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Federal Surveillance Drone Crashes in Florida, Shuts Down Highway (+video)

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Photo Credit: APA Florida highway was closed on Wednesday after a crash involving a fallen drone from an Air Force base, according to reports.

The Associated Press reported that the drone, from Tyndall Air Force Base in Panama City, Fla., crashed on the U.S. 98 highway in Florida’s Panhandle.

The stretch of highway affected is an a rural part of Florida, but officials said the road could be closed for as long as 24 hours.

The drone has a 24-hour battery life and will become inactive after that, according to the AP.

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Rand Paul Putting Hold on FBI Director Until FBI Answers Questions About Domestic Drones (+video)

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Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Tuesday afternoon he will put a hold on James Comey’s nomination as FBI director until the agency answers questions about the use of drones for domestic surveillance.

“I’m placing a hold on it, not because I have the intention of ultimately defeating him, but I’m going to slow it down enough to see if the administration will respond to my questions,” Paul said, speaking to Eric Bolling on Fox News.

Earlier this month, Paul said he would block Comey’s nomination until the FBI answered questions he sent to them over the government’s use of drones to monitor Americans on U.S. soil. He said Tuesday afternoon he has yet to receive a response and will move forward with the formal hold.

Paul also alluded to holding another marathon filibuster, a potential replay of his 13-hour talking filibuster in March, though he didn’t confirm if he planned to do so.

“[A hold] is like the beginning of a filibuster. Should they bring [the hold] to the floor, and I choose to speak like I did on the drone subject earlier, then as long as I can speak I can stop the debate,” Paul said.

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In Historic First, Navy Lands Unmanned Drone on Aircraft Carrier (+video)

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Photo Credit: APFor the first time ever, a fighter jet-sized drone piloted entirely by computer landed on a modern aircraft carrier.

The successful touch down paves the way for unmanned aircraft to operate alongside traditional airplanes, providing around-the-clock surveillance while also possessing strike capability. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus was clearly aware of the import of the historic moment.

“It isn’t very often you get a glimpse of the future,” Mabus said in a statement. “The operational unmanned aircraft soon to be developed have the opportunity to radically change the way presence and combat power are delivered from our aircraft carriers.”

The X-47B experimental aircraft took off from Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland before approaching the USS George H.W. Bush, which is operating off the coast of Virginia. The drone landed by deploying a tailhook that caught a wire aboard the ship, bringing it to a quick stop, just like normal fighter jets do.

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Senator Rand Paul: We Can’t Trust the Fed’s Clandestine Services (+video)

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

Senator Rand Paul appeared on Sirius XM Patriot 125 and, in a wide-ranging interview with Mike Church, hammered the National Intelligence Director James Clapper for lying to Congress. Paul contends that that creates trust issues regarding anything the clandestine services tell Americans:

You know, in March of this year, the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper came to the Senate and he was asked directly by Senator Wyden, “Are you collecting data on American citizens,” and he said, “No.” And interestingly, he’d been prepped for the questions. Senator Wyden’s office called him in advance and said, “We’re going to ask you are you collecting data on Americans.” So wasn’t not like he fumbled around and kind of gave a wrong answer, he just decided to lie.

When he was caught in the lie he said well I said the least untruthful thing I could think of. Well, that does make us a little bit skeptical of what they’re saying.

Rand Paul then goes on to explain that Clapper excused his lie, arguing that the truth was classified.

Senator Paul makes it clear that he supports the efforts the feds undertake to protect Americans from terrorists, but that he is concerned about the potential of the enormous power of the federal government being wielded against innocent U.S. citizens.

He also discusses drones and the FBI Director’s admission that they are presently being used for surveillance of the American citizens:

Director Admits FBI Using Drones For Surveillance in the US

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

FBI Director Robert Mueller acknowledged Wednesday that the bureau has a limited number of drones that it uses for surveillance on U.S. soil.

The practice, however limited, could raise further concern about government snooping amid the ongoing controversy over the administration’s phone- and Internet-tracking programs.

Mueller addressed the matter during a Senate hearing on Capitol Hill, under questioning from Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.

Asked if the FBI has drones, Mueller said, “Yes, and for surveillance.”

He later said they are deployed on U.S. soil, but clarified they are used in a “very, very minimal way and very seldom.”

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Obama Admin. Assassinated Four Americans in Drone Strikes

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Photo Credit: APFour American citizens have been killed in counter-terrorism drone strikes since 2009, the Obama administration acknowledged for the first time Wednesday.

Attorney General Eric Holder disclosed the previously classified information in a letter to a top senator that also included the names of those killed and the revelation that only one was directly targeted in the strikes that began in 2009. He did not specifically call them drone strikes – rather, he referred to “counterterrorism operations” – but most of the individuals he mentioned are known to have died in drone strikes.

