“Engage Captive Audiences”
What could possibly go worng?
Turkey’s Chief of General Staff Necdet Özel met with U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta for one hour in his office on May 10 … [where] he reiterated Turkey’s demands for the unmanned aerial vehicles, Reaper and Predator…
“demands”?
…in late December… along a narrow mountain ridge, a caravan of 38 men and mules paused on the Turkish-Iraqi border. Then they heard the propellers overhead. Minutes later, Turkish military aircraft dropped bombs that killed all but four of the men.
…It was a U.S. Predator drone that spotted the men and pack animals, officials said, and American officers alerted Turkey.
The U.S. drone flew away after reporting the caravan’s movements, leaving the Turkish military to decide whether to attack, according to an internal assessment by the U.S. Defense Department…
The strike … was meant to knock out Kurdish separatist fighters. Instead it killed civilians smuggling gasoline …ignit[ing] protests across the country and prompt[ing] wide-ranging official inquiries.
…The U.S. role, which hasn’t previously been reported, revealed the risks in a new strategy for extending American influence around the globe.
…After a decade of troop-intensive land wars, the Obama administration is promoting advanced drones, elite special forces and intelligence resources as a more nimble, and less expensive, source of military power. The strategy relies heavily on close cooperation with regional allies, in part to reduce the need for American troops on the ground.
Well, Turkey — right? Maybe Yemen… Somalia…. aQ — right?
…There is a statement on the FAA website that said that they are streamlining the process for public agencies to fly unmanned aerial surveillance planes, drones, inside the U.S.
…it’s been used once already. There’s already a case, a North Dakota man apparently testing the legality of drones in the domestic law enforcement cases…
KRAUTHAMMER: …I don’t want regulations, I don’t want restrictions — I want a ban on this. Drones are instruments of war. The founders had a great aversion to any instruments of war, the use of the military inside of the United States. They didn’t like standing armies, it has all kinds of statutes against using the Army in the country. A drone is a high-tech version of an old army and a musket. It ought to be used in Somalia to hunt bad guys, but not in America. I don’t want to see it hovering over anybody’s home.
Yes you can say we have satellites, we’ve got Google Street. And London has a camera on every street corner. But that is not an excuse to cave in on everything else and accept a society where you are always under — being watched by the government. This is not what we want. I would say you ban it under all circumstances. And I would predict, I’m not encouraging, but I predict the first guy who uses a Second Amendment weapon to bring a drone down that’s been hovering over his house is going to be a folk hero in this country.
CARLSON: …here is what we know about drones. They’re cheap, they’re very cheap, they’re much cheaper than a police helicopter, multiples cheaper. … And there are a lot of them for sale as we are withdrawing from Afghanistan and Iraq. This is the perfect storm. We are going to see these around the country and they will be used for uses not yet considered and the result will be to lessen our privacy from what it is now.
Drones? For police enforcement? What’ll they think of next?!?
As we first reported last year, high tech street lights with “homeland security applications” are now being installed in major U.S. cities.
…manufacturer Illuminating Concepts announcing the progress of its ‘Intellistreets’ system.
…A recent press release put out by Amerlux announces the company’s partnership with Illuminating Concepts to further advance the rollout of ‘Intellistreets’. The announcement confirms that the street lights will have a number of “homeland security features” including a loudspeaker system that will be used to “engage captive audiences”.
“Engage Captive Audiences”
“Controls, Monitors, & Maintains The Sensory World”
…SmartSite is a 24/7 area-wide system that offers architectural luminaire styles, a robust platform, digital wireless solutions, Wi-Fi capabilities, and a myriad of homeland security features.
…to provide information, advertising, security and entertainment for public spaces …can be equipped with a variety of cameras and sensors to ensure real-time 24/7-security coverage. The sensors detect a variety of threats that enable rapid response from emergency personnel or help prevent crime and gain control of the streets. …backed by a centralized remote control of lighting, signage and audio messaging that allow pedestrians to be ushered quickly and safely to the nearest route during storm warnings, events or emergencies… Using both video and audio advertising messages, businesses can promote brands… will provide a seamless audience experience as well as generate a measurable revenue stream.
Nice …”art work” on those poles.
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30 Comments!
