Posts

Drone Killing of British Citizens in Syria Marks Major Departure for UK

/0 Comments/in , /by

3000The killing of two British citizens in a targeted drone strike in Syria marks a major departure for the UK. While killing its own citizens by missiles fired from drones is not new for the US, this is the first time such an attack has been carried out by Britain.

The attack raises an immediate issue, just as it has done in the US, over whether the killing of its citizens in such a way is lawful. It also raises a political question of whether David Cameron, in spite of a parliamentary vote against military action in Syria two years ago, is slowly creeping towards taking the UK fully into the conflict.

The prime minister, in his Commons statement, justified the attack as self-defence, to prevent terrorist outrages in the UK planned by Islamic State. He confirmed that a third Briton, Junaid Hussein, also believed to be fighting with Isis, had been killed in a drone attack by the US.

The attack that killed Britons Reyaad Khan and Ruhul Amin in a vehicle near Raqqa on 21 August was carried out by a Reaper drone flown from a base in the Middle East but controlled by a British crew either operating at RAF Waddington or from the US air base at Creech in Nevada. The Ministry of Defence never confirms the location.

The RAF was acting on intelligence that required a quick response, according to security sources. (Read more from “Drone Killing of British Citizens in Syria Marks Major Departure for UK” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Authorities Foil Drone-Delivery of Porn, Drugs and Gun to Maryland Prison

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: Twitter

Photo Credit: Twitter

Want to get a handgun, some synthetic marijuana and porn into a prison?

Two men in Maryland allegedly tried to do just that — by remote controlled aircraft — though their plot never got off the ground, authorities said Monday.

The pair was found Saturday on a side road that runs alongside the Western Correctional Institution in Cumberland with the aircraft — which officials called a drone — in their vehicle, the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services announced in a press release . . .

Not after what else they found in the vehicle, which they suspect the two men planned to fly over onto the WCI’s grounds. One tweet from the state agency apparently shows the bounty: packets of K2 (or synthetic marijuana), tobacco, suboxone, pornographic DVDs and a handgun laid out on a table next to the four-propellered miniature aircraft . . .

The vehicle’s owner had been under surveillance for some time. An intelligence officer at the western Maryland prison and a state corrections department detective suspected the owner and his associate along with at least one inmate planned to use an unmanned drone to drop off contraband at the prison. (Read more from “Authorities Foil Drone-Delivery of Porn, Drugs and Gun to Maryland Prison” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

The World’s Smallest Drone Gets Ready to Take Flight

/2 Comments/in , /by

axis-drone-1Drones have gone from geeky dream to mainstream gadget in a shockingly brief amount of time. The remote-controlled airborne devices were once expensive tools reserved for businesses with a real need for them. Construction companies, for example, used them to survey and film sites, while video companies used them to capture aerial footage at a fraction of the cost of renting a helicopter.

Today, you can walk into any toy store, spend less than $50 and leave with a recreational drone in your shopping bag.

Drones have flooded the market to the point that it’s getting difficult to distinguish between them, but one company is getting ready to launch a drone that you won’t soon forget: Meet the world’s smallest quadcopter.

Crowdfunded products often fail to actually make it to release, but the Aerius drone by Axis Drones was successfully funded some time ago. It is now less than a month away from launch, and production has apparently gone so well that the device can still be preordered for delivery ahead of the holidays. (Read more from “The World’s Smallest Drone Gets Ready to Take Flight” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Watch: A Man Was Flying a Drone to Get a Nice Aerial Shot of the Beach…What He Discovered Is Terrifying

/2 Comments/in , /by

Pismo-BeachA vacationer was hoping to get some cool footage of the surfers riding the waves at Pismo Beach, Calif., with his drone, when he spotted something ominous in the water last weekend.

The San Luis Obispo Tribune reports that Dustin McClasin, visiting from Bakersfield, sent his drone airborne around 9:15 a.m. last Saturday morning, flying it from a balcony up the coast line.

When he saw something dark beneath the surface near one of the surfers, he circled in to take a closer look. What he thought at first might just be seaweed, he realized was in fact a 9′ to 10′ shark.

