CODEPINK Repeatedly Disrupts Brennan Hearing Calling Out Names of Civilians Killed in Drone Strikes

Thursday’s confirmation hearing for CIA nominee John Brennan was briefly postponed to clear the room of activists from CODEPINK after they repeatedly disrupted Brennan’s testimony. One woman held a list of Pakistani children killed in U.S. drone strikes. Former U.S. diplomat Col. Ann Wright interrupted Brennan while wearing a sign around her neck with the name of Tariq Aziz, a 16-year-old Pakistani boy who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2011. Wright and seven others were arrested. We speak to CODEPINK founder Medea Benjamin, who also disrupted the meeting and recently visited Pakistan to speak with victims of drone strikes. "It’s not only the killing, it’s the terrorizing of entire populations, where they hear the drones buzzing overhead 24 hours a day, where they’re afraid to go to school, afraid to go to the markets, to funerals, to weddings, where it disrupts entire communities," Benjamin says. "And we are trying to get this information to our elected officials, to say, 'You are making us unsafe here at home,' to say nothing of how illegal, immoral and inhumane these policies are." 

GUEST:

Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CODEPINK and author of Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control.

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The Mad MUSIC of Machine Warfare

Future Combat Systems

Activist Post

The symphony of destruction continues to get louder, as an unabashed war project has been named MUSIC.

We have been discussing drones almost ad nauseam as of late, because a dystopian science fiction plot has entered our reality whereby machines have not only supplanted humans on the battlefield, but they have become autonomous -- they can work together and make decisions on their own.

If the use of drones to unilaterally bomb six countries from thousands of miles away doesn't get people's attention, then perhaps fleets of weaponized surveillance drones with the ability to communicate amongst themselves and wage war independently will.

The MUSIC project officially integrates unmanned and manned aircraft in combat, and was put on display with the largest showcase of "aircraft interoperability" to date:

"...all have the capability to shoot and stream live video. These aircraft also possess the ability to exchange and use the information as needed, whether it is to conduct surveillance or reconnaissance of a given area."

This interoperability creates a Universal Ground Control Station, or network of drones and their payloads.  In addition to the dangers presented by this technology and its use in undeclared wars, a single operator can orchestrate movements on the platform.  This would seem to greatly increase the negative effects of operator error or abuse. 

A single operator is then able to take control of a given payload, or sensor, on the aviation platform by using the One System Remote Video Terminal. The operator can steer the aircraft's payload in any direction to conduct surveillance and reconnaissance of an area.

This fusion of multiple platforms is also slated to extend across the different branches of the military and can thus potentially play a concert of war between the aerial and ground drones of the Army, Air Force, Marines, and Navy:

Not only is MUSIC helping shape the future of CAB units and the Army but its creating connections across joint boundaries to include the Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps, said Maj. Gen. William T. Crosby, the Program Executive Office, Aviation.

The capabilities reported in the ASD press release are echoed in an article from the Washington Post today entitled A Future for Drones: Automated Killing.  This is where things begin to get creepy.  The drone network that is being set up is designed to conduct its mission without the need for human direction:

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.

As we reported last week, an additional capability is being added to keep the drone network aloft indefinitely using lasers to convert power from multiple sources.  Therefore, in the near future an unblinking, unfeeling, permanent matrix of war will confirm its target independently by data supplied to its sensors, orchestrate the attack plan between its member drones and robots, and execute the mission:

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.

Whoever said that machines can't surpass humanity's ability to make music?

Perhaps the better question is whether or not humanity will be around to hear the final note.

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Drone Pilots Rewarded With Bravery Medals (Video)

Youtube - TYT

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Panetta: Escalate Shadow Wars, Expand Black Ops

Wiki Commons

Spencer Ackerman
Wired

Icing Osama bin Laden? Just the beginning, once Leon Panetta makes it to the Pentagon.