Gee, I think somebody said “The drones are a-comin’” a while ago, didn’t they?
Tip of the iceberg, really.
Brits don’t have a tradition of target practice.
Amazing what the brane stores in memory: I just recalled a scene from a cartoon I saw as a little kid! It was a little dog, bouncing around a big bulldog and saying, “Whadda wanna do Rocky, huh? Wanna knock out some street lights Rocky? Huh, huh, huh…..?????”
Artwork? There goes the uncooperative John Galt into the rotating knives…
I’m seeing a new use for old tires coming here.
Skeet practice too.
The putrified corpses of Hitler and Stalin are sprouting wood just thinking about this new technology.
Don’t see any potential abuses here. When do we get to install intellihome?
BTW, I have a friend that just flew and she received a pat-down. Half way through the pat down, the TSA agent started talking about her wife at home. She was already about half way done so my friend just let her pat her down the rest of the way.
I thought the whole idea of having someone of the same gender pat you down was to reduce the possibility of sexually groping someone or reduce the possibility of sexual harassment charges.
And since the war with terrorists is over, do we get to scale down the TSA and abolish DHS?
How about civilian ownership of drones? Since our tax dollars probably funded the R&D aspect of these things why not try to find a useful application of the technology? I’m thinking ranchers or farmers with lots of acreage dealing with problems they would otherwise have to hire a more expensive plane or chopper to address.
Could that be practical? Keep in mind I live on the East coast where there aren’t a whole lot of large scale ranches or farms.
I can think a few ranches on the border that could use one of those.
Maybe with a hellfire or two attached.
I don’t know if I first saw this here, but it bears rewatching. I particularly like the “Can I shoot it, Daddy?” comment!
Well, it helps to remember to include the link!
Private drones?: Don’t make me laugh, you peons. O-fficial use only. Wanna bet?
Shooting ‘em down over your own property?: Well, good luck with that. If you succeed, expect a visit from the laws. Guaranteed to be a crime.
They aren’t so interested in using drones in the city, as they are using them in the rural areas where they have had a hard time getting people to give up and move to the city.
They’ve been trying to force rural folks into the cities for decades, because they can be controlled easier.
Remember all those vids of Al Qaeda guys getting the shit blown out of them by laser guided bombs that everyone was cheering at. I wasn’t cheering at them. I was seeing the future.
Think about it.
How about civilian ownership of drones? Since our tax dollars probably funded the R&D aspect of these things why not try to find a useful application of the technology? I’m thinking ranchers or farmers with lots of acreage dealing with problems they would otherwise have to hire a more expensive plane or chopper to address.
Could that be practical? Keep in mind I live on the East coast where there aren’t a whole lot of large scale ranches or farms.
Comment by Zipser
Zipser, they’re called radio-control planes and you can get them from any hobby store or on-line catalog company. With cameras transmitting down to monitors or first-person-view goggles, too. I’ve been flying r/c planes for 30+ years and the jump in technology we’ve gotten from the drone programs in the past 10 years has been astounding.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wu1Bwhuh4M
Personally, I’d rather see police spend 1/100th the cost and danger of helicopters on drones. Remember that the law has long held that if you are outside you have NO expectation of ‘privacy’ and police helicopters have helped in many many situations….
Oooh,
shooting wolves, coyotes, and caribou from drones.
Thanks TimO. I can’t go YouTubin’ at the office but I’ll check it out from home.
I wasn’t thinking of keeping them unarmed after purchase :-)
Z
If Congress allows this without VERY strict rules on useage, then—–it`s on!
(…right in there with: ‘…quartering British soldiers in your homes…’ :(
Our pants should have an elastic waist band so we can easily moon them—-we ladies can wear a skirt and
thong underwear’s.
Collimated light in a range of frequencies for the varieties of cameras. Even a spotlight can squirrel out many cameras without harm–just confuse the crap out of the ccd so a good pic can’t be had.
Even unfocused IR LEDs clipped on the top of a 9v battery can prove a distraction to cameras on these remotely piloted vehicles night vision. Dispense semi randomly as needed.
Actually I have some ideas (thanks for the reminder) for making life difficult for paparazzi without harming the critters. Same concept for these. . .
