learn. create. share. reflect. iterate.
If I had to sum the viewing of this up, I’d use one word: Chilling. If I had to talk about America’s knowledge and consensus on these attacks in Pakistan, I’d use one word: Typical.
Initially when I would discuss drone strikes within Pakistan, I would often receive very angry emails and messages highlighting (wrongly) how America “cares” about these lives but later on as polls showed: The American public not only has very little authentic knowledge of these drone strikes in Pakistan as well as Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia but the majority supports what is being supposedly done in the name of US drone strikes in these countries. You are told that actual terrorists are being targeted, that USA is being protected from a very prominent threat to its security and freedom(s), ad nauseum, ad infinitum. But most of you do not realize that since 2004, more than 3000 Pakistanis have been killed by US drone strikes. Less than 2% of Pakistani victims under US drone strikes are high-profile targets. The remaining are children, civilians and alleged combatants.
In October 2006, 69 Pakistani children were killed in a drone attack. No word from the US government or local government was heard on such mindless bloodshed.
This interactive map will show you the commencement of the drone strikes under George W. Bush’s regime and the aggressive, reckless increase of strikes under Barack Obama’s government. Please spare a few minutes of your routine to see the mayhem these drone strikes cause in Pakistan.
This is a terrific, terrifying representation of our drone campaign in Pakistan. I would love to see one for Yemen, Somalia, and all the other places we’ve been terrorizing for the past decade or so.
(via randomactsofchaos)
Harvard’s RoboBees to Fill Pollination Gap Caused by Bee Die-off
The Robobees won’t just share the pollinating function of real bees; the team is also looking to imbue them with colony behaviors. Although they won’t have a queen, the Robobees will live in a hive, which functions as a refueling station. Coordination algorithms and communication methods are in the works as well, hopefully giving the Robobees the ability to inform and help one another—sadly, without dancing.
The Microrobotics lab seems a host of possible uses for the robotic insects, including military surveillance, search and rescue missions, exploration of hazardous environments, traffic surveillance, and weather and climate mapping. Unfortunately, though, it seems they won’t be taking over all of the bees’ regular duties. While these Robobees don’t come with stingers yet, they aren’t off making honey, either.
Am I the only one who finds the idea of bee-sized predator drones terrifying?
Nope. We could have just, you know, stopped killing bees awhile ago….
Bomber-bees.
Fixing our accidental eradication of one of the most fundamental species on the planet is good too though.
(via randomactsofchaos)
Drone strikes: Where are Obama’s tears for those child victims?
In Yemen: 14 women, 21 children killed by a US cruise missile strike.
No tears for them.
The journalist who reported the casualties was called a “terrorist” by Nobel Peace Prize winner Barack Obama for covering the deaths. That journalist is still in jail.
There have been Pakistani and Yemeni children killed by these US strikes.
I implore you to watch this video.
Males, ages 8 and up, who are killed in drone strikes, are considered militants until posthumously proven innocent.
Obama shed no tears.
These drones are not weapons of surgical precision. They are not weapons against terror. Our drones are weapons of terror.
There is no justification.
(via randomactsofchaos)
The way had been cleared for the November 2002 killings months earlier, when President Bush lifted a 25-year ban on US assassinations just after 9/11.
He later wrote that ‘George [Tenet] proposed that I grant broader authority for covert actions, including permission for the CIA to kill or capture al Qaeda operatives without asking for my sign-off each time. I decided to grant the request.’
Since then, under both Bush and Obama, the US has carried out targeted killings (or extrajudicial executions according to UN experts) using conventional aircraft and helicopter strikes; cruise missiles; and even naval bombardments.
Yet the drone remains the US’s preferred method of killing. The Bureau has identified a minimum of 2,800 (and as many as 4,100) killed in covert US drone strikes over the past ten years. What began as an occasional tactic has, over time, morphed into an industrialised killing process.
(via randomactsofchaos)
Scumbag.
37 killed, dozens injured in US drone attack in Somalia
August 25, 2012Dozens of people have been killed in an attack carried out by a US assassination drone in southern Somalia, Press TV reports.The attack, which took place in the strategically important port city of Kismayo on Friday, claimed over 37 lives and injured dozens.
Further details regarding the incident have not yet been released.The US military uses remote-controlled drones in Somalia for reconnaissance operations and targeted killings.
Washington has been carrying out assassination attacks using the unmanned aircraft in other countries including Afghanistan, Libya, Pakistan, and Yemen.
The United States claims the CIA-run strikes are aimed at militants. But witness reports and figures offered by local authorities indicate the attacks have led to massive civilian deaths.
