Drone Warfare on Trial

by Larry - Galway Alliance Against War Wed Sep 22, 2010 14:09

Amy Goodman interviews Kathy Kelly on the "criminal trespass" of Creech Air Force Base and the sanitized obscenity of murder through a joystick. Thanks for your article, Ciaron, you're still as strong as ever, I see.

by Lucky Fri Sep 24, 2010 02:46

cold allies, patricia anthony

by Fr John Dear, SJ - Creech 14 Sat Sep 25, 2010 07:25

"A peace movement victory in court" by Fr John Dear, SJ - NCR Sept 21, 2010
http://ncronline.org/blogs/road-peace/peace-movement-vi...court

by Peacenik. Sat Sep 25, 2010 15:03

I can't get my head around why some people think that a Drone is more "evil" than a manned jet fighter .

Its more "modern" I suppose.

Apparently,some people prefer "old fashioned butchery".

by NCR Tue Sep 28, 2010 10:36 U.S.A.

Sep. 27, 2010
Nathonal Catholic Reporter
"Antiwar defendants get unexpected hearing"

Fourteen antiwar activists claimed a victory of sorts Sept. 14 when a
county judge in Las Vegas helped them turn a misdemeanor trespassing
case into a wider hearing on the legality of the use of unmanned
military drones by the U.S. military abroad.

Surprising both the activists and prosecutors, Clark County, Nev.,
Judge William Jansen said he needed “at least three months” to look
into witness testimony and study applicable international law
regarding the activists’ allegedly illegal April 2009 prayer vigil on
Creech Air Force Base.

The activists, who are known together as the “Creech 14,” walked on to
the base outside Las Vegas on Holy Thursday, April 9, 2009. Once
there, they offered Air Force personnel bread and water and started a
prayer vigil for the end of the military’s use of unmanned aerial
vehicles. After about an hour at prayer they were arrested and taken
into custody.

According to a Sept. 14 news release, the activists’ key strategy for
the trial was to call several notable figures as expert witnesses
regarding international law: former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey
Clark, Center for Constitutional Rights legal director Bill Quigley,
and retired U.S. Army Col. Amy Wright.

After relatively brief questioning from prosecutors, the witnesses
were questioned at length by Jesuit Fr. Steve Kelly, a defendant who
acted as his own counsel. At first Jansen said the witnesses would
only be able to answer questions pertaining to the charge of trespass,
but allowed them to go on as he became interested in the issues of
international law involved with the activists’ action.

Article continued.........
http://ncronline.org/news/peace/antiwar-defendants-get-...aring

by V for vendetta Tue Sep 28, 2010 12:24

"I can't get my head around why some people think that a Drone is more "evil" than a manned jet fighter ."

Perhaps it is because of the distance it puts between the killer and the result of his actions. some guy with a joystick in Arkansas presses a button based on a fuzzy screen image and a schoolroom full of kids dies horribly in Afghanistan.and the resulting carnage he will never see or directly experience.

War started out mano a mano. You had to look into the eyes of somebody as you killed them. Not so easy to do. Now it's just a video game. Life has become (even) cheaper.and easier to extinguish. Just press the button...they're dead. Just like Quake or modern warfare 2. Then head out and get a cheeseburger at McDonalds

Perhaps you do have a point and its not really all that different from normal attacks from fighter jets or helicopters as these days they too seem like video games as this now infamous video from wikileaks shows.:

Caption: Video Id: uLgkJQPe4F4 Type: Youtube Video
infamous wikileaks video

by near crash Mon Oct 04, 2010 12:43

Drone planes almost collided with helicopters over Wiltshire

Army UAV's two near misses in a day prompt safety investigations

Two official safety inquiries took place into the military use of drones over southern England after near-collisions with helicopters, the Guardian can reveal.

The investigations are the first of their kind involving unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which are increasingly being flown in British civilian airspace after extensive use in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The inquiries by Airprox, the body that investigates reports of near-collisions, relate to flights on 12 February by a Desert Hawk 3 (DH3) drone owned and used by the army. The drone was being flown in military airspace over Salisbury Plain and operated from the ground.

In each case Airprox concluded that action taken by the operator on the ground prevented collision with the helicopter. However, it made recommendations and said there were "many lessons learned" in the first inquiries involving unpiloted aircraft, which can fly below radar altitude.

The areas in Wiltshire over which military drones are permitted to fly have been significantly extended since then. They were widened on 1 July to enable testing of Watchkeeper UAVs – winged drones that are based on Israeli military technology and operated by the Royal Artillery as remote spotter and targeting planes.

