Since 2002, America has been killing people — terrorists, or, at least, people that American intelligence believes are terrorists — with missiles shot out of Predator drones, mostly in Pakistan, but also in Yemen and Somalia. They're precise, but only up to a point; anyone nearby is likely to die as well. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism places the number of civilian deaths between 500 and 1000.
Good news for people who love freedom, hate terrorism, and people who do not live in Yemen and will never visit Yemen and do not appear to be from Yemen or its surrounding areas: the U.S. government is relaxing its rules for drone strikes in Yemen. When it comes to incinerating more or less inscrutable targets with unseen missile attacks like Zeus himself, why be encumbered by a bunch of bureaucratic rules?
Today, it is tricky for governments and corporations to constantly spy on people using drones. By 2015, it wil be much much easier, thanks to a Monday Congressional vote authorizing drones above 400 feet, in the same airspace as commercial airliners.
In 2011, we watched as tech villains found creative new ways to violate our privacy. They misappropriated our social networking profiles, stalked us through our phones, and plucked secrets from our wifi networks. To help you better prepare for 2012's inevitable privacy attacks, we enumerate below the most worrisome threats you should monitor in the coming year.
Well, if there was ever a family that looked like creepy right-wing North Dakota survivalists who had to be surveilled by Air Force drones because they refused to let cops onto their land after stealing a neighbor's cows, it's the Brussarts of Nelson County (as you can see above). And wouldn't you know! That's exactly what they are, allegedly!
In your finally Friday media column: Newsweek sucks, Chelsea Clinton's NBC infiltration works, a bodybuilder becomes a magazine editor, drone journalism arrives, and your angry layoff rant of the day.
If Air Force researchers have their way, the military's next flying robots of doom will be tiny, and indistinguishable from the naked eye from small birds, bats or even insects. And they'll take their first flight in a freaky "Micro-Aviary" in Ohio, where engineers make mini-machines modeled on those creatures of the sky.
It is, it really is! Also today: Matt Damon makes more plans to head behind the camera, a recent literary hit goes to TV, and something about Dallas.
A computer virus has infected the cockpits of America's Predator and Reaper drones, logging pilots' every keystroke as they remotely fly missions over Afghanistan and other warzones.
The death of Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born cleric linked to al Qaeda's operations in Yemen, is likely to impact American Arabs and Muslims in positive fashion, according to Dr. Hussein Ibish, former communications director for the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Commitee.
It looks a bit like silver bird. It probably was used to spy on insurgents. And now it's in the hands of the Pakistanis.
While the rest of America watches the economy go down the shitter all over again, the Pentagon is busy blowing hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on toys that don't work. Perhaps you've heard about the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 and its alleged Prompt Global Strike™ capabilities? It failed for a second time during a test flight yesterday off the coast of California.
According to the Wall Street Journal, a U.S. drone strike narrowly missed the American-born radical cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, who inspired the underwear bomber and the Times Square Bomber. Known for his inflammatory YouTube videos, he's sort of like the Islamist Rebecca Black. Too bad the drone missed; our lamp post-climbing muscles were really warmed up after last weekend.
Got a spare RQ-11B Raven spy drone lying around? If so, don't try to sell it on the internet!
Some advice: Get all your crime done before 2013, which is when the FAA plans to implement laws that will allow police departments to routinely fly unmanned drones around U.S. cities. It's gonna be a lot harder to get away.
A remote-controlled drone owned and operated by the government of Mexico crashed "in someone's backyard" near El Paso last week. What was it doing there?