At his Thursday confirmation hearing to become secretary of defense, CIA Director Panetta made a broad case for expanding the U.S.’ already extensive shadow wars. Now that bin Laden is dead, “we’ve got to keep the pressure up,” Panetta urged senators. Expect a lot of drone strikes and a lot of special ops raids — some conducted by future CIA Director David Petraeus. In a lot of places.

Panetta said he wants to hit al-Qaida’s “nodes” from Pakistan to North Africa, “develop[ing] operations in each of those areas,” so terrorists have “no place to escape.” That means working with the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), the elite commandos that executed the raid on bin Laden’s Abbotabad compound. And Panetta has some specific ideas about how that should work.

In his written responses to the Senate Armed Services Committee, Panetta endorsed a command scheme that would place select U.S. military personnel temporarily under the authority of the CIA director for the most sensitive counterterrorism operations. Panetta told the committee that it’s “appropriate for the head of such department or agency [read: CIA] to direct the operations of the element providing that military support while working with the Secretary of Defense.” A “significant advantage of doing so,” he continued, “is that it permits the robust operational capability of the U.S. Armed Forces to be applied when needed.”
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After bin Laden: It is Time to Stop the War Machine

Activist Post

The amount of money that had been dedicated to the hunt for bin Laden and his Islamic compatriots is astounding.  Now that we "got him,"  the American Military machine, instead of standing down, has been reinvigorated with new purpose and rededicated to routing out the remaining factions of Al Qaeda within Pakistan and Afghanistan.  What this means to us Americans is quite poignant:  More money to the military machine and more growth of the police state under the Patriot Act’s guise of protecting our borders. 

It has been reported that “Washington has massively ramped up its drone campaign against militants in areas near the Afghan border, and argues they are highly effective in the war against al-Qaeda and its Islamist allies.”  Not two days passed after the death of bin Laden before America sent an unmanned drone into North Waziristan, Pakistan to eliminate an “Al Qaeda stronghold”.  The result of this action was the death of “8 militants”.  Pakistani leaders are now stating that America is assaulting their sovereignty with these actions and now, as a direct result of our continued foreign affair nightmare, another war has begun and more money from We the People and more young men and women’s lives will go into the War Chest.  

Pakistan Warns US Over Airspace . . . US Then Promptly Murders 8 Pakistanis in Drone Attack

Editor's Update:  Make that 15 Pakistanis now. 


Tony Cartalucci, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

Bangkok, Thailand May 6, 2011 - Much to Wired writer Spencer Ackerman's credit, amidst the first several paragraphs of his article, "First Drone Strikes Since Bin Laden Raid Hit Pakistan, Yemen," it is noted that after Pakistan's warnings and demands that the US cease and desist from violating its airspace, the US's subsequent drone attacks made the Pakistanis "look either complicit — and, hence, hypocritical — or incompetent." While the article continues by covering the official narrative citing the Soros-funded New American Foundation and the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies' propagandist mouthpiece "Long War Journal," this initial moment of clarity strikes at the very center of America's use of drone attacks in Pakistan.

The global corporate-financiers that fund organizations like the New American Foundation and the FDD are quite clear in regards to their designs regarding Pakistan, and indeed all sovereign nations on earth outside their sphere of military and economic hegemony. Selig Harrison of the Soros funded  Center for International Policy has published two pieces specifically calling for carving off Pakistan's Baluchistan province, not as part of a strategy to win the "War on Terror," but as a means to thwart growing relations between Islamabad and Beijing.

US carries out first drone strike in Libya: Pentagon

A US Predator unmanned drone was used for
the first drone strike in Libya
© AFP/File Massoud Hossaini

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States carried out its first drone strike in Libya on Saturday, the Pentagon said, two days after approving the use of pilotless aircraft to aid rebels fighting Moamer Kadhafi's forces.

"The first Predator strike in Libya occurred today in the early afternoon local time (our morning time EDT)," a US military press spokesman said in a statement sent to AFP.

But he said there would be no further information about the target or where the strike occurred. "Per common practice we are not providing any details," the spokesman added.

US to deploy drones against Kadhafi in Libya: Gates

Dees Illustration

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US military will use armed drones over Libya, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday, calling them a "modest contribution" to international coalition efforts there.

