Joe Wolverton, II
The New American
Sunday, July 15, 2012

FLASHBACK: Congress Paves Way for Unmanned Drones in U.S. Commercial Airspace

President Obama’s drone fever is contagious and is spreading worldwide, and the American industries that build the drones are slavering over the chance to supply the demand.

Christopher Ames, the director of international strategy development for Pentagon contractor General Atomics Aeronautical, was almost gleeful in his statement to Reuters regarding the opening of a potentially lucrative overseas market for his company’s remote control killing machines.

“There has been very considerable international interest,” he told Reuters. “There have been countries that for a long time have been asking for Predator… (the export variant) opens up those markets to us.”

Ames would not disclose which countries were expressing the most interest in acquiring his company’s drones, but he did confirm that Latin America, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia “were all areas of considerable buyer interest.”

Diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks reveals that several regimes, including those in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, have tried to secure contracts to purchase armed drones from American providers but have thus far been unsuccessful.

In fairness, General Atomics isn’t the only American defense contractor anxious to peddle the Predator-style drones to other eager governments. Northrop Grumman and other companies continue to lobby Congress and the White House to ease export restrictions on drone sales. Such wide open sales could, of course, result in the drones ultimately ending up in the hands of regimes that would use the devices to harm American interests around the globe — Iran, for example.

The prohibition currently in place was established in 1987. As an article on AllGov.com reports:

In 1987, the Reagan administration joined other democracies (but not Israel) in signing an agreement that prohibited the sale of unmanned aircraft that carry 1,102 pounds for more than 186 miles at a time. Because UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] below this size are allowed, some manufacturers have begun to get around the restrictions by building smaller drones.

Manufacturers aren’t happy having to adhere to these Reagan-era restrictions. Wes Bush, Northrop’s president and CEO, argues that “export restrictions are hurting this industry in America without making us any safer.”

What is certain is that additional arms sales will not make us safer, either. Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, told the Los Angeles Times that making larger and deadlier drones could make starting wars much easier and cheaper for governments currently considering such operations.

“The proliferation of this technology will mark a major shift in the way wars are waged,” Kimball said. “We’re talking about very sophisticated war machines here. We need to be very careful about who gets this technology. It could come back to hurt us.”

Not accustomed to not getting their way, drone manufacturers know that the way to a congressman’s heart is through his wallet.

Chances are readers have never heard of the Unmanned Systems Caucus.

The relationship between drone makers and lawmakers was recently reported by an Arizona radio station:

The drone caucus — like the technology it promotes — is becoming increasingly important in the nation’s capitol as the government looks to unmanned vehicles to help save money on defense, better patrol the country’s borders and provide a new tool to U.S. law enforcement agencies and civilians.

“It’s definitely a powerful caucus,” said Alex Bronstein-Moffly, an analyst with First Street Research Group, a D.C.-based company that analyzes lobbying data.

“It’s probably up there in the more powerful caucuses that sort of is not talked about.” And, he says, caucus members are well placed to influence government spending and regulations.

Congressman Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-Calif.) is the co-chair of the caucus. Notably, McKeon also serves as the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.

It is noteworthy that the caucus includes eight members of the House Committee on Appropriations, the body that has substantial control over the federal government’s purse strings.

Many of the drone caucus members are supported financially by the industry they endorse. According to Bronstein-Moffly’s data, the 58 drone caucus members received a total of $2.3 million in contributions from political action committees affiliated with drone manufacturers since 2011.

Furthermore, 21 members of the drone caucus represent border states. These congressmen received about $1 million in deposits to their campaign coffers from top large drone makers in the 2010 and 2012 election cycles, according to information reported by the Center for Responsive Politics and analyzed by Fronteras Desk and Investigative Newsource.

For example, General Atomics is among the top three all-time campaign contributors to California Congressmen Brian Bilbray, Ken Calvert, Jerry Lewis, and McKeon.

In 2010 and 2012, General Atomics’ PAC has paid out over $140,000 in donations to drone caucus members representing states located on the border with Mexico.

A PAC largely financed by Northrop Grumman contributed about $150,000 to 16 congressmen in the drone caucus who represent districts in California, Texas, Arizona, and Nevada.

No wonder these companies are champing at the bit to grease the skids for the removal of obstacles to their overseas sales plans. In a recently published study, the Teal Group estimates that UAV spending will almost double over the next decade from current worldwide UAV expenditures of $6.6 billion annually to $11.4 billion, totaling just over $89 billion in the next 10 years.

