Even before American skies are open to commercially operated drones, a drone start-up called Airware plans to announce Wednesday that it has raised $10.7 million in a financing round led by the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. … Read More
US Navy launched its first drone from aircraft carrier
The flight serves as a milestone for the future of drone aviation, and US Navy officers have celebrated the success of its launch. But the flight of the unmanned aircraft, which is the size of a fighter jet, is likely to become the subject of criticism from those who believe drone usage hurts the US image – especially since drones are behind many civilian deaths on foreign grounds. Critics have already condemned the Navy’s $1.4 billion drone prototype program, relaying their concerns over the development of weaponized systems in which humans will have even less control over when it comes to launching attacks. Human Rights Watch has particularly protested the development of drones that carry weapons and are fully autonomous, like the X-47B unmanned aircraft that the Navy launched from the USS George H.W. Bushon Tuesday. This unmanned aircraft can reach an altitude of more than 40,000 feet and has a range of more than 2,100 nautical miles, the Associated Press reports. This model is particularly valuable because it has the capability to take off and land on an aircraft carrier. Developing such drones would allow the US to launch strikes from anywhere in the world, regardless of whether or not a foreign country allows the US on its grounds. The drone is fully autonomous in flight, and relies on computer programs to direct it – unless an operator programs it to operate otherwise. Most drones currently employed by the military fully rely on operators to control it from a remote location. While the X-47B is only intended for testing purposes rather than operational use, the Navy will use it for research purposes to develop advanced unmanned aircraft for use in future conflicts. When it comes to using lethal force, the X-47B still requires human approval. But Human Rights Watch believes the prototype research will lead to the development of drones that conduct deadly attacks with no human intervention.Steve Goose, director of the arms division at Human Rights Watch, expressed some of his fears with AP.“For us, the question is where do you draw lines?” he said. “We’re saying you need to draw the line when you have a fully autonomous system that is weaponized. We’re saying you must have meaningful human control over key battlefield decisions of who lives and who dies. That should not be left up to the weapons system itself.” But despite fears over the future of fully autonomous drones that can launch deadly attacks from aircraft carriers, the Navy is hailing the flight of its prototype as a success it has long sought.“US Navy history is made!” the Navy wrote from its official Twitter account. “Was airborne at 11:18A. More to come.” The Navy plans to release videos and photographs of the event, which Read Adm. Mat Winter wrote marks “an inflection point in history on how we will integrate manned and unmanned aircraft on carrier flight decks in the future.” … Read More
Yemeni anti-Qaeda cleric killed in US drone strike
Sheik Salem Ahmed bin Ali Jaber, a prominent cleric within his small village in Yemen, was known for preaching of the evils of the al-Qaida network, warning villagers to stay out of the group and renounce their military ideology.Unfortunately for Sheik Salem, US military drones that had been hovering in the area took a shot at two alleged Al-Qaeda fighters last August while he was meeting with them outside of the remote village of Khashamir.According to the cleric’s brother-in-law, Faysal bin Ali bin Jaber, who retold the events to the Associated Press, Salem was called out by the local Al-Qaeda members, presumably to meet with him and intimidate him into dropping his vocal opposition to the group.Sheik Salem had spoken “about how killing people and labeling people who work with the West as infidels is wrong,” said Faysal.Following Salem’s death “everyone who saw that there is no differentiating between us and Al-Qaeda are asking why don’t we just join Al-Qaeda since it makes no difference?” he added.Though the US does not report individual drone strikes in Yemen, groups including the UK’s Bureau for Investigative Journalism, the Long War Journal and the New America Foundation all attempt to track such statistics by using information from Yemeni security officials.The Associated Press for one has reported nine strikes in Yemen so far in 2013, while the Long War Journal tallied 42 strikes in 2012, up from 10 the year prior. That increase is attributed to US backing of a Yemeni campaign to thwart the Al-Qaeda network and its allies, which took root in a number of southern cities and towns. The US considers the Al-Qaeda branch in Yemen to be one of its most dangerous, linking it with a unsuccessful airliner bombing attempt over Detroit on Christmas Day 2009.Since information regarding lethal drone operations is not disclosed, it is not entirely clear how the US military makes determinations on when to strike, and how remote pilots determine whether to launch weapons when civilians may be nearby, as was the case in the death of Sheik Salem – which also resulted in the killing of three alleged militants.According to a New York Times own analysis of drone strikes, one known pattern in similar attacks involves a drone hovering over an area for weeks before deploying weapons, presumably as military analysts attempt to confirm the identities of human targets.What puzzles even supporters of the military operations against Al-Qaeda in Yemen is why drone strikes are increasingly targeting fresh recruits, and why the US is resorting to drones at all when they could be apprehended by Yemeni security forces instead.Naji al-Zaydi, a former governor of Marib Province and opponent of Al-Qaeda who spoke with the Times in February, believes these men represent low-level targets. “Even with Al-Qaeda, there are degrees — some of these young guys getting killed have just been recruited and barely known what terrorism means,” al-Zaydi said. He also added that, in a tribal culture such as Yemen’s, both the identity and background of Al-Qaeda recruits targeted by these drone strikes are not exactly a secret.According to CIA director John Brennan, drone strikes are only used as a last resort. Speaking to the Council on Foreign Relations in August, he made no excuses for the deployment of drones in Yemen.”In short, targeted strikes against the most senior and most dangerous AQAP terrorists are not the problem, they are part of the solution,” said Brennan, referring to Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.Last week during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington on the US drone program, Farea al-Muslimi, a Yemeni activist and writer whose village had been struck days earlier, told that panel that drones are “harming efforts to win hearts and minds” and are now “the face of America” to many Yemenis.”What violent militants had previously failed to achieve, one drone strike achieved in an instant,” he added. … Read More
