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US Military Adding More Drones in Afghanistan
The US military is adding more drones and expanding its video surveillance in Afghanistan to boost its military operations there.
Afghan and Pakistani authorities criticize the drone attacks that have killed hundreds of civilians in both countries. (Press TV file) According to US Air Force General David Deptula, the drones will meet the needs of 30,000 more troops set to be sent to the country next year.
Deptula said each drone will collect 10 video transmissions and beam them back to 10 different users on the ground.
The comments came as Defense Secretary Robert Gates continued to press the Air Force to find ways to more rapidly provide better intelligence to the US and its allies in Afghanistan.
The first troop units of the surge ordered by US President Barack Obama have begun to arrive in Afghanistan, a Pentagon official said on Wednesday.
Obama has increased attacks by drones in Afghanistan and Pakistan, claiming they target Taliban and al-Qaeda militants.
However, Afghan and Pakistani authorities criticize the attacks that have killed hundreds of civilians in both countries.
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21 Comments so far
Show All"Deptula said each drone will collect up to 10 video transmissions and beam them down to 10 different users on the ground" Of course it was just a matter of time before someone figured out how to intercept these signals.The W.S.J. has an article this morning about a $25.95 software program from Sky called SkyGrabber that can intercept drone feeds.The software was made to grab free music ,video,and photographic content.Predator video feeds have been found on captured Iraqi laptops and this may lessen the element of surprise somewhat!So just how many different users these signals are being beamed to is ,"up in the air" ,so to speak.
Apparently all the "Predators and Reapers" will now have to be fitted with encryption software.The Iranians are being blamed for the training of insurgents in this counter, counter insurgency technique(but of course),and the Russian software company insists their product is to capture free "legal"(naturally) files only.
I wonder how long it will take for someone to figure out how to take over the controls of one of these multi million dollar instruments of state sponsored terror ,and use it against the country who made it? Peace on Earth,
and in the Heavens.
Thank you johnny. I knew it was going to get more and more complex!
Being untechnical, i didn't quite know how that would play out.....
ready,i am no more technical than a backyard mechanic.
I would be more comfortable with smoke signals and talking drums than computers or cell phones.A typical Luddite ,who uses apropriate technology,only to stay deluded into thinking i know whats going on. peace
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126102247889095011.html#mod=todays_us_page_one
Sick, disgusting, contemptuous, cowardly, vile, wicked, immoral, shameless, depraved, villainous, graceless, impure, indecent, iniquitous, nefarious, obscene, profligate, rakish, reprobate, saturnalian, sinful, unethical, unprincipled, unscrupulous, vicious, just plain wrong.
DITTO!!! - - - DITTO!!! - - - DITTO!!!
And Ditto as well for me!
I would add to Buck's list that the U.S.'s use of those drone missiles in Afghanistan and Pakistan should be considered sufficient grounds to have charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity leveled against the president who was somehow found worthy of receiving a peace prize as well as others who work in his administration.
"When we see a blow struck, we go on and think no more about it: yet every blow aimed at the most distant of our fellow creatures is sure to come back, some time or other, to our families and descendants."-Walter Savage Landor [1775-1864], English writer and poet
May I ask, looking back 8 years
what would you have done to secure peace that day?
FormerSapper
It is extremely unclear whom you are addressing. If it is I then I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about unless you are somehow referring to the events of 9/11/01, a subject that I did not write about whatsoever in my comments.
FormerSapper,
You probably are addressing this to Errol, but I'll answer this anyway.
I'm assuming you are referring to the day the buildings exploded. That day was a symptom of u.s. meddling on foreign soil. To secure "our" peace we have to include everyone else's peace. All u.s. troops should be returned home from distant lands and that includes the cia, mercenaries, spies, etc., no loopholes. The u.s. should stop relying on weapons sales as export products. Economic war does as much or more damage than "conventional" war. The planet and all its inhabitants are in jeopardy. All energies should be directed towards developing a brotherhood of mankind. These global problems didn't spring up in the last eight years. This has been on going from the start of human history. The page must be turned to start a new age.
Peace and security comes from acting peacefully.
Buck
Of course, there's always more evil to add to the dark machinations of U.S. foreign policy! Let's make sure we can keep our military video nerds happy killing innocent women and children from silicon valley!! I keep thinking that the US has reached the bottom of the Dark Lord's barrel...I'm always surprised that it continues to go deeper! Perhaps evil is infinite!!!
Buck left out one adjective: arrogant.
People in the mid east are intellectually inferior to people in the US and can never learn how to turn those drones back on their makers.
"There is no greater disaster than making light of an enemy"--Lao Tzu
This technology is the result of research universities. It's science without humanity.
The economic collapse is a result of economic departments in universities turning out a predatory class of criminals. It's economics without humanity.
The health insurance crisis is a result of medical departments at universities cranking out doctors indoctrinated with the corporate business idea of medicine, that being profits before people. It's medicine without humanity.
Our law universities produce lawyers focused on prosecuting unjust laws towards the population while ignoring enforcement of laws against the wealthy. It's law without justice. Law without humanity.
Our universities send out engineers that design and build cutting edge factories that don't incorporate engineering to prevent pollution. Engineering in fact that completely ignores it's impacts on the larger environment. Engineering without humanity.
Our agriculture universities turn out corporate minded farmers that pollute the air water with toxic chemicals. Corporate farmers that use genetically modified organisms that lord knows what impacts will ensue from their use. All this for a subsidized food system that allows people to die of starvation. Again agriculture without humanity.
Our theology universities send out ministries that ignor the suffering caused by teachings that don't hold any of the above to a moral standard of religious teaching. It's religion without morality. It's religion without humanity.
Thank god we are an educated people
This drone tech is going to end right outside of YOUR window some day. $$$$$$$security.
Amazingly, but not surprising, the Church of England, while calling the guerilla warfare tactics of the Taliban immoral, finds this sort of hi-tech killing by remote control at a distance perfectly moral. But then they see one side as entirely virtuous and heroic and the other as demonic, incapable of loyalty to one another and bereft of conviction in their belief - fit only to be exterminated as vermin. A very christian attitude for Christmas. This is the unprincipled madness that war has driven us to.
this is the unprincipled madness that has driven the US to war.
NO
Why is it that of all the countries, we, America have (by far) the most powerful military, yet we are the most cowardly.
Why is it that most Americans are scared of every "boogyman" while most people in other countries are not?
Shame on these cowardly Americans, and shame on the person who wrote the above comment.
Just had to post this again (to the tune of Silent Night)
Violent night
Noisy night
All the bombs
All the fright
Predator drones flying high in the sky
Innocent babies, needlessly die
Iraqis, Afghanis are doomed
Iraqis, Afghanis are doomed
Violent night
Noisy night
Generals plan
Teenagers fight
Very few care what it's all about
The rich grow richer without a doubt
Reap America's greed
Reap America's greed
Violent night
Noisy night
Christmas no more
Is about Christ
Whoop and holler, never forgive
Praise our Lord, then shoot to kill
Warmongers sleep in peace
Warmongers sleep in peace
During the past few years, which country has killed (in total, worldwide) the most civilians?
The United States
And just like Pogo said, "We have met the terrorists and they is us."