“The UAV market will continue to be strong despite cuts in defense spending,” said Philip Finnegan, Teal Group’s director of corporate analysis and an author of the study. “UAVs have proved their value in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan and will continue to be a high priority for militaries in the United States and worldwide.”

The millions spent by these drone manufacturers to federal legislators seem to be influencing the White House, as well. President Obama has already announced his plan to supply missiles that will arm the drones already sold to Italy.

According to a story printed by Reuters, the Obama administration will proceed with the implementation of its projected sale of American-made drones to Italy. Italy will then join the United Kingdom in deploying the remote control weapons loaded with “laser-guided bombs and Hellfire missiles.”

Until the sale of the weaponry is complete, Italy’s reported arsenal of six Reaper drones sits unarmed and thus useless to the president and his global allies who remain committed to avoiding the tedium of trials of those suspected of threatening international security.

The cost of mounting these sophisticated weapons to the Italian drones runs about $17 million, money that can then be redistributed into accounts funding the cost of policing the globe and protecting the “homeland.”

Now that the National Defense Authorization Act has designated the United States as an active theatre in the interminable War on Terror, it’s about time Europe be officially tagged, as well. The sale of drone weapons to Italy (and previously to Britain) is likely just the first of many such deadly deals to be made with other regimes clamoring to join the claque of countries with the capacity to eliminate enemies with the push of a button.

While it is the policy of the State Department to not comment on proposed sales of U.S. military hardware until formal notifications have been completed, one State Department official quoted by Reuters described his position on the greater good served by increasing the size of the global drone market:

“The transfer of U.S. defense articles and service to allies like Italy enables us to work together more effectively to meet shared security challenges,” said the official, who declined to be named.

Yes, security. It is the freedom and civil liberties of Americans that is the now common sacrificial lamb tied to the altar of security and corporate bottom lines. The Constitution is shredded and used as kindling in the fires that consume the blood offering. When safety is “secured,” due process and other judicial protections are then stripped and prepped for the surrender to the gods of globalism and big business.

1. US reportedly plans to arm Italy’s drones
2. New drone to scour U.S. coast for smugglers
3. Border agency overextended on drone program
4. Predator Drone Patrolling New York Border
5. White House: U.S. Drone Killings Legal to Combat Threats
6. Is a Military Drone Base Coming to Your Hometown?
7. One Nation Under The Drone: The Rising Number Of UAVs In American Skies
8. Drone Strike Kills Four in Pakistan
9. Global race on to match U.S. drone capabilities
10. US drone attack ‘kills four Pakistan militants’
11. Campaigners seek arrest of former CIA legal chief over Pakistan drone attacks
12. Drone Strike Kills Four in Pakistan

FAA Releases Thousands of Pages of Drone Records

Jennifer Lynch
EFF
July 15, 2012

We just received new information today about drone flights in the United States, including extensive details about the specific drone models some entities are flying, where they fly, how frequently they fly, and how long they stay in the air.

The 125 drone certificates and accompanying documents the FAA released today total thousands of pages and were released in response to EFF’s Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, which has already uncovered the list of all entities licensed to fly domestic drones.

The 18 entities represented in the files include police departments from Seattle, Washington to North Little Rock, Arkansas; about 10 public colleges and universities; a few federal agencies, including the USDA and the Department of Energy—Idaho National Lab; and other entities like the City of Herrington, Kansas and the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources. For every entity, the files include the actual Certificate of Authorization (COA) application information submitted to the FAA (for each entity, that file is called “COA.xls”), and many other supporting records. The files go back several years and include COAs for every year that the entity has had drones. For some entities this is as early as 2004.

We’ve included the records below in zipped folders separated by entity. Given how voluminous the records are, we’ve only been able to perform a cursory review so far. We plan to review them in more detail over the next week and post analysis here once we do. In the meantime, we encourage you to download the files and find out more about the drones flying near you.

Read full article

1. Iran Releases Details On Captured CIA Drone
2. Kansas town’s drone plans caught up in controversy
3. Border agency overextended on drone program
4. Judge: CIA need not release drone strike files
5. Drone Aircraft Ready To Take Flight, Awaiting FAA Rules
6. US Homeland Security now tracking medical records of Canadians
7. Military Drone Crashes and Burns in Maryland
8. Russia, China seek info on US drone held by Iran
9. U.S. drone targets two leaders of Somali group allied with al-Qaeda, official says
10. Iran claims it will duplicate RQ-170 spy drone
11. Sheriff Arpaio: Obama’s Records Are Missing
12. Drone Use Takes Off on the Home Front

Revolution Failed? ‘Mubarak gone, US-linked regime remains’

RT
Sunday, July 15, 2012

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Egypt for her first talks with the country’s newly-elected Islamist President, Mohammed Morsi.She says she’s there to push for a completion of post-revolution change in the country and for economic restoration. For more RT talks to Middle East expert and independent journalist, Larry Everest.