Gates said the decision to use unmanned drones armed with missiles was made "because of the humanitarian situation" in Libya, where strongman Moamer Kadhafi's forces are battling a Western-backed insurgency.

"They give you a capability that even the A10 (anti-tank aircraft) and AC130 (ground attack aircraft) couldn't provide" in the conflict in the North African nation, he told a press briefing.

© AFP -- Published at Activist Post with license

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Pakistan urges US to stop drone strikes

Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani asked
the US to end its use of drones in his country
© AFP Peter Parks

AFP

ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani urged the United States Monday to end its drone strikes in Pakistan and said Washington should share intelligence better to allow Islamabad to wage its own war on terror.

Speaking in Pakistan's lower house, the National Assembly, after meeting US House Speaker John Boehner in Islamabad, Gilani said: "I told him that you will have to respect our political and military efforts if you want to succeed" in combating insurgents.

Boehner was leading a six-member congressional delegation on a two-day visit and also met Pakistan army chief General Ashfaq Kayani and US Ambassador Cameron Munter.

Afghanistan: US servicemen killed in first drone 'friendly fire' incident

Editor's Note: We should keep this in mind when they tell us how safe it will be to have drones fly over U.S. airspace looking for the 'insurgents.'

Wiki Commons

The Telegraph

A drone missile strike killed a US Marine and a Navy medic last week by mistake, in what appeared to be the first instance US troops had been killed in a "friendly fire" incident involving an unmanned aircraft. 

The military has launched an investigation into the incident, which appeared to stem from confusion on the battlefield in the southern province of Helmand, Afghanistan, US officials said.

Fighter jets and combat helicopters are usually called in to provide close air support for coalition troops pinned down by insurgent fire, while drones tend to be used for manhunts targeting Taliban figures.  

The strike claimed the lives of Navy Seaman Benjamin Rast, 23, of Niles, Michigan, and Staff Sergeant Jeremy Smith, 26, of Arlington, Texas, officials said.  

NBC News, which first reported the incident, said that the two service members were part of a unit ordered in to reinforce Marines coming under heavy fire from insurgents outside Sangin, the scene of fierce fighting for years.  

The Marines near Sangin, watching a video feed from the armed Predator drone overhead, saw infrared images moving towards them and may have concluded those "hot spots" were insurgents instead of fellow Marines, NBC reported. 

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Pakistan tells US to cut CIA, special forces numbers: report

Pakistan has told the United States to rein in drone strikes
© AFP/File Joel Saget

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Pakistan has told the United States to sharply cut the number of CIA agents and special forces operating there, and to rein in drone strikes against militants, a US newspaper said Monday.

The New York Times said the order highlighted the near collapse of US-Pakistani cooperation, the result of a row that erupted when CIA officer Raymond Davis shot and killed two men who tried to rob him in January.

The authorities in Islamabad were asking a total of about 335 CIA officers, contractors and special operations forces to leave the country, according to a Pakistani official involved in the decision who was quoted by the daily.

American High-Tech Weapons Fail to Prevent Tragedy

Hellfire missile from drone fired by remote control in Nevada

David S. Cloud
Common Dreams

Nearly three miles above the rugged hills of central Afghanistan, American eyes silently tracked two SUVs and a pickup truck as they snaked down a dirt road in the pre-dawn darkness.

The vehicles, packed with people, were 3 1/2  miles from a dozen U.S. special operations soldiers, who had been dropped into the area hours earlier to root out insurgents. The convoy was closing in on them.

At 6:15 a.m., just before the sun crested the mountains, the convoy halted.

"We have 18 pax [passengers] dismounted and spreading out at this time," an Air Force pilot said from a cramped control room at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada, 7,000 miles away. He was flying a Predator drone remotely using a joystick, watching its live video transmissions from the Afghan sky and radioing his crew and the unit on the ground.

The Afghans unfolded what looked like blankets and kneeled. "They're praying. They are praying," said the Predator's camera operator, seated near the pilot.