U.S. counterterror: Death by drone replaces indefinite detention
John Bellinger, a government lawyer during the Bush administration who was responsible for drafting the legal framework for targeted drone killings, said that the Obama administration uses drones to avoid capturing terror suspects. As the Guardian noted, Bellinger told a conference at the Bipartisan Policy Center that “This government has decided that instead of detaining members of al-Qaida [at Guantanamo] they are going to kill them.”Both the camp at Guantanamo Bay (where 166 detainees have been held, some for up to 11 years without charge or trial) and lethal drone strikes, which have been shown to regularly kill civilians and target individuals based simply on “signature” behaviors, stretch constitutional and international law to their very limits. Arguably, both counterterror efforts are abrogations of the spirit of international law, even if by the (aggressively massaged) letter of the law the Justice Department is able to legally justify the maintenance of the Cuban camp and the drone killing program. As has long been the case in U.S. history, both the Bush and Obama administrations have grounded the use of extraordinary powers (such as indefinite detention and drone strikes) in appeals to a state of war. Via the Guardian:Continue Reading… … Read More
UK operates first drone strike from own territory
“A Reaper remotely piloted aircraft system, operated by pilots from 13 Squadron located at RAF Waddington, has fired a weapon during a mission supporting UK forces on the ground in Afghanistan,” a spokesperson of UK’s Ministry of Defense said. No further details are available as the country’s military abstains from discussing details of specific missions for the sake of operational security. Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) has previously controlled British and US Air Force Reaper and Predator drones from the Creech Air Force Base in Nevada, US during missions in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. The strike comes amid protests against the British use of unmanned aerial operation, as 600 campaigners staged a rally at the Waddington base in eastern England over the weekend. According to UK’s armed forces minister, Andrew Robathan, the country’s military launched more than 2000 unmanned aerial vehicle missions between October 2006 and December 31, 2012. Britain remains the only nation that is sanctioned by Washington to purchase and operate armed MQ-9 Reaper drones, produced by the US-based General Atomics Aeronautical Systems company. The Royal Air Force has been using UAVs of such a class since 2008, with 13 Squadron currently being in possession of 10 Reapers, all stationed in Afghanistan. The MQ-9 Reaper is the first hunter-killer drone designed for long-endurance, high-altitude surveillance, which is larger, heavier and more capable than the earlier MQ-1 Predator version. It’s primarily used to gather intelligence on enemy activity on the ground, but also carries bombs and Hellfire missiles for precision strikes. … Read More
US lawyers preparing drone law database as authorities ‘make up the rules as they go along’
The NACDL’s announcement comes amid questions about drone warfare abroad among US citizens, but there’s even less clarity on the government’s legal right to use unmanned aircraft to track Americans on US soil. “We’re concerned there aren’t adequate safeguards [against drone use by law enforcement],” Norman Reimer, the executive director of the organization, told US News and World Report. “At the moment, law enforcement is basically going to be making up the rules as they go along, and that’s very troubling from a constitutional perspective.” Rodney Brossart is the only American to have been apprehended with the help of a Predator drone, which the judge in the case wrote “was used for surveillance,” as quoted by US News in 2012. Despite Brosshart being the lone arrest, Reimer said called it “inevitable” that defense attorneys will have to familiarize themselves with the changing laws. “Until we get to a place where we have legislation, lawyers will have to be creative and aggressive in making sure courts are protecting their clients’ rights,” Reimer said. “You can’t put technology back in the box. Drones are going to be there and there will be valid, legitimate uses for them. But without any framework, any technological tool is subject to abuse by law enforcement.” If Brossart’s case is any indication, the NACDL will have no shortage of questions. After he was arrested last year for refusing to return cows that had wandered onto his Iowa farm, Brosshart’s attorney argued that the surveillance was inadmissible because of law enforcement’s “warrantless use of an unmanned military-like surveillance aircraft” and “outrageous government conduct.”District Judge Joel Medd overruled the objection, writing “there was no improper use of an unmanned aerial vehicle,” and the drone “appears to have no bearing on these charges being contested here.” Perhaps anticipating similar legal action, Florida Governor Rick Scott signed a measure last week protecting residents from “unwarranted surveillance.” Scott said the Florida bill, passed unanimously by state legislators, promises to “maintain a balance between the need for law enforcement to protect our citizens against credible threats and imminent danger while ensuring that the privacy of Florida families is protected.” … Read More
Activists protest Boeing annual shareholder meeting in latest of many anti-drone demonstrations
Recently there have been many anti-drone demonstrations across the United States and around the world, with the latest at Boeing’s annual shareholder meeting in Chicago. … Read More