Let’s think about this:
Miscellaneous islamic dirtbags in various primitive places have already demonstrated a variety of drone vulnerabilities. E.g.:
- Using readily available off the shelf technology and cheap software downloaded from the internet to monitor & record the drone info feeds.
- Using basic technology to hijack the drone.
Does anyone think our gang-bangers, drug runners, para-militarys, mob guys, general all-around criminals, and just plain citizens are stupider and less able than third world dirtbags?
…okay, it might be a close contest on the stupider thing, but I still think our dirt bags are better than their dirtbags…
Think what rich opportunities are here:
- Bank robberies depending in part on monitoring police surveillance drones for security.
- Cross border drug & human traffic running: first there’s utilizing the surveillance feeds, and then if it looks like the drones are about to see the wrong thing, just turn off the feed — or crash them.
- Overriding the surveillance video feed — hey, let’s send something interesting to the guys running the drones: Three Stooges reruns, the latest porn movie, video text of The Bill of Rights, or just maybe… the footage from yesterday, which of course doesn’t show the crime being committed today.
- Will any of these drones be armed? Possible not, but if so…. can anyone say “launch codes?”
- Oh, and great new movie plot lines.
There’s so much else to comment on in this post, but time precludes it. The real issue here (beside governments everywhere spending yet more money they don’t have on technology that’s already obsolete) is of course civil liberties. On this matter our culture is in a sharply accelerating decline, and I fear where we are going.
mech (18): OMG! The paparazzi drone. Should have seen that coming. paparazzi aren’t the greatest threat to most of us, but still…
…and according to me, maybe they don’t even need to buy one. They can just hijack the video feed (undetectable) or maybe even the operations of ones the cops or whoever already have up for security.
Oh yeah, about Turkey:
They haven’t been our ally, even a little bit, for at least a decade.
People who think they still are, live in the past. Those who think they can be sweet-talked into being our ally again are living in a fantasy world. They get a lot from us and give little in return, and they are more likely to work against our interests than for them. We’re the folks with the wherewithal, and therefore we should be the ones making demands.
And should we be involved with Turkey’s problems with Kurdish separatist fighters at all? If we’d stop doing the wrong things we could make the Kurds better allies for us than any regular moslems anywhere, and boy could we use that.
…not that it’s a surprise to anyone, but our entire foreign policy has long needed a major overhaul both high level and in detail.
It’s a different topic, be we’ve gone drone crazy, and now we’re ready to share that craziness with folks who are bad choices for receiving our largess.
http://www.infowars.com/judge-napolitano-first-patriot-to-shoot-down-a-government-spy-drone-will-be-a-hero/
When I was working in the bidness, Posse Commitatus prevented us from looking at the illegals coming across the border, so AF, Border Patrol and Contractor personnel had to tormp through the brush to simulate illegals.
If that law survives, then
fatherlandHomeland Security will just run it instead of the military. Simple.^ Oh good, the child gropers staffing DHS will now be controlling drones to intrude yet further into the lives of innocent American citizens.
I hope BHO is out this fall (not in the gay sense, but in the un-elected sense), and I hope the housecleaning his replacement brings to the government goes though DHS like a white tornado… or like a pound of Exlax through a five pound monkey.
The environazis already spy on people, although usually they just trespass on foot.
Peggy, saw your link in (10) above.
^ environazis already spy on people
I’d forgotten how obnoxious, self-rigeous, and intrusive those people can be. Don’t they have lives of their own to take care of?
Can we all wear masks? The progs are using the Guy Fawkes mask. Maybe we all can get Breitbart masks.
Paintball guns for the cameras. Only the paintballs are filled with flat clear-coat. From a distance, the camera looks OK, but the matte finish clear-coat fuzzes up the image.
Well, it will soon be clear “who’s in charge here.”
Three guesses as to who it *isn’t*. And what happens to them if they get “uppity.”
(Here’s a hint: it’s you.)
Oh yeah, and nice communist iconography on that “total surveillance society” panopticon device.
For any who doubt it, here’s the shape of things to come:
http://www.infowars.com/spy-drone-almost-causes-mid-air-collision-with-jet-over-denver/
The United States air space, particularly the urban areas, is just not like the air space in some 6th Century, ass-wipe, 3rd or 4th world country…. duhhh!