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Obama-Led Drone Strikes Kill Innocents 90% of the Time

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By Andrew Blake. Drone strikes conducted by the United States during a five-month-long campaign in Afghanistan caused the deaths of unintended targets nearly nine out of ten times, leaked intelligence documents suggest.

The apparent 10 percent success rate with regards to a specific span in America’s drone war is among the most damning revelations to surface so far as the result of a series of articles published by The Intercept on Thursday this week which rely on classified and confidential intelligence documents supplied by an unknown source.

“These docs illustrate what a video game, drained of all humanity, these drone assassinations have become,” founding editor Glenn Greenwald tweeted on Thursday.

Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor now in exile, has previously supplied journalists at the online news site with top-secret documents detailing the intelligence community’s eavesdropping efforts — the likes of which has sparked international debates concerning privacy and civil liberties implications, among other factor, as well as calls for legislative reform in the U.S. and abroad.

But the latest trove of documents — previously unpublished reports concerning suspected terrorists, signals intelligence gathering and, ultimately, the launching of often lethal drone strikes — are the apparent offerings of a new source likely to soon be scorned by the U.S. government as well. (Read more from “Obama-Led Drone Strikes Kill Innocents 90% of the Time” HERE)

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Fact Check: Obama Claims Afghan Combat Mission Over – Despite Airstrikes, Special Ops

By Jennifer Griffin and Lucas Tomlison. President Obama may be stretching when he assures the American public that combat operations in Afghanistan ended last year.

The president repeated the claim Thursday as he announced 5,500 U.S. troops would remain in Afghanistan after 2016. “Last December, more than 13 years after our nation was attacked by Al Qaeda on 9/11, America’s combat mission in Afghanistan came to responsible end,” Obama said from the White House, flanked by Vice President Biden, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Joe Dunford and Defense Secretary Ash Carter.

But this year alone, the U.S. military has carried out more than 328 airstrikes, dropping 629 bombs since January, according to U.S. Air Force Central Command. That amounts to roughly one U.S. airstrike a day since the president announced that combat operations had ended during his State of the Union address in January. So far this year, 25 U.S. service members have been killed in Afghanistan.

During his January address, Obama said U.S. troops have moved to a “support role.” He said, “Together with our allies, we will complete our mission there by the end of this year, and America’s longest war will finally be over.”

Obama backed off his pledge Thursday to end the war by the end of the year, but maintained that the combat mission is over and said the mission of those staying behind will not change. The remaining U.S. forces will be based at three air bases in Bagram, Kandahar and Jalalabad, and will only be authorized to train Afghans and hunt Al Qaeda. (Read more from this story HERE)

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This Is the Year Drones Armed With Lasers May Arrive [+video]

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defense-large (3)Flying military robots armed with high-energy lasers? It’s a future that is exciting, terrifying — and perhaps just two years away.

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc., or GA-ASI, the San Diego-based company that makes the Predator and Reaper drones, is undertaking a privately funded study to integrate a 150-kilowatt solid-state laser onto its Avenger (née Predator-C) drone. If the company succeeds, a drone with a high-energy laser will be a reality at some point in 2017, company executives told Defense One.

“We’re funded right now to develop a laser module compatible with the aircraft and study putting it on the Avenger,” Michael Perry, Vice President for Mission Systems at GA-ASI, told Defense One. “We hope to be funded to do that,” he said.

The company is far better known for its MQ-1s and MQ-9s — the backbones of the Pentagon’s drone strike force — than for its work with lasers. But in June, the company delivered a 150-kilowatt liquid laser to the Pentagon for extensive testing at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. For comparison, the 30 kw laser (output) currently on the Ponce in the Persian Gulf has more than enough output to destroy an enemy drone or blow a hole in a boat. In addition to 5 times the power, the significant increase in beam quality provides significantly higher lethality than the system on the Ponce.

Bringing these two technologies together involves a lot more than strapping a laser cannon under the drone’s wings. Hitting a target with a laser mounted on a vibrating platform moving quickly through air laden with dust and water vapor is tougher than launching a Hellfire at a moving vehicle. (Read more from “This Is the Year Drones Armed With Lasers May Arrive” HERE)

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Drones to Catch Mosquitoes in Effort to Combat Diseases

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Unmanned aerial vehicles are an integral part of the battlefield and now Microsoft is planning to enlist drone aircraft in the war on disease.