At one point in the video, the shark swims very close to a surfer sitting in the water, just as said surfer catches a wave taking him safely away from the potential hazard. (Read more from “A Man Was Flying a Drone to Get a Nice Aerial Shot of the Beach…What He Discovered Is Terrifying” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Aerial Assault Drone Is Armed With Hacking Weapons

/1 Comment/in , /by

Part-WAS-Was8951675-1-1-0Hackers’ arsenal was beefed up with a drone armed with weapons to crack into wireless computer networks at close range, whether they be in skyscrapers or walled compounds.

David Jordan of US-based Aerial Assault was at an infamous Def Con hacker gathering on Sunday, showing off a drone that could be dispatched on missions to land atop buildings or hover outside walls and probe for cracks in computer networks . . .

The drone was equipped with software tools used to perform the kind of “penetration testing” done by hackers or computer security professionals who seek vulnerabilities in computer networks.

As with drones previously launched by hackers, the Aerial Assault model scans for unsecured wireless connections to networks, according to Jordan . . .

Hackers at Def Con early on turned to drones for sniffing out unprotected wireless Internet networks, but capabilities Jordan said were built into the Aerial Assault drone raised the ante with automated tools that could be flown past physical defenses. (Read more from “Aerial Assault Drone Is Armed With Hacking Weapons” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Russian Military Developing Anti-Drone ‘Microwave Gun’

/2 Comments/in , /by

The state-owned Russian defense firm, United Instrument Manufacturing Corp., reported to state-owned news site Sputnik that they’d developed a microwave-based weapon they plan to show off privately at the Russian Defense Ministry’s Army-2015 expo June 16-19 . . .

“The new system is equipped with a high-power relativistic generator and reflector antenna, management and control system, and a transmission system, which is fixed on the chassis of BUK surface-to-air missile systems,” a UIMC spokesman told Sputnik News. “When mounted on a special platform, the ‘microwave gun’ is capable of ensuring perimeter defense at 360 degrees.”

The U.S. has a similar microwave weapon in development, the “Counter-electronics high-powered Microwave Advanced Missile Project” missile targets electronics inside buildings. The CHAMP missile would shut down computers, radio communication and other electronic functions to disable a building’s defenses. (Read more from “Russian Military Developing Anti-Drone ‘Microwave Gun'” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Creeps Embrace a New Tool: Peeping Drones

/4 Comments/in , /by

750x-1By Michael B. Marois. It was the blinking lights outside the 10th-story window of her San Jose, California, condo that startled Elsvette Buenaventura from her bed last year. When she drew back the curtain, a small drone hovered a few feet away. In the days that followed, it returned at least three more times.

Such stories have prompted lawmakers in a half-dozen U.S. states to outlaw the use of drones to snoop on people’s homes. More states are set to follow.

“We don’t know what he was looking for with his camera-drone,” said Buenaventura, 32. “All we felt was a violation of our privacy.”

For less than $1,000, small, remotely operated aircraft are increasingly available on the Internet and at hobby stores, and some can be equipped with equally affordable high-definition cameras. At the same time, some of America’s biggest companies — names like Chevron Corp. and BNSF Railway Co. — are pushing to use drones for everything from pipeline inspection to land surveys. Their use has pushed lawmakers to weigh the rights of drone pilots against the potential for nefarious intrusions.

Camera-equipped drones have commercial uses — they can inspect crops, photograph real estate and survey land. As the government figures out how to regulate that activity, it has begun rapidly granting waivers from federal rules to drones-for-hire. Scores of companies have obtained permission to fly them. (Read more from “Creeps Embrace a New Tool: Peeping Drones” HERE)

_________________________________________________

Airplane Pilots Reporting Increase in Drone Encounters in the Sky

By CBS Denver. The Federal Aviation Administration bans the commercial use of drones but the high-flying devices are so popular with hobbyists, they are becoming a threat to airplanes.

Reports obtained by CBS4 Investigator Rick Sallinger found nearly 200 FAA reports of drone interference with planes and helicopters. The reports come from across the country.

There are also highly publicized incursions, such as the drone landing on the White House lawn and one flying over an appearance by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

And YouTube is filled with videos of drones crashing into everything from power lines to smokestacks and skyscrapers.

