Obama’s peace drones doing the nasty
How much more of this shite do we have to put up with?
http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=35959
US Drone strikes kill over 100 in 2 days
More than one hundred people have been killed in US drone strikes in Somalia, Pakistan’s north-western tribal region bordering Afghanistan, and Yemen over the past two days.
On Saturday, 15 people were killed and 43 others were injured when the US military launched an attack using a remote-controlled unmanned aerial vehicle on the village of Bilis Qooqaani, which is located in southern Somalia, 448 kilometres (278 miles) west of the capital Mogadishu.
The US also launched drone strikes on the same region on Friday, killing at least 70 people.
In addition, five people were killed and four others injured in a non-UN-sanctioned US drone attack on Pakistan’s South Waziristan on Saturday.
According to Pakistani officials, the unmanned aircraft fired four missiles at a house in the Baghar China area early on Saturday.
Local residents said four US drones were flying over the area before the attack.
On Friday, a US drone targeted a vehicle near the village of Darpa Khel, which is located about four kilometres (two miles) west of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan.
At least four people were killed in the non-UN-sanctioned US drone strike.
Seven people, including an Egyptian, were also killed in attacks carried out by unmanned US aircraft in southern Yemen on Friday.
A local official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the seven people were killed in three separate drone strikes.
He added that a mosque was also targeted by the unmanned US aircraft in an attack that left a number of people injured.
The US says its remote-controlled unmanned drones only target militants. However, reports have shown that most of the people killed in the drone strikes are civilians.
And that leaves at least 56 more such facilities to mention in an expanding American empire of unmanned drone bases being set up worldwide. Despite frequent news reports on the drone assassination campaign launched in support of America’s ever-widening undeclared wars and a spate of stories on drone bases in Africa and the Middle East, most of these facilities have remained unnoted, uncounted, and remarkably anonymous — until now.
Run by the military, the Central Intelligence Agency, and their proxies, these bases — some little more than desolate airstrips, others sophisticated command and control centers filled with computer screens and high-tech electronic equipment — are the backbone of a new American robotic way of war. They are also the latest development in a long-evolving saga of American power projection abroad — in this case, remote-controlled strikes anywhere on the planet with a minimal foreign “footprint” and little accountability.
Using military documents, press accounts and other open source information, an in-depth analysis by AlterNet has identified at least 60 bases integral to U.S. military and CIA drone operations. There may, however, be more, since a cloak of secrecy about drone warfare leaves the full size and scope of these bases distinctly in the shadows.
A Galaxy of Bases
Over the last decade, the American use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned aerial systems (UAS) has expanded exponentially as has media coverage of their use. On September 21st, the Wall Street Journal reported that the military has deployed missile-armed MQ-9 Reaper drones on the “island nation of Seychelles to intensify attacks on al Qaeda affiliates, particularly in Somalia.” A day earlier, a Washington Post piece also mentioned the same base on the tiny Indian Ocean archipelago, as well as one in the African nation of Djibouti, another under construction in Ethiopia, and a secret CIA airstrip being built for drones in an unnamed Middle Eastern country (suspected of being Saudi Arabia).
Post journalists Greg Miller and Craig Whitlock reported that 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.” Within days, the Post also reported that a drone from the new CIA base in that unidentified Middle Eastern country had carried out the assassination of radical al-Qaeda preacher and American citizen Anwar al-Aulaqi in Yemen.
With the killing of al-Aulaqi, the Obama Administration has expanded its armed drone campaign to no fewer than six countries, though the CIA, which killed al-Aulaqi, refuses to officially acknowledge its drone assassination program. The Air Force is less coy about its drone operations, yet there are many aspects of those, too, that remain in the shadows. Air Force spokesman Lieutenant Colonel John Haynes recently told AlterNet that, “for operational security reasons, we do not discuss worldwide operating locations of Remotely Piloted Aircraft, to include numbers of locations around the world.”
Still, those 60 military and CIA bases around the world, directly connected to the drone program, tell us a lot about America’s war-making future. From command and control and piloting to maintenance and arming, these facilities perform key functions that allow drone campaigns to continued expanding as they have for more than a decade. Other bases are already under construction or in the planning stages. When presented with our list of Air Force sites within America’s galaxy of drone bases, Lieutenant Colonel Haynes responded, “I have nothing further to add to what I’ve already said.”
http://www.dawn.com/2011/10/18/us-army-to-fly-kamikaze-drones.html
US Army to fly ‘Kamikaze’ Drones
WASHINGTON: A miniature “kamikaze” drone designed to quietly hover in the sky before dive-bombing and slamming into a human target will soon be part of the US Army’s arsenal, officials say.
Dubbed the “Switchblade,” the robotic aircraft represents the latest attempt by the United States to refine how it takes out suspected militants.
Weighing less than two kilos, the drone is small enough to fit into a soldier’s backpack and is launched from a tube, with wings quickly folding out as it soars into the air, according to manufacturer AeroVironment.