The UN has condemned the US assassination drone strikes, saying they pose a challenge to international law.
The weak Western-backed transitional government in Mogadishu has been battling al-Shabab fighters for the past five years, and is propped up by a strong African Union force from Uganda, Burundi, and Djibouti.
Strategically located in the Horn of Africa, Somalia remains among the ones generating the highest number of refugees and internally-displaced persons in the world.Note: In an effort to avoid criticism for murdering thousands of random civilians, the term militant is defined by the Obama administration as being a male over the age of 18 (military age).
I’m so sick of these motherfucking drones in our motherfucking airspace.
(via randomactsofchaos)
(via randomactsofchaos)
![occupyallstreets:
Obama Fails To Inform Congress On The Drone Wars in Yemen And Pakistan
The center of the US drone war has shifted to Yemen, where 23 American strikes have killed an estimated 155 people so far this year. But you wouldn’t know about it — or about the cruise missile attacks, or about the US commando teams in Yemen — by reading the report the White House sent to Congress about US military activities around the globe. Instead, there’s only the blandest acknowledgement of “direct action” in Yemen, “against a limited number of [al-Qaida] operatives and senior leaders.”
The report, issued late Friday, is the first time the United States has publicly, officially acknowledged the operations in Yemen and in nearby Somalia that anyone with internet access could’ve told you about years ago. But the report doesn’t just fail to admit the extent of the shadow war that America is waging in the region. It’s borderline legal — at best. The War Powers Resolution of 1973 requires the president to inform Congress about any armed conflicts America is engaged in. Friday’s report isn’t just uninformative about Yemen. It doesn’t even mention the US campaign in Pakistan, even though the Defense Secretary says America is “at war” there.
“The American people are well aware of the threat that al-Qaida poses, and in a democratic society, they have a right to know what actions their government is taking in an effort to protect them. A well-informed public is critical to maintaining the legitimacy of, and in turn our ability to sustain, our ongoing counterterrorism efforts.” These are the words not of some good government crusader or some critic of the president, but of an administration official, explaining the White House’s recent report in an email to Danger Room.
The report does exactly the opposite, however: obscuring the shadow wars that America is waging in the region, rather than illuminating them; actively undermining the public’s right to know, rather than reinforcing it.
Since it was passed in the 1970s, White Houses have routinely ignored the War Powers resolution, which requires the president to get Congress’ authorization if he keeps troops in a hot zone longer than 60 days. President Clinton never got that permission when he sent US forces in Kosovo in the 1990s; Obama did the same sidestep last year when he dispatched American jets and ships to help take out the Gadhafi regime in Libya.
The Obama administration argues that the operations in Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan, the Philippines, and countless other locations are kosher, because Congress authorized military force against al-Qaida 11 years ago, right after 9/11. But many of the groups that US forces are now fighting didn’t exist in their current form back then. And the White House won’t say when we’ll know how this war against al-Qaida is won.
More on the drones.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m5tztmBT0g1r4vpxio1_500.jpg)
Obama Fails To Inform Congress On The Drone Wars in Yemen And Pakistan
The center of the US drone war has shifted to Yemen, where 23 American strikes have killed an estimated 155 people so far this year. But you wouldn’t know about it — or about the cruise missile attacks, or about the US commando teams in Yemen — by reading the report the White House sent to Congress about US military activities around the globe. Instead, there’s only the blandest acknowledgement of “direct action” in Yemen, “against a limited number of [al-Qaida] operatives and senior leaders.”
The report, issued late Friday, is the first time the United States has publicly, officially acknowledged the operations in Yemen and in nearby Somalia that anyone with internet access could’ve told you about years ago. But the report doesn’t just fail to admit the extent of the shadow war that America is waging in the region. It’s borderline legal — at best. The War Powers Resolution of 1973 requires the president to inform Congress about any armed conflicts America is engaged in. Friday’s report isn’t just uninformative about Yemen. It doesn’t even mention the US campaign in Pakistan, even though the Defense Secretary says America is “at war” there.
“The American people are well aware of the threat that al-Qaida poses, and in a democratic society, they have a right to know what actions their government is taking in an effort to protect them. A well-informed public is critical to maintaining the legitimacy of, and in turn our ability to sustain, our ongoing counterterrorism efforts.” These are the words not of some good government crusader or some critic of the president, but of an administration official, explaining the White House’s recent report in an email to Danger Room.
The report does exactly the opposite, however: obscuring the shadow wars that America is waging in the region, rather than illuminating them; actively undermining the public’s right to know, rather than reinforcing it.
