November 5, 2012

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Apple Rejects App That Tracks U.S. Drone Strikes

August 30, 2012 By 4 Comments

Originally posted by Christina Bonnington and Spencer Ackerman on Wired.com, August 30, 2012

It seemed like a simple enough idea for an iPhone app: Send users a pop-up notice whenever a flying robots kills someone in one of America’s many undeclared wars. But Apple keeps blocking the Drones+ program from its App Store — and therefore, from iPhones everywhere. The Cupertino company says the content is “objectionable and crude,” according to Apple’s latest rejection letter.

A mockup of developer Josh Begley’s drone-strike app for iOS. Wired.com

It’s the third time in a month that Apple has turned Drones+ away, says Josh Begley, the program’s New York-based developer. The company’s reasons for keeping the program out of the App Store keep shifting. First, Apple called the bare-bones application that aggregates news of U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia “not useful.” Then there was an issue with hiding a corporate logo. And now, there’s this crude content problem.

Begley is confused. Drones+ doesn’t present grisly images of corpses left in the aftermath of the strikes. It just tells users when a strike has occurred, going off a publicly available database of strikes compiled by the U.K.’s Bureau of Investigative Journalism, which compiles media accounts of the strikes.

iOS developers have a strict set of guidelines that must be adhered to in order to gain acceptance into the App Store. Apps are judged on technical, content and design criteria. As Apple does not comment on the app reviews process, it can be difficult to ascertain exactly why an app got rejected. But Apple’s team of reviewers is small, sifts through up to 10,000 apps a week, and necessarily errs on the side of caution when it comes to potentially questionable apps.

Apple’s original objections to Drones+ regarded the functionality in Begley’s app, not its content. Now he’s wondering if it’s worth redesigning and submitting it a fourth time.

“If the content is found to be objectionable, and it’s literally just an aggregation of news, I don’t know how to change that,” Begley says.

Begley’s app is unlikely to be the next Angry Birds or Draw Something. It’s deliberately threadbare. When a drone strike occurs, Drones+ catalogs it, and presents a map of the area where the strike took place, marked by a pushpin. You can click through to media reports of a given strike that the Bureau of Investigative Reporting compiles, as well as some basic facts about whom