The Future Expansion of Unmanned Drones Over The U.S. (Video)

Coming soon? Predator equipped with Hellfire missile - Wiki

Michael Edwards
Activist Post

In a stark admission, two-star General, John Priddy, from the U.S. National Air Security Operations Center, confirmed in the video below that the continued expansion of predator drone surveillance is a stated goal for the coming years.  His comments were echoed by Al Palmer, Director of Unmanned Aircraft Training at the world's largest center at the University of North Dakota, "The world is going to spend $80 billion on unmanned aircraft between now and 2016." 

The idea for predator drone surveillance of Americans was kept under wraps until fairly recently.  Even after a 2007 local news station in Texas captured drone flight tests on video, it was roundly denied as conspiracy theory that unmanned drones would actually take flight over America.  Further investigation revealed that this flight test coincided with a plan already in place to patrol far inland beyond the legal 100-mile security border, also known as the Constitution-free Zone.

How Close Are We to a Nano-based Surveillance State?

Source

Michael Edwards
Activist Post

In the span of just three years, we have seen drone surveillance become openly operational on American soil.

In 2007, Texas reporters first filmed a predator drone test being conducted by the local police department in tandem with Homeland Security.  And in 2009, it was revealed that an operation was underway to use predator drones inland over major cities, far from "border control" functions.  This year it has been announced that not only will drone operations fly over the Mexican border, but the United States and Canada are partnering to cover 900 miles of the northern border as well.

Now that the precedent has been set to employ drones over non-combat areas, the military is further revealing the technology of miniaturization that they currently have at their disposal.  As drone expert, P.W. Singer said, "At this point, it doesn't really matter if you are against the technology, because it's coming."  According to Singer, "The miniaturization of drones is where it really gets interesting.  You can use these things anywhere, put them anyplace, and the target will never even know they're being watched."

So what exactly is on the horizon?

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) funds military tech development through the private sector with defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Honeywell.  It was Honeywell that introduced the T-Hawk micro drone -- now purchased by Miami-Dade county for use in the metro area -- which weighs all of 16 pounds and can fly in any direction.  However, this is not so "micro" compared to the latest spy drone to be revealed: the Nano Hummingbird, produced by AeroVironment. The video below illustrates the capabilities of this 19g vehicle:



This mimicking of nature heralds a range of science fiction nightmare scenarios, but the name of this vehicle, "nano", is what should spark a red alert.  Because, in fact, DARPA and their contractors are working on true nano surveillance that will have biological components . . . and applications.

Here are some surveillance and detection concepts already in operation, or under development (keeping in mind that what is revealed in the public domain is often quite far behind the reality):

• A group of smaller surveillance drones called NAV (nano air vehicles) or MAV (micro air vehicles) already have been commissioned:  mapleseed drones; sparrow drones by 2015, dragonfly drones to fly in swarms by 2030, and eventually a housefly drone.  And if the reconstruction of nature doesn't pan out, nature itself can be hijacked using electrical impulses to create cyborg surveillance insects being studied at major universities.
• Nano sensors for use in agriculture that measure crops and environmental conditions.
• Bomb-sniffing plants using rewired DNA to detect explosives and biological agents.
• "Smart Dust" motes that wirelessly transmit data on temperature, light, and movement (this can also be used in currency to track cash).
• Nano-based RFID barcodes that can be embedded into any material for tracking of all products . . . and people.
• Devices to detect molecules, enzymes, proteins and genetic markers -- opening up the door for race-specific bioweapons, as mentioned in the Project For a New American Century's policy paper Rebuilding America's Defenses.

There are countless ways that we are already tracked in our daily lives, which has acclimatized us to the next steps underway.  We know that the military has a desire to track large groups of people in real time.  The Gorgon Stare program is currently undergoing some operational difficulties, but the political will is there to continuously expand surveillance of large populations abroad in order to keep us safe at home in the never-ending War on Terror.  Combine miniaturized surveillance capabilities with DARPA's Mind's Eye program of "smart camera" artificial intelligence that can "think" and make visual reporting decisions independently, and things become exponentially creepier.