The targeted individual, Anwar al-Awlaki, was a radical Muslim cleric whom U.S. officials said was involved in planning Al Qaeda operations and terror attacks. He was killed in September 2011 in Yemen.

The acknowledgement came ahead of a major counterterrorism policy speech by President Obama scheduled for Thursday.

Holder said in the letter that the Obama administration is “aware” of three other U.S. citizens killed in such counter-terrorism operations besides al-Awlaki: Samir Khan, Jude Kennan Mohammed and Awlaki’s son Abdulrahman Anwar al-Awlaki, Holder said.

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Navy Launches First Ever Drone From Carrier (+videos)

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Photo Credit: defensetech.The U.S. Navy for the first time launched a drone from an aircraft carrier in what officials hailed as a historic milestone in naval aviation.

The batwing-shaped craft, known as the X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System, or UCAS, on May 14 was catapulted 11:18 a.m. local time from the deck of the USS George H.W. Bush in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Virginia Beach, Va., according to the service.

The drone, made by Northrop Grumman Corp., was controlled by an operator aboard the ship but flew largely autonomously. After multiple approaches to the nuclear-powered carrier, it crossed the Chesapeake Bay and landed at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., about an hour later. (The vehicle is set to attempt a landing aboard a carrier at sea this summer after completing a shore-based arrested landing earlier this month.)

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Court Orders CIA to Acknowledge Drones

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Photo Credit: wbaiv

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) must acknowledge whether an armed drone program exists, a federal appellate court ruled on Friday.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) took the CIA to court after filing a Freedom of Information request about drone strikes overseas. The CIA denied the request, saying it could not release any documents because even acknowledging the existence of the program would harm national security.

“The existence or nonexistence of CIA records responsive to this request is a currently and properly classified fact, the disclosure of which reasonably could be expected to cause damage to the national security,” the CIA argued to the court, which initially agreed.

But on Friday, the appellate court overturned the earlier decision, noting that President Obama and other senior intelligence officials have talked openly about drone strikes in recent months, undercutting the CIA’s argument that acknowledging its role in the operation could harm national security.

“The defendant is, after all, the Central Intelligence Agency. And it strains credulity to suggest that an agency charged with gathering intelligence affecting the national security does not have an ‘intelligence interest’ in drone strikes, even if that agency does not operate the drones itself,” Chief Judge Merrick B. Garland wrote.

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Establishment GOP Wages War On Newcomers

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Photo Credit: WND

Old guard Senate Republicans are using the term “wacko” to describe new members promoting the tea party call for smaller government and accountability, and a congressional source for WND says it’s a sign of an emerging inter-party clash.

Referring to the fallout from the filibuster this week by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., a top Republican aide said there “could not have been a starker contrast in terms of the new reformers of the Senate, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Mike Lee, all fighting the overreach of this executive, versus on the handful of senators having dinner in one of the most expensive hotels in the country.”

Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who both criticized Paul for his nearly 13-hour filibuster of the vote on John Brennan for CIA director, were among the Republican leaders who dined with Obama. According to the Huffington Post, McCain referred to tea party Republicans, including Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., as “wacko birds.”

“I don’t think you could get a clearer and starker vision of what one side thinks Washington should be doing versus the other,” the source said. The energy generated by Paul’s filibuster and the stances taken by Sens. McCain and Graham show why “they don’t have the backing and support of the American people,” the source said.

In the hours after Paul’s filibuster, both McCain and Graham launched deeply critical attacks against Paul, claiming that, fundamentally, the American people have nothing to fear from their government. Paul, Cruz and Lee raised alarm when the Obama administration wouldn’t immediately assure the public it would not kill an American citizen on home soil with a drone.

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Rand Paul: ‘McCain Is On The Wrong Side Of History’ (+audio)

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On Friday, Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul stopped by “The Mike Huckabee Show,” where he sharply criticized Sen. John McCain’s opposition to his dramatic filibuster earlier in the week.

Photo Credit: Daily Caller

“You know, I think he’s just on the wrong side of history, and the wrong side of this argument, really,” Paul said. “When you think about it, it is pretty important. … Our soldiers go overseas, and they’re fighting for our Bill of Rights, and I was sitting next to a war veteran here at a conference just a few minutes ago, and the whole idea is that it wouldn’t be important that everybody gets their days in court — that you could accuse someone of something, and they wouldn’t get to defend themselves.”

“I really think that goes against everything America stands for,” Paul continued. “I had this exchange with Sen. McCain on the floor about a year ago. The government can indefinitely detain someone — an American citizen — and I said, ‘Does that mean you could send them to Guantanamo Bay from America without a trial?’ And he said ‘Yes, if they’re dangerous.’ But that begs the question: Who gets to decide whether you’re dangerous person or not?”

Listen to audio:

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