Announcing the additional "danger areas", the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) circular warned: "The unmanned aircraft that will be operating within this airspace are not capable of independently detecting or avoiding other aircraft (ie there is no pilot on board to 'see and avoid').

Article continued........
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/oct/01/drone-helicopt...-miss

by satellite signals Mon Oct 04, 2010 14:14

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/dec/17/skygra...acked

by unbelievable Mon Oct 04, 2010 15:49

all you need is a strong radio signal,there is no need to even get through the satellite network even..the only thing is you need to be within proximity of the drone,for it to work..

by SkyHooks Mon Oct 04, 2010 16:21

easy to scramble the signals into oblivion,should be done with little effort..why bother endangering yourself hacking into a satellite signal..?

by PlaneStupid Mon Oct 04, 2010 16:35

Slightly off topic but....Saw this on slashdot today. Might be of interest to planespotters in shannon who are reading this thread

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| US Says Plane Finder App Threatens Security
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

"The Plane Finder AR application, developed by a
British firm for the Apple iPhone and Google's Android, allows users to
point their phone at the sky and [0]see the position, height and speed of
nearby aircraft. It also shows the airline, flight number, departure
point, destination and even the likely course-the features which could be
used to target an aircraft with a surface-to-air missile, or to direct
another plane on to a collision course, the 'Daily Mail' reported. The
program, sold for just 1.79 pounds in the online Apple store, has now
been labelled an 'aid to terrorists' by security experts and the US
Department of Homeland Security is also examining how to protect
airliners. The new application works by intercepting the so-called
Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcasts (ADS-B) transmitted by most
passenger aircraft to a new satellite tracking system that supplements
or, in some countries, replaces radar."

Discuss this story at:
http://apple.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10/10/03/199235

Links:
0. http://www.ndtv.com/article/technology/a-phone-applicat...56673

by PlaneStupid Tue Oct 05, 2010 09:28

My comment was a verbatim quote from a well known website "slashdot"

I am not suggesting they use it in the daft impractical manner the daily mail suggests!!
I am just saying it might be a useful tool for identifying dodgy aircraft landing in shannon.
which it might be.

It's absurd to imply that anti-war activists would engage in violence.

Only the military or governments can afford or would want to buy surface to air missiles

And only a rag like the daily mail would try to whip up the terrorist fear agenda over an iphone app

by Found Guilty Tue Feb 01, 2011 06:39 Nevada, USA

Published on Monday, January 31, 2011
The Verdict: Guilty of Protesting US Drones

by John Dear

On Thursday, thirteen of us stood in a Las Vegas courtroom to hear the verdict from Judge Jansen regarding our September trial for trespassing on April 9, 2009 at Creech Air Force Base, headquarters of the U.S. drone operations. Last September, the judge had dramatically announced that he would need at least three months to "think" about the case.

After telling us how "nice" it was to see us, the Judge presented each of us with a twenty page legal ruling explaining why he found us guilty. You argued a defense of necessity, he said, "when an inherent danger is present and immediate action must be taken," such as breaking a no-trespassing law to uphold a higher law and save life. "In this case, no inherent danger was present, and so I find you guilty."

Article continued.....
http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/2011/01/....html

by Military Man. Tue Feb 01, 2011 19:26

The main constraint to modern jetfighters is this:
The human body is delicate.
The F35 is probably the last jetfighter to be designed to operate with a delicate human aboard.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_F-35_Light...ng_II

The newest fighters on the drawing board have no human on board at all.

They will be able to "spin-on a sixpence" without making jelly out of the pilot.
"Raw metal" shrugs off G-forces which would kill a pilot instantly.

by opus diablos - the regressive hypocrite party Wed Feb 02, 2011 13:42

..for the driveway, before they discontinue the line.

We're well on the way already with our drones and remote ops. Once we have dispensed with the almost redundant hominids we can get down to the serious business of restarting the Mars program so we can finally get home after all these milennia. Current budgetary policy is creating glitches, but that can be finessed.

It will of course mean transforming this handy little station into a semblance of our original home, but the arsenal is just about ready so it shouldn't be too tricky. The hominids have served us well, I'll almost regret their demise.
Just a matter of perfecting and refining the biopods for return to the mother planet.

by HAL Wed Feb 02, 2011 16:08

Wise man Opus.
Notice how I got rid of the hominids in the film "2001 A Space Oddysey".
Hominids are a bothersome lot.