Powered by a small electric motor, the Switchblade transmits video in real time from overhead, allowing a soldier to identify an enemy, the company said in a press release last month.
“Upon confirming the target using the live video feed, the operator then sends a command to the air vehicle to arm it and lock its trajectory onto the target,” it said.
The drone then flies into the “target,” detonating a small explosive.
The California-based firm also said the drone can be called off at the last moment, even after a kill mission has been ordered. That feature provides troops with “a level of control not available in other weapon systems,” it said.
The United States currently uses larger Predator and Reaper drones to hunt down suspected militants in Pakistan and elsewhere.
The robotic planes fire powerful Hellfire missiles and drop heavy bombs that can cause civilian casualties and extensive damage, which has fuelled popular anger with the United States in Pakistan.
In the war in Afghanistan, US and coalition troops fighting the Taliban can call in artillery fire or air strikes from fighter jets and attack helicopters.
But the heavy firepower has been blamed by Afghan leaders for claiming the lives of innocent civilians and strained US relations with Kabul.
The Switchblade, however, is touted as a way to avoid killing bystanders.
“Flying quietly at high speed the Switchblade delivers its onboard explosive payload with precision while minimizing collateral damage,” the company said.
The US Army in June approved a $4.9 million contract for AeroVironment to supply the new drones as soon as possible. Officials have not said how many Switchblade drones were ordered or when the robotic weapons would make into the hands of US forces.
Human rights groups have raised concerns that the use of drones by the CIA has allowed the conduct of a secret assassination campaign abroad without public scrutiny and little oversight by lawmakers in Congress.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/207015.html
US flying Drones from Ethiopia
The United States is reportedly using a secret airfield in southern Ethiopia to carry out assassination drone attacks in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.
The civilian airfield in Ethiopia’s southern city of Arba Minch is part of a network of secret bases for unmanned aircraft, the Washington Post reported on Thursday, citing unnamed US officials.
The US Air Force has spent millions of dollars to improve the airfield in Ethiopia to accommodate a fleet of Reaper drones that carry Hellfire missiles and precision-guided bombs, according to the report.
Washington has stepped up the unauthorized airstrikes since President Barack Obama took office in 2009.
The White House has increasingly turned to drones to carry out covert strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.
The US claims the drone strikes target militants. However, casualty figures indicate that the aerial bombings have led to the loss of civilians, too.
The raids are conducted under the authority of the Central Intelligence Agency.
AGB/MA
In the second attack, more than 30 people were killed in Burdhubo town, a Press TV correspondent reported.
Hundreds of Somali troops entered Bardera city following the US assassination drone strike.The US has deployed bombing and intelligence drones in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Iraq and Yemen. Washington claims the airstrikes target militants, though most such attacks have resulted in civilian casualties.
The raids are authorized by the Central Intelligence Agency.
Somalia has been without a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
AGB/JR/HGH
http://rt.com/usa/news/us-libya-pakistan-drone-325/
US drones bombed Libya more than Pakistan
While Obama insists that the “hostilities” that have erupted between Gaddafi’s regime and rebels necessitated US response with weapons of war in conjunction with NATO — but is by no means a war — American drones have come down hard in Libya.
President Obama will tell you that America’s involvement in the Libyan conflict does not constitute an act of war. In the meantime, however, US drones have conducted nearly triple the amount of airstrikes in Libya than they have in Pakistan, despite lacking congressional approval.
Now with the reported death of Gaddafi, the numbers are coming in regarding how much of a war Obama’s non-war has become. Between April 21 and this morning, robotic, unmanned Predator drones have conducted 145 airstrikes in Libya, reveals Pentagon spokesman George Little.
In Pakistan, however, where drone surveillance and strikes have become practically commonplace and have caused concern not just from locals but concerned Americans upset over the massive civilian deaths caused by the crafts, the number of drone strikes is but a fraction. This year the US has launched only 57 drone strikes in Pakistan, where the American military aims to take down terrorists from neighboring Afghanistan who, like former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin laden, have taken refuge.
Even after Libyan rebels (read: “the good guys”) ousted Gaddafi in late August, US drones dropped 52 additionally missiles on the capital city of Tripoli.
Yes, in the two months that rebels have had control of Tripoli, the US has dropped only five missiles short of the number they’ve launched on Pakistan in all of 2011 thus far.
A March 2011 drone strike on Islamabad, Pakistan killed 26, over a dozen of whom were innocent civilians. Following the attack, Defense Minister Ahmed Mukhtar ordered America to vacate a base in Shamsi, Pakistan that it had been using to operate drone missions from.
If the aftermath of the execution of bin Laden is any example, drones will continue to fly high over the skies of Tripoli in the months to come. As RT reported yesterday, US drones conducted nearly 23,000 surveillance missions over Afghanistan in the first nine months of 2011. Last month a drone strike in Yemen killed two American citizens believed to have al-Qaeda ties and, meanwhile, the Pentagon is working to build drone bases n the Arabian Peninsula, Ethiopia and the Indian Ocean archipelago nation of Seychelles.
