U.S. Assembling Drone Bases in Africa, Arabian Peninsula

[Ed Jewett]

U.S. Assembling Drone Bases in Africa, Arabian Peninsula

September 21st, 2011Via: Washington Post:
The Obama administration is assembling a constellation of secret drone bases for counterterrorism operations in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula as part of a newly aggressive campaign to attack al-Qaeda affiliates in Somalia and Yemen, U.S. officials said.
One of the installations is being established in Ethi*o*pia, a U.S. ally in the fight against al-Shabab, the Somali militant group that controls much of that country. Another base is in the Seychelles, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, where a small fleet of "hunter-killer" drones resumed operations this month after an experimental mission demonstrated that the unmanned aircraft could effectively patrol Somalia from there.
The U.S. military also has flown drones over Somalia and Yemen from bases in Djibouti, a tiny African nation at the junction of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. In addition, the CIA is building a secret airstrip in the Arabian Peninsula so it can deploy armed drones over Yemen.
The rapid expansion of the undeclared drone wars is a reflection of the growing alarm with which U.S. officials view the activities of al-Qaeda affiliates in Yemen and Somalia, even as al-Qaeda's core leadership in Pakistan has been weakened by U.S. counterterrorism operations.
The U.S. government is known to have used drones to carry out lethal attacks in at least six countries: Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. The negotiations that preceded the establishment of the base in the Republic of Seychelles illustrate the efforts the United States is making to broaden the range of its drone weapons.
Related: A Future for Drones: Automated Killing
Posted in Assassination, Rise of the Machines, Surveillance, Technology, War

[Ed Jewett]

A Future for Drones: Automated Killing

September 20th, 2011Via: Washington Post:
One afternoon last fall at Fort Benning, Ga., two model-size planes took off, climbed to 800 and 1,000 feet, and began criss-crossing the military base in search of an orange, green and blue tarp.
The automated, unpiloted planes worked on their own, with no human guidance, no hand on any control.
After 20 minutes, one of the aircraft, carrying a computer that processed images from an onboard camera, zeroed in on the tarp and contacted the second plane, which flew nearby and used its own sensors to examine the colorful object. Then one of the aircraft signaled to an unmanned car on the ground so it could take a final, close-up look.
Target confirmed.
This successful exercise in autonomous robotics could presage the future of the American way of war: a day when drones hunt, identify and kill the enemy based on calculations made by software, not decisions made by humans. Imagine aerial "Terminators," minus beefcake and time travel.
The Fort Benning tarp "is a rather simple target, but think of it as a surrogate," said Charles E. Pippin, a scientist at the Georgia Tech Research Institute, which developed the software to run the demonstration. "You can imagine real-time scenarios where you have 10 of these things up in the air and something is happening on the ground and you don't have time for a human to say, I need you to do these tasks.' It needs to happen faster than that."
The demonstration laid the groundwork for scientific advances that would allow drones to search for a human target and then make an identification based on facial-recognition or other software. Once a match was made, a drone could launch a missile to kill the target.
Posted in Rise of the Machines, Surveillance, Technology, War

[Ed Jewett]

A Secret License to Kill

By David Cole

Imagine that Russia started killing individuals living in the United States with remote-controlled drone missiles, and argued that it was justified in doing so because it had determined, in secret, that they posed a threat to Russia's security.

Continue @ http://www.informationclearinghouse.info...e29168.htm

[Ed Jewett]

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• U.S. flying drones out of Seychelles. Other drone bases in Ethiopia and Djibouti. Obama and AFRICOM introduce Africa to "Drone Wars." Africa will not survive another term in office by the first African-American president.
  

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http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/

[Ed Jewett]

Justin Raimondo from Anti-War.com on secret drone warfare
(and the FOIA/FBI "threat to national security" business)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfDGEBD6N...tube_gdata

[Peter Lemkin]

The whole world is our killer computer game website.....virtually, and in fact......it has also come to the homeland, as well. Beware.

[Ed Jewett]

The whole world is our killer computer game website.....virtually, and in fact......it has also come to the homeland, as well. Beware.

Indeed. When they figure out how to make a drone kill look like an accident or something other than what it is, we are in trouble. But then the micro-drones are in full development... large insect-appearing things that can enter open windows and shoot flechettes loaded with poison...

[Ed Jewett]

U.S. Military Wants Drones that Detect Adversarial Intent'

September 28th, 2011Oh sure.
Via: Wired:
Perhaps the idea of spy drones already makes your nervous. Maybe you're uncomfortable with the notion of an unblinking, robotic eye in the sky that can watch your every move. If so, you may want to click away now. Because if the Army has its way, drones won't just be able to look at what you do. They'll be able to recognize your face and track you, based on how you look. If the military machines assemble enough information, they might just be able to peer into your heart.
…
The Pentagon isn't content to simply watch the enemies it knows it has, however. The Army also wants to identify potentially hostile behavior and intent, in order to uncover clandestine foes.
Charles River Analytics is using its Army cash to build a so-called "Adversary Behavior Acquisition, Collection, Understanding, and Summarization (ABACUS)" tool. The system would integrate data from informants' tips, drone footage, and captured phone calls. Then it would apply "a human behavior modeling and simulation engine" that would spit out "intent-based threat assessments of individuals and groups." In other words: This software could potentially find out which people are most likely to harbor ill will toward the U.S. military or its objectives. Feeling nervous yet?
"The enemy goes to great lengths to hide his activities," explains Modus Operandi, Inc., which won an Army contract to assemble "probabilistic algorithms th[at] determine the likelihood of adversarial intent." The company calls its system "Clear Heart." As in, the contents of your heart are now open for the Pentagon to see. It may be the most unnerving detail in this whole unnerving story.
Posted in Dictatorship, Rise of the Machines, Surveillance, Technology, War

[Jan Klimkowski]

it would apply "a human behavior modeling and simulation engine" that would spit out "intent-based threat assessments of individuals and groups." In other words: This software could potentially find out which people are most likely to harbor ill will toward the U.S. military or its objectives.

This is the core criteria for MURDER BY DRONE?

The quote from Gandhi in Magda's signature is apposite.

[Peter Lemkin]

Report: U.S. Expanding Spying Across Africa

[URL="http://www.democracynow.org/2012/6/14/headlines#"]
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The Washington Post is reporting the U.S. is dramatically expanding covert spying operations across the continent of Africa, creating a network of air bases to help monitor and target militants. As part of the effort, the U.S. is reportedly deploying small, unarmed aircraft disguised as private planes that record video and intercept radio and cellphone signals. The spying is overseen by U.S. Special Operations forces but also involves both African troops and private military contractors. The operation comes as part of the Obama administration's expanded use of Special Operations forces in secretive efforts to monitor and even kill militants around the world.