1. Now US Puppet Regime in Iraq is Calling for a ‘Regime Change’ in Syria
2. Defected Syrian colonel plots guerrilla attacks against Assad regime
3. UAE Turns to Deportation to Silence Regime’s Critics
4. U.S. policies may have contributed to Iran revolution, study says
5. Inward Revolution Creates Outward Revolution
6. US-Mexican Border Remains Porous
7. Bailout ‘would spark revolution’
8. Jailed in Geneva – colonel who stood up to Mubarak, but refused to spy for the Swiss
9. Loyalist heartland stands its ground against Libyan revolution
10. China tries to quash ‘Jasmine Revolution’
11. David Icke: There’s Been NO REVOLUTION So Far
12. Lost human species linked to East Asia

SUNDAY MORNING SKY SHOW: Set your alarm for dawn on Sunday morning, July 15th. Venus, Jupiter and the crescent Moon are gathering for a bright three-way conjunction in the eastern sky before sunrise. Must-see! [video] [photos]

CME IMPACT: As expected, a CME hit Earth’s magnetic field on July 14th at approximately 1800 UT or 11 am Pacific Daylight Time). A geomagnetic storm is brewing in the wake of the impact. At the moment, conditions appear favorable for auroras over high-latitude places such as Canada, Scandinavia, Antarctica and Siberia. It is too early to say whether the storm will intensify and bring auroras to middle latitudes as well. Stay tuned for updates. Aurora alerts: text, voice.

The arrival of the CME shook Earth’s magnetic field, which in turn induced electrical currents in the ground at Arctic latitudes. Rob Stammes measured the effect from his magnetic observatory in Lofoten, Norway:

Stammes has observed many CME strikes from his laboratory at the Polar Light Center. He says this one was not particularly strong, at least in terms of ground currents. Whether this presages an equally muted display of Northern Lights remains to be seen.

Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery

HOT COMET: Periodic comet 96P/Maccholz is passing by the sun today deep inside the orbit of Mercury. At closest approach, the icy visitor from the outer solar system will be less than 12 million miles (0.13 AU) from the solar surface. Coronagraphs onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory are monitoring the encounter:

“Discovered in 1986, Comet 96P/Machholz is a fascinating comet that has passed through SOHO coronagraph images four times now,” says Karl Battams of the Naval Research Lab. “It’s not a huge comet but it is very photogenic, and puts on quite a display with its beautiful dusty tail.”

In an essay posted on his web site, Battams explains why the comet is so fascinating. Many researchers suspect 96P/Machholz is not a native of our solar system; some chemical evidence suggests it came from another star. Also, 96P/Machholz appears to be dynamically related (that is, the comet’s orbit is related) to a diverse collection of other objects in the solar system including asteroid 2003 EH1 and the Quadrantid, Southern Delta Aquariid, and daytime Arietid meteoroid streams. All of these things–the asteroid, the comet, and the meteoroids–might be fragments of a single “foreign” body that broke apart thousands of years ago.

Comet 96P/Machholz will be visible in SOHO coronagraphs until July 17th. Battams believes the comet will reach a peak brightness of 2nd magnitude–not its best show. “But who knows,” he says, “maybe Comet Machholz will do something completely and utterly unexpected like fragment into a swarm of Machholzlets.” Join SOHO for a ringside seat.

AURORA ALERT: A geomagnetic storm is in progress as Earth’s magnetic field continues to reverberate from a CME strike on July 14th. Sky watchers in Scandinavia, Canada, Alaska and northern-tier US states from Maine to Washington should be alert for auroras after nightfall. Observing tip: The hours around local midnight are usually best for aurora-spotting. Aurora alerts: text, voice.

When the CME first arrived on July 14th, its effect appeared weak. However, conditions in the wake of the CME have since become stormy. On July 14-15 Northern Lights appeared in the United States as far south as California, Colorado, Missouri, Utah, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Washington, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Michigan and Arkansas. Brad Goldpaint sends this picture of the auroras reflecting from Sparks Lake in central Oregon:

Meanwhile in the southern hemisphere, the aurora australis has been sighted in New Zealand, Australia, and directly above the South Pole itself. Visit our aurora gallery for a complete set of images: