McClatchyDC’s review of top-secret intelligence reports reveals the CIA has used drones to kill hundreds of people “who only were suspected, associated with, or who probably belonged to militant groups.”
Read the full investigation here.
And read everything we know so far about the drone war doctrine of “signature strikes.”
Very apropos, as we’d just mentioned the dearth of available information on the U.S. drone strike program a couple hours ago — do yourself a favor and read this full story on what is perhaps America’s most controversial modern warfare tactic. Figures and insights on drones are hard to come by, so it’s truly crucial not to miss the information that does trickle out.
In the virtual cockpit: What it takes to fly a drone
(Photo: Michael Shoemaker / U.S. Air Force)
Drone pilots escape the physical demands and dangers of a traditional cockpit. There’s no g-force pinning them to their seats, no uncomfortable pressure suit to wear and no panic because the aircraft they are sitting in is spiraling out of control.
It’s worthwhile to peel back the curtain and at least keep conversation going about one of America’s most controversial tactics. Thanks to the national security/wartime state, we as citizens still have perilously little insight into the targets of these drones, or especially the civilian casualties resulting. What information we do have is usually from this very perspective — through the pilot’s eyes.
US denies Iranian drone capture report
NBC News, Reuters: The U.S. Navy says it had not lost any drones over the Persian Gulf recently after Iran claimed to have captured one in its airspace.
The semi-official Fars and the state-run IRNA news agencies reported that a U.S. ScanEagle drone was gathering information over Gulf waters and had entered Iranian airspace.
Photo: Insitu’s ScanEagle (Jim Watson / AFP - Getty Images, file)
Iran has captured an American drone before, around this time last year.
» The Eagle has landed … poorly. Hundreds of millions of dollars are being invested in a drone that was still crash landing as recently as March 2011. A squadron of four Gray Eagles is currently active in Afghanistan, but unstable software — what caused the drone to crash last March — still calls for more tests. They better get moving; the Army has an order in for 164 of them within the next decade.
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Absolutely. Does timidity and weakness invite acts of aggression by other people? Absolutely! …this President, when the spy drone goes down, asks ‘pretty please?’Mitt Romney, on President Obama’s comment that the U.S. had asked Iran to return the downed high-tech spy drone now in their possession.
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