations using the CIA which is not covered by laws of war or the Geneva Convention.

The use of drones outside a declared war zone is seen by many legal experts as setting a dangerous precedent. Aside from allies such as Israel, Britain and France, other countries have drone technology including China, Russia and Pakistan. Iran recently captured a downed US drone.

Heyns, the UN rapporteur, said an international legal framework is urgently needed to govern their use.

‘Our concern is how far does it go – will the whole world be a theatre of war?’ he asked. ‘Drones in principle allow collateral damage to be minimised but because they can be used without danger to a country’s own troops they tend to be used more widely. One doesn’t want to use the term ticking bomb but it’s extremely seductive.’

#DHS To Launch Insurgent-Tracking #Drones Inside America - #NWO

Technology used to hunt enemy combatants in Afghanistan will be used for “non-emergency incidents” within the U.S.

The Department of Homeland Security plans to spend up to $50 million dollars on a spy system that has been used to hunt insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan for the purposes of “emergency and non-emergency incidents” within the United States.


The DHS is seeking four contractors to provide “aerial remote sensing” services, using LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) technology fitted to drones or manned aircraft that will provide surveillance capability for “homeland security missions,” as well as “management of emergency incidents by Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) regional offices, joint field offices and by state and local government.”

“DHS believes these airborne images are essential for homeland defense missions, such as planning for National Special Security Events (Super Bowls or a national political conventions come to mind); enhancing border, port and airport security; as well as performing critical infrastructure inventories and assessments,” reports Government Security News, adding that the technology will be used for “emergency and non-emergency incidents nationwide.”

The DHS expects successful contractors to “ensure imagery can be acquired, processed and delivered in 48 hours or less and the ability to support simultaneous missions in multiple geographic locations.”

LIDAR spy technology, which uses ultraviolet, visible, or near infrared light to track objects or people from the sky, has been used in Iraq and Afghanistan to track insurgents. The US military has praised the technology for its proficiency in providing “battlefield surveillance” and being able to easily locate enemy combatants due to it being “especially useful at seeing through foliage.” LIDAR can be deployed using both manned and unmanned aircraft.

The U.S. Air Force “has already deployed an unknown number of LIDAR aircraft to map all of Afghanistan,” reports MSNBC, with the 3-D laser mapping technology also being adapted to work aboard U.S. Special Forces helicopters such as the Blackhawk or Chinook to help hunt insurgents.

According to Raytheon, one of the companies that develops LIDAR, the technology is adept at tracking “people in crowded environments for safety and security,” because unlike traditional surveillance methods, LIDAR is honed to measure characteristics of individuals and keep them tracked within a “grid cell” so they cannot evade detection.

Under the terms of the recently passed National Defense Authorization Act, the whole of America has been defined as a battlefield, with the government reserving the power to have “belligerents,” including American citizens, arrested and detained indefinitely without trial.

US law enforcement bodies are already using drone technology to spy on Americans. In December, a Predator B drone was called in to conduct surveillance over a family farm in North Dakota as part of a SWAT raid on the Brossart family, who were suspects in the egregious crime of stealing six missing cows. Local police in this one area have already used the drone on two dozen occasions since June last year.

Last summer, the Department of Homeland Security gave the green light for police departments in the United States to deploy the ShadowHawk mini drone drone helicopter that has the ability to taze suspects from above as well as carrying 12-gauge shotguns and grenade launchers. The drone, also used against insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq, is already being used by the Montgomery County Sheriff’s office in Texas.

The DHS has also provided drone surveillance for foreign countries, aiding Jamaican authorities in a botched drug raid that led to the massacre of 73 civilians last year.

A bill passed in by Congress this week paves the way for the use of surveillance drones in US skies on a widespread basis. The FAA predicts that by 2020 there could be up to 30,000 drones in operation nationwide.

The CIA’s drone campaign in Pakistan has killed dozens of civilians who had gone to help rescue victims or were attending funerals, an investigation by the Bureau for the Sunday Times has revealed.

The findings are published just days after President Obama claimed that the drone campaign in Pakistan was a “targeted, focused effort” that “has not caused a huge number of civilian casualties”

A three month investigation including eye witness reports has found evidence that at least 50 civilians were killed in follow-up strikes when they had gone to help victims. More than 20 civilians have also been attacked in deliberate strikes on funerals and mourners. The tactics have been condemned by leading legal experts.

Although the drone attacks were started under the Bush administration in 2004, they have been stepped up enormously under Obama.

There have been 260 attacks by unmanned Predators or Reapers in Pakistan by Obama’s administration – averaging one every four days.

Obama terror drones: CIA tactics in Pakistan include targeting rescuers and funerals, Bureau of Investigative Journalism

(via solitaryforager)

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