Some drones are pretty cute. In shape, they're reminiscent of dolphins, only dolphins with skate wings. The aerodynamic design makes them look as though they're slipping through (or up into) our skies with the same smooth ease that dolphins move through water.
We'll be seeing more of them. Drones are being used to monitor us.
Yes, it's true and civil libertarians are pretty worried about the implications. With any luck, all Americans are civil libertarians. But we do have among us some known devotees of militarism who find convoluted ways to justify the use of our military against (and too often without the knowledge of) our citizens.
Amy Goodman quotes a report from the Center for Investigative Reporting [CIR]: "If terrorists ever target Fargo, North Dakota, the local police will be ready. In recent years, they have bought bomb-detection robots, digital communications equipment and Kevlar helmets, like those used by soldiers in foreign wars."
Of course, the notion of terrorists targeting Fargo is almost laughable, but even when we're laughing we can feel horror at the prospect of military equipment being moved down the road in front of our peaceful home.
Goodman continues:
For local siege situations requiring real firepower, the report notes officers can use a new $256,000 armored truck which has a rotating gun turret. The report, published by the Center for Investigative Reporting, finds police increasingly rely on quasi-military tactics and equipment acquired with the $34 billion in federal grants disbursed across the country since September 11, 2001.
Local police departments have also added unmanned Predator drones to their tool kit. Earlier this month, the Los Angeles Times revealed new details about how domestic law enforcement agents have begun using unmanned drones inside the United States. In June, an unmanned Predator drone helped local police in North Dakota with surveillance leading to the arrest of three people. According to the Los Angeles Times, the incident marked the first time American citizens have been arrested domestically with the help from a Predator drone.
Now the American Civil Liberties Union has issued a new report that calls on the government to put protections in place to guard Americans’ privacy from surveillance by these unmanned aerial drones. ...Amy Goodman, Democracy Now
Here are some excerpts from a discussion Goodman held yesterday with investigators -- one from the ACLU and the other from the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR).
...Local police departments are keenly interested in getting a hold of drones. Helicopter technology is very expensive, but drones are cheap. And there aren’t legal protections in place to preserve Americans’ privacy when these are used. And so, we face a real possibility that drones will be used by law enforcement agents across the country with very little regulation. ...ACLU
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...Drones are among a number of 21st century technologies that local police in the United States are adopting very, very rapidly. And it’s a number of factors that are contributing to this. You know, prior to September 11th, there was a sort of militarization of police already underway as a result of the drug war, and now the rise of task forces and a couple of programs that enabled local police departments to acquire decommissioned equipment from the military. But after 9/11, there was an additional spending spree through federal Homeland Security grants that made it easier for police departments, large and small, in the United States to acquire equipment they couldn’t necessarily afford before or necessarily justify buying. So, what we did was set out to approach every state in the United States, through open government laws, to try to collect records showing how communities were spending Homeland Security grants. And basically, what Congress did after 9/11 was say, "Well, communities around the country need to be ready for another 9/11-style attack, so we need to start funding preparedness programs." But the list of items you could buy every day grew bigger and bigger and bigger, because all of it feasibly could be used to help prepare for a terrorist attack. But terrorism scenarios are fairly unlikely in the U.S., so a lot of this equipment was being used for everyday law enforcement ...CIR
Military equipment is being used to monitor and control Occupy Wall Street. But wait a minute, what about Posse Comitatus Act, the law that prevents the use of military here at home?
...One way this works is that the federal law enforcement agencies have this technology and can simply lend it to the local law enforcement agencies. But actually the more alarming prospect is that drones are so cheap that any local surveillance—any local police department can afford them now. You have the large drones that are used in places like Iraq and Yemen, but you also have very small drones that can be used for local law enforcement agencies. They can—local law enforcement, they can stay aloft for a long time. They can have cameras that zoom in in great detail. They have thermal imaging that can allow the law enforcement agents to see things that aren’t visible with the naked eye. And I think this raises the prospect for a real transformation in American life. ...ACLU
Drones are being used in, for example, Colorado -- by local police. And here in Texas they are now capable of carrying bombs. CIR has found that significant amounts -- billions and billions -- are being granted by Congress and the US Department of Justice to equip local police with "high tech, combat-ready" gear.
... There’s such, at this point, a dizzying array of grant programs that communities are eligible for, and the list goes on and on. If you don’t get a piece of equipment you want from one grant program, you can turn to another one and apply for that one. And there are similar programs available through the Justice Department. ...The drone that was used in North Dakota was CBP [Customs and Border Patrol]-controlled, so it didn’t have anything to do with the military. It was a federal law enforcement agency sharing its equipment with the local law enforcement agency. And that’s a type of resource sharing I think you’re going to—it’s going to be really, really common. ...CIR
Oh, and drones are just as available to business interests -- to corporate America -- as they are to our local police departments...
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As it happens, within the same time-frame of half a day, the Washington Post has a lead report this morning on the Obama administration's widespread use of drones with, the Post implies, the same threat to human rights and civilization itself as "the detention or interrogation programs of the George W. Bush era."
Just as the use of drones on (or over) American soil calls into question the line drawn between the use of military overseas and the use of military/federal force at home, so the lines between the CIA and Defense are disappearing.
In the space of three years, the administration has built an extensive apparatus for using drones to carry out targeted killings of suspected terrorists and stealth surveillance of other adversaries. The apparatus involves dozens of secret facilities, including two operational hubs on the East Coast, virtual Air Force cockpits in the Southwest and clandestine bases in at least six countries on two continents.
Other commanders in chief have presided over wars with far higher casualty counts. But no president has ever relied so extensively on the secret killing of individuals to advance the nation’s security goals.
The rapid expansion of the drone program has blurred long-standing boundaries between the CIA and the military. Lethal operations are increasingly assembled a la carte, piecing together personnel and equipment in ways that allow the White House to toggle between separate legal authorities that govern the use of lethal force.
In Yemen, for instance, the CIA and the military’s Joint Special Operations Command pursue the same adversary with nearly identical aircraft. But they alternate taking the lead on strikes to exploit their separate authorities, and they maintain separate kill lists that overlap but don’t match. CIA and military strikes this fall killed three U.S. citizens, two of whom were suspected al-Qaeda operatives. ...WaPo
Congress is now dismissed as a watchful protector of human rights. Congress appears to embrace the idea that there's no such thing as too much military.
The convergence of military and intelligence resources has created blind spots in congressional oversight. ... Senior Democrats barely blink at the idea that a president from their party has assembled such a highly efficient machine for the targeted killing of suspected terrorists. It is a measure of the extent to which the drone campaign has become an awkward open secret in Washington that even those inclined to express misgivings can only allude to a program that, officially, they are not allowed to discuss. ...WaPo