It has launched Project Premonition, a program designed to detect infectious disease in developing countries, reports Business Standard.

Drones would snatch up mosquitoes and scientists would examine them for signs that potentially harmful viruses are spreading.

The drones would be equipped with a new type of mosquito trap that uses less energy and is lighter weight.

A new bait system is designed to lure the flying insects into the trap. A sensor would automatically sort the mosquitoes from other bugs. Chemicals in the trap preserve the mosquitoes until they can be analyzed in a lab. (Read more from “Drones to Catch Mosquitoes in Effort to Combat Diseases” HERE)

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Chinese Military Using Jamming Against U.S. Drones Over Artificial Island

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China tried to electronically jam U.S. drone flights over the South China Sea in a bid to thwart spying on disputed island military construction, U.S. officials said.

Global Hawk long-range surveillance drones were targeted by the jamming in at least one incident near the disputed Spratly Islands, where China is building military facilities on Fiery Cross Reef.

Disclosure of the jamming came as a U.S. Navy P-8 surveillance flight on Wednesday was challenged eight times by the Chinese military to leave the same area.

“This is the Chinese navy … This is the Chinese navy … Please go away … to avoid misunderstanding,” a radio call in English from an installation on Firey Cross said. The warnings were reported by CNN, which had a reporter on the aircraft.

Later Thursday, the Navy released video revealing that the China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy sent several radio warning messages to the crew of the P-8 ordering the jet to leave the area, and to deviate from its flight path near Fiery Cross Reef. (Read more from “Chinese Military Using Jamming Against U.S. Drones” HERE)

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Here’s How Soldiers Reacted to Miniature Drones at an Army Experiment [+video]

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U.S. Army maneuver officials here just finished testing miniature drones and other high-tech soldier kit, much of which is designed to help infantry squads and platoons spot the enemy first.

From March 2 through March 5, soldiers from the Army’s Experimentation Force, or EXFOR, participated in the Army Expeditionary Warrior Experiment, an annual event aimed at evaluating innovative equipment with the potential to revolutionize infantry combat.

This year, the AEWE focused on 75 prototype technologies ranging from network communications gear to loadbearing kit, to sustainment and force protection equipment.

Many showed promise, but it was the pocket-sized Black Hornet and backpack-sized InstantEye unmanned aerial systems that captured the imaginations of 1st Platoon, A Company, 1st Battalion, 29th Infantry Regiment, the unit that makes up the EXFOR.

Hosted by the Maneuver Center of Excellence, the AEWE puts untested gear into the hands of infantrymen for a short period of intense field exercises. The experiment puts the EXFOR through a series of day and night missions and several fragmentary orders, or FRAGOs, to make test conditions as challenging as possible. (Read more from “Here’s How Soldiers Reacted to Miniature Drones at an Army Experiment” HERE)

Here’s a Reuters review of some European produced military drones:

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Safety and Security Concerns about Drones (+video)

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Photo Credit: MyFoxNYPolice say operators flew a drone too close to an NYPD helicopter that was on patrol at the George Washington Bridge and forced the chopper to change its course to avoid a collision early Monday morning. As a result, the two men were arrested.

Daniel Rose is an aviation lawyer. He points out that a bird brought down the jet in the Miracle on the Hudson incident. So a drone could do that or worse.

“To have a piece of metal, essentially, that high up in the sky coming in contact with a plane, a plane’s engine, a plane’s flight control system, a helicopter, can do a myriad of different types of damages including bringing the plane down,” Rose says.

Rose says drones are a fast-growing industry. Anyone can buy and operate one. He says the FAA is in the process of attempting to develop regulations, but that could take a year or longer.

New York News

Read more from this story HERE.

A Legal Way To Kill?

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Photo Credit: Townhall

Photo Credit: Townhall

When President Obama decided sometime during his first term that he wanted to be able to use unmanned aerial drones in foreign lands to kill people — including Americans — he instructed Attorney General Eric Holder to find a way to make it legal — despite the absolute prohibition on governmental extra-judicial killing in federal and state laws and in the Constitution itself.