The Speed of Nanotech Development
Nanotech has been receiving official federal funding for only the past 10 years when it was raised to the status of a federal initiative in 2001, which sparked massive investment in the private sector.  By 2003, the newly opened Department of Homeland Security showed immediate interest in SensorNet, a program spearheaded by Oak Ridge National Laboratory and their strategic partners to research ways to fully integrate nano and micro sensors into one overall Internet-like matrix of real-time detection and surveillance.  The Department of Defense allocated $3 million to the initiative for the first year, with a projected budget into the billions being allocated over the long term for "detection systems."

Strategically mounted sensors and a communications

network are the heart of SensorNet.

Source

By 2006, Oak Ridge announced that they planned to turn Fort Bragg military base into a prototype for America's future cities.  According to Department of Energy researcher, Bryan Gorman, "Any sensor can talk to any application.  Just like with the Internet or with telephone systems, it doesn't matter what kind of computer or telephone you have, where you are or what application you're running. The system just works."  There is even a proprietary social network that has been designed to provide online access and collaboration.

SensorNet has since morphed into an even more comprehensive system "to integrate safety and security measures . . . into the transportation system," which includes concerns surrounding transportation and commerce in the "political, economic, or environmental" arenas.  It is here that the full scope of surveillance integration can be seen as a management strategy that merges legislation, federal inspection systems, international standards, security threat assessments, and the latest in nanotechnology.  Just one example is their discussion of "highway sorting" systems and screening, which begins on page 15 in the previous link; it must be read to be believed.  As an aside:  the Senior Research Scientist and Senior Program Manager who co-authored the paper linked above is Robert K. Abercrombie, Ph.D. who has a decided interest in cybersecurity.  To see where the transportation component of the surveillance grid is heading over the near term, the ITS Strategic Research Plan 2010-2014 is a good indication.

The Promise of Total Integration 
February 4, 2011 brought the release of the National Nanotechnology Initiative 2011 Strategic Plan.  This 60-page must-read document lays out a projected future "to understand and control matter" for the management of every facet of human life within the surveillance matrix of environment, health and safety.  Here is the short-list of the 25 participating Federal agencies and samples of their stated applications:

• Department of Defense (persistent surveillance)
• Intelligence Community (unmanned aircraft)
• Department of Energy (solving energy and climate change challenges)
• Department of Homeland Security (low-cost sensor platforms)
• Department of Justice (applicable to criminal justice needs)
• Department of Transportation (modifying or coordinating travel behavior)
• Environmental Protection Agency (environmental sensing, transformational capabilities)
• Food and Drug Administration (biological systems and effects on human health)
• National Institute of Food and Agriculture (global food security)
• National Institutes of Health (precise control to achieve predictable outcomes)
• Department of the Treasury (improved governance, implementing economic sanctions)
• National Science Foundation (education and societal dimensions)

The promise of integrating technology in a way that will benefit human knowledge and society already has been re-directed toward military applications for decades.  It has manifested in the out-of-control military-industrial complex that has engaged America abroad in costly wars and destabilization campaigns.  However, the fallout from this misappropriation of technology is beginning to take its toll on America in the form of militarized police and the monitoring of everyday Americans.

How much longer before the full spectrum of military sci-tech, including what we cannot even see, is unleashed upon an American people willing to accept total control to be safe?  Has it happened already?  Or, more importantly, how long before Americans come to the realization that when the construction of this surveillance prison has been completed -- when the door is locked, and the key thrown away -- it ultimately will have been our own money that was used to build it.

Additional sources for this article:
Little Brother is Watching You: The future of surveillance is small, very small
On Race-Targetable Biological Weaponry
It's a Bird, It's a Spy, It's Both  
The plan for smaller, faster, deadlier UAVs 

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DNA "Genetic Patdown" Introduced to Airports by DHS 
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Police and Military Working Together to Oppress Americans

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