Dorner is to be first US citizen to be DRONE target |
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| By: elisemattu Monday February 11, 2013 5:29 pm | |
While still on the soil of the USA.
What could go wrong with this!!
http://now.msn.com/christopher-dorner-is-first-drone-target-on-us-soil
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17 Comments
Unfortunately, this is not a credible story:
http://parkerhiggins.net/2013/02/did-the-internet-just-fall-for-a-massive-drone-hoax/
Tuttle has a different link on Dave Swanson’s post of yesterday. I stuck this one from Wired up, but we just haven’t any idea how many times they’ve been used in arresting Americans, really.
I’d like to think that none of them are armed, though some have dual capabilities. The first USian killed by drone might (or might not, given the polling on the issue) create massive resistance. But I guess I’m not even close to sure that’s true. But: I do think LAPD, having seen the legs this story’s gotten, would consider it carefully before actually arming a drone and firing. Just an opinion, of course.
Well, bugger; my mouse misbehaved. Here’s the Wired link that was embedded in this piece, which contained this paragraph:
“How things have changed. In the past two years, DHS expanded Predator flights into the Caribbean to hunt for drug traffickers, and has taken to using the drones in an ad-hoc program to help out local police agencies, such as during a June 2011 standoff between SWAT officers and alleged cattle rustlers in Washington state. The drones have been used more broadly than that, reportedly assisting in police investigations from the Midwest to Texas. DHS has also gotten around to expanding its drone fleet. In November, DHS was revealed to be planning to expand its inventory of 10 Predators to 24, and is constructing a testing ground for small surveillance drones at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.”
I hope it sheds a bit of light on it, elisemattu. But what do any of us really know about any of it?
Dorner mentioned Rodney King, hated by the LAPD since their Torture of him became a viral video.
Several months ago, at the hectic height of the Trayvon Martin reporting, Rodney King was the most prominent US citizen to speak out about it. He was absolutely rabble-rousing – the first he had done since his Torture – until he was Assassinated in what the LAPD called and un-suspicious accident.
My take on the article your link provides is that we still don’t know. And the article doesn’t mention the site my link provides. And simply by surmising that it is happening, it is NOT a conspiracy theory – it is more like, say, a policy theory.
From the link/article itself you provide, from the section titled:
“Sorting out loose ends
“In a rush to clarify that CPB drones aren’t in fact armed, and teasing out information on whether the drones in question were, say, launched from the a nearby Air Force Base that has recently tested search-and-rescue flights, there are some deeper unanswered questions.
“The story is plausible. The Department of Homeland Security (CPB’s parent agency) does loan out drones to police agencies, and they’ve kept the terms of such deals almost completely secret. EFF is currently suing DHS to find more information about that program. But in this case, the factual support isn’t there.
“Whether or not these drones are being used in this manhunt, and whether or not they’re armed (they’re not), there is real cause for concern. A secret aerial surveillance program wherein federal agencies loan military technology to local police forces raises serious questions and we should demand to know more. The expansion of warrantless surveillance to unarmed vehicles with capabilities that exceed any helicopter or light plane currently in operation is also a problem. The general militarization of police is well-documented and alarming, as is the shift in rhetoric and actions in the Dorner case from capture-and-try to capture-and-kill.”
I went over here to this link at “Masher”: http://mashable.com/2013/02/11/lapd-drones-dorner/
I found it of interest that the person writing the article at Masher feels that no one at a small newspaper can come up with a credible source from thousands of miles away. Their thesis on the matter is that the original article emanates from the UK, but the reporter’s main source is not to be believed because how can that reporter possibly have a source who is familiar with the LAPD?
It would be nice if the public realized that a journalist is a journalist is a journalist. How good or bad they are is determined by their ethics. Someone who is determined to write an article and get it out there can do one of two things – make it up, or simply work hard.
Having written for a small monthly newspaper myself, I’d would say that some of us minor league journalists do work hard. One of my colleagues on said small newspaper attended Global Climate Change Summits in South America, that he traveled to on his own dime, way back before most Mainstream Media reporters had ever heard of Climate Change.
Of course, it is also possible that this small time reporter in the UK made it all up. The LAPD denies, denies denies with regards to the drones, but as far as I am concerned, the LAPD is no more credible than Dorner himself.
Your link to the article was chilling. http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-12/first-us-citizens-have-been-arrested-help-predator-drone
And apparently it sheds some slight on the overall situation – if a drone is en route from, say, LA to a border somewhere, who can say whether or not said drone is equipped to do a little light surveillance en route. (As was the case in the drone that ended up dealing with the ranchers in this article.)
The first USian declared guilty by the imperial presidency? Forget it. They’ll be cheering that one in the streets.
You’ll be lucky if the first death due to “collateral damage” from a hellfire missile on US soil even causes a murmur.
Exactly. And concerning veracity, trust: there are not a few here at the Lake who believe Noah Sachtman is hasbara, or engages in it, however the terms’s used, as in: a promoter of Zionism, so it may be he’s not seen as credible to some for that reason. Whether or not that affects which defense people speak to him about the newest war and snooping toys…I just don’t know.
But the scope he described seems likely, and I’d guess that large metro areas in the east have likely used them as well, although helicopters are ubiquitous in searches there, even if noisy give-aways.
I should have couched that remark a bit, kbki202. I was remembering a few comments on some of the diary posts here about Dornen that asserted that (I’m extrapolating) if he’s murdered by the LAPD it would end up being the American version of a ‘Wael Gonin moment’, which made me cringe.
One news/opinion aggregator sent out a screenshot of an msnbc Ed Schulz program this week with a banner saying that 78% of those polled were fine with assassinating Americans, so I looked into it. It turned out to be Ed’s viewers, lol. Along the way I did find a more recent standard poll (can’t remember which now) that indicated far less, but still appalling, numbers for the same. Don’t know if any poll asks/asked about ‘on US soil’, but I’d shudder to see any support, of course.
Haha! I happen to have the very poll you’re looking for. ‘Murcans juuuust luvz themselves some dronez (hey, just look at the Boggmeister….)
My prediction – hacking the streams and putting them on pay per view?! It’s bread and circuses all round!!!
Cross-eyed from too much reading today, so that the Zero Hedge poll and Huffpo thingie ain’t jibing for now. But bugger all, a friend had sent me a TBoww post from 2006 exemplifying the ‘it’s okay as long as our fearless leader’s doing it’. I cleaned out my crazy inbox yesterday, and lost it. But it was seriously funny.
In a piece I’m working on, author Ron Jacobs asks:
Think that’s what’s known as a rhetorical question, ennit? Srsly, I loathe even thinking of the possibility, so…
My advice – get out while you still can. But I realise that’s only practical for a tiny, tiny minority, and it hardly makes the situation better. So instead, be brave, and stay alert!
Well, we can’t leave, never mind the realities of that. And as to the rest, that ship seems to have sailed Turns out I’m not as brave as I’d hoped (don’t ask), but I’ll keep writing and exposing what I can, offering hope as I’m able.
if you say “don’t ask”, I start to really worry. I hope you can elaborate? Have you been “compromised” by them?
Fuck me for saying it. Too stream-of-consciousness
somemost days. Let’s just say that Mr. wd are going to be under some scrutiny soon, and don’t quite know how far that may reach. In all likelihood it’ll all turn out fine, and we have some time to simmer down about it all, which will help.I do so apologize for saying that, then censoring my answer. Just wing us some good thoughts, prayers (even atheistic ones) if ya got em. Then kick my worryin’ ass a li’l bit for borrowing the future: always a bad idea. ;o)