Companies that sell drones in Colorado are now trying to prevent problems. Josh Gilson is a co-owner of “Multicopter Warehouse” in Castle Rock, a store that offers free classes for drone users. (Read more from this story HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

This Just-Disclosed Heartbreaking Mistake Is a ‘Major Blow’ to Obama’s Touted Drone War

/6 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Western Journalism

Photo Credit: Western Journalism

Though it reportedly happened months ago, the Obama administration just this morning (Thursday) revealed that two Western hostages held by terrorist kidnappers in Pakistan were killed in a strike on al-Qaeda by a U.S drone. The Wall Street Journal reports that this is “the first known instance in which the U.S. has accidentally killed a hostage in a drone strike.”

“The mishap represents a major blow to the Central Intelligence Agency and its covert drone program in Pakistan, which President Barack Obama embraced and expanded after coming to office in 2009.”

The two hostages reportedly killed in the January incident near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border have been identified as Warren Weinstein, an American, and Giovanni Lo Porto, an Italian. The strike on the suspected terrorist compound is also said to have killed al-Qaeda leader Ahmed Farouq, another American citizen. A separate strike in January reportedly led to the death of American-born al-Qaeda spokesman Adam Gadahn.

A USA Today article on the accidental deaths of the two hostages — both of whom had been held captive for years — notes that President Obama just recently decided to release the information, which had heretofore been classified.

“‘The operation targeted an al-Qaeda-associated compound, where we had no reason to believe either hostage was present, located in the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan,’ [Josh] Earnest said in the statement. ‘No words can fully express our regret over this terrible tragedy.’”

Appearing before reporters after the Earnest statement announced the sad news, Obama took “full responsibility” for the incident and apologized on behalf of the government . . . (Read more from “BREAKING: The Heartbreaking Mistake Just Disclosed Is a ‘Major Blow’ to Obama’s Touted Drone War” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

How Crashing Drones Are Exposing Secrets About U.S. War Operations [+video]

/3 Comments/in , /by

military-droneCrashing drones are spilling secrets about U.S. military operations.

A surveillance mission was exposed last week when a Predator drone crashed in northwest Syria while spying on the home turf of President Bashar al-Assad. U.S. officials believe the drone was shot down, but they haven’t ruled out mechanical failure. Regardless, the wreckage offered the first hard evidence of a U.S. confrontation with Assad’s forces.

The mishap in Syria follows a string of crashes in Yemen, another country where the U.S. military keeps virtually all details of its drone operations classified.

Yemeni tribesmen have reported three cases in the past 15 months in which U.S. drones have fallen from the sky, pulling back the curtain on likely surveillance targets. Air Force spokesmen said they could not confirm any crashes in Yemen, but Air Force records obtained by The Washington Post show the dates match up with official acknowledgments of accidents that occurred in classified locations.

Since January 2014, the Air Force has reported 14 crashes of Predator and Reaper drones that either destroyed the aircraft or inflicted more than $2 million in damage. Three of the accidents took place in Afghanistan, but six happened elsewhere in classified or undisclosed sites, a sharp increase from prior years. (Read more from “How Crashing Drones Are Exposing Secrets About U.S. War Operations [+video]” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

U.S. Military Loses Contact with Predator Drone Flying over Syria

/0 Comments/in , /by

A Pentagon official confirmed the U.S. military lost contact with an unarmed Predator drone Tuesday while it was flying above northwestern Syria, but could not corroborate reports that the aircraft was shot down by President Bashar Assad’s air defenses.

The official, who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, said that U.S. forces lost contact with the drone about 1:40 p.m. Eastern time and that the reason for its disappearance was being investigated.

The incident marks the first time a U.S. aircraft has gone down since President Obama authorized airstrikes against Islamic State militants in the summer. Since then, Predator drones have been flying daily missions above Iraq and Syria.

Predators are flown from bases across the globe, but the military official would not discuss where the U.S. aircraft was being controlled from or where it was based before they lost contact with it.

Earlier Tuesday, the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency said the country’s air defenses had brought down a U.S. surveillance plane in the coastal province of Latakia. (Read more from “U.S. Military Loses Contact with Predator Drone Flying over Syria” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.