Since it was passed in the 1970s, White Houses have routinely ignored the War Powers resolution, which requires the president to get Congress’ authorization if he keeps troops in a hot zone longer than 60 days. President Clinton never got that permission when he sent US forces in Kosovo in the 1990s; Obama did the same sidestep last year when he dispatched American jets and ships to help take out the Gadhafi regime in Libya.
The Obama administration argues that the operations in Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan, the Philippines, and countless other locations are kosher, because Congress authorized military force against al-Qaida 11 years ago, right after 9/11. But many of the groups that US forces are now fighting didn’t exist in their current form back then. And the White House won’t say when we’ll know how this war against al-Qaida is won.
More on the drones.
(via randomactsofchaos)
Hahaha, “…and in the event of police brutality, there’s no one to not fire.”
So good.
(via randomactsofchaos)
American police officers may soon be able to use unmanned aircraft not only for surveillance, but also for offensive action. The drones may be equipped to fire rubber rounds and tear gas.
Because nothing says freedom like the hum of a weaponized flying drone.
Domestic drones are being weaponized, for now non-lethally…
Just got chills.
(via randomactsofchaos)
Although we’re not alone in recording US covert drone strikes, the Bureau [of Investigative Journalism] also tries to identify by name all of those killed – both civilian and militants. And those names – which the Bureau recently presented at a Washington DC drone summit – reveal some startling truths about the US drone campaign.
To date in Pakistan, we have been able to identify 170 named militants killed by the CIA in more than 300 drone strikes. Among them are many senior figures, including Baitullah Mehsud, leader of the Pakistan Taliban; Ilyas Kashmiri, an al-Qaeda linked strategist; and Nek Mohammed, once a militant thorn in Pakistan’s side.
Certainly these drone strikes have severely affected the ability of militants to operate openly in Pakistan’s tribal areas. The recently-declassified ‘bin Laden papers’ talk of the impact of the CIA’s attacks, with the Taliban ‘frankly exhausted from the enemy’s air bombardments.’
Yet there’s a darker side to this coin. The Bureau has also been able to name 317 civilians killed in US attacks in Pakistan. Between 170 and 500 further civilians have yet to be identified.
[…]
Part of the justification for the US carrying out drone strikes without consent is their reported success. And naming those militants killed is key to that process. Al Qaeda bomber Fahd al-Quso’s death was widely celebrated.
Yet how many newspapers also registered the death of Mohamed Saleh Al-Suna, a civilian caught up and killed in a US strike in Yemen on March 30?
By showing only one side of the coin, we risk presenting a distorted picture of this new form of warfare. There is an obligation to identify all of those killed – not just the bad guys. [++]
This is why the media is the fourth branch of the government. And why that’s fucked up.
(via randomactsofchaos)
From March 5th. I’ll bet you didn’t hear about it either.
Early last month, Tausug villagers on the Southern Philippine island of Jolo heard a buzzing sound not heard before. It is a sound familiar to the people of Waziristan who live along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan, where the United States fights the Taliban. It was the dreaded drone, which arrives from distant and unknown destinations to cause death and destruction. Within minutes, 15 people lay dead and a community plunged into despair, fear and mourning.
The U.S. drone strike, targeting accused leaders in the Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah organisations, marked the first time the weapon has been used in Southeast Asia. The drone has so far been used against Muslim groups and the Tausug are the latest on the list.
Just as in Pakistan and other theatres of the “war on terror”, the strike has provoked controversy, with a Filipino lawmaker condemning the attack as a violation of national sovereignty. This controversy could increase with the recent American announcement that it plans to boost its drone fleet in the Philippines by 30 per cent. The U.S. already has hundreds of troops stationed on Jolo Island, but until now, the Americans have maintained a non-combat “advisory” role.
The expansion of U.S.’ drone war has the potential to further enflame a volatile conflict involving the southern Muslim areas and Manila, which has killed around 120,000 people over the past four decades. To understand what is happening in the Philippines and the U.S.’ role in the conflict, we need to look at the Tausug, among the most populous and dominant of the 13 groups of Muslims in the South Philippines known as “Moro”, a pejorative name given by Spanish colonisers centuries ago.
Our global military sovereignty has no borders, no restrictions.
Hey guyz, only one month till we have a few of our own patrolling the skies here in the US!! Whoz excited??
This guy. Right here.
(via randomactsofchaos)
“The CIA is seeking authority to expand its covert drone campaign in Yemen by launching strikes against terrorism suspects even when it does not know the identities of those who could be killed, U.S. officials said.”
Cool bro. Now we don’t even have to know who we’re remotely assassinating via a hail of hellfire missiles raining down from the sky. We just have to be suspicious enough.
Pretty unacceptable.