“Judicial killing” connotes a lawful execution after an indictment, a jury trial, an appeal and all of the due process protections that the Constitution guarantees defendants. “Extra-judicial killing” is a targeted killing of a victim by someone in the executive branch without due process. The president wanted the latter, and he wanted it in secret.

He must have hoped his killing would never come to light, because the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution could not be more direct: “No person shall be … deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law.”

Due process has a few prongs. The first is substantive, meaning the outcome must be fair. In a capital murder case, for example, the defendant must not only be found guilty by a jury, but he also must truly be guilty.

The second prong of due process is procedural. Thus, the defendant must be charged with a crime and tried before a neutral jury. He is entitled to a lawyer, to confront the witnesses against him and to remain silent. The trial must be presided over by a neutral judge, and in the case of a conviction, the defendant is entitled to an appeal before a panel of three neutral judges.

Read more from this story HERE.

Feinstein: A Drone Spied On Me (+video)

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Photo Credit: Light Brigading / Creative Commons In an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes” that aired on Sunday night, the California Democrat said a drone spied into the window of her home during a protest outside her house, and that privacy concerns for the technology were “major.”

Feinstein appeared as a pro-regulation voice in a Morley Safer segment on the legal questions surrounding the commercial drone industry.

“When is a drone picture a benefit to society? When does it become stalking? When does it invade privacy? How close to a home can a drone go?” Feinstein said, listing questions she would like to see answered in the complex regulation process.

Read more from this story HERE.

Predator Drone Used to Arrest American Ranch Family

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Photo Credit: AP Photo/Kirsty WigglesworthA Predator drone designed to catch terrorists in Afghanistan was used to track a recalcitrant North Dakota rancher and his sons accused of cattle thieving and monitor them to see when they were unarmed and alert the police in a case believed to be the first where an American citizen was arrested with the aid of a drone.

On Jan. 14, 2014, Rodney Brossart was acquitted of stealing cattle and criminal mischief, but convicted of terrorizing police (a conviction he is appealing) and sentenced to three years in prison with all but six months suspended.

This all stems from an incident on June 22, 2011, when six cattle from a neighboring property wandered onto Brossart’s ranch. Brossart found the cattle and, not knowing to whom they belonged, penned them in an area known as the “missile site.”

Brossart refused to return the cattle without remuneration (which he is entitled to under state law), but the police asserted that Brossart needed to return the cattle to the neighbor under estray laws.

According to the North Dakota statute on estrays or stray animals (Chapter 36-13), a person may take possession of a stray animal when it is on their property if it does not know who owns it. Once the owner is identified, the person shall notify the county sheriff or chief brand inspector. The person who takes possession of an estray may charge for actual damage done to the person’s crops or property by the estray as well as costs incurred for the care and feeding of the estray.

Read more from this story HERE.

Swarms of Drones Could Be the Next Frontier in Emergency Response (+video)

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Photo Credit: Carnegie Mellon University

Photo Credit: Carnegie Mellon University

Robots that can buzz, whir, and clamber into some of the most dangerous crime scenes and disaster zones are coming to the aid of police officers and other first responders who put themselves in harm’s way.

In October 2013, a parolee barricaded himself in a Roseville, Calif., suburban home of a young couple and their toddler, taking mother and child hostage. A SWAT team from the local police station captured the alleged offender and took him in, but not before gunfire ripped through the one-story home and injured officers.

Law enforcement officers on the ground had help from bomb squad robots, that helped push aside the furniture the suspect had piled up as a barricade. But two detectives believe that a bit of unmanned aerial backup would have made a big difference.

“Just knowing what’s going on inside a house that we would go into cold — [we could] potentially save officers’ lives and victims’ lives,” Phil Mancini, a detective on the Roseville police desk, told NBC News. Mancini has been advising a group at Carnegie Mellon University that is building a swarm of cheap, small flying helicopters that could come to the aid of officers across the country who find themselves facing off against suspects they can’t always see.

Read more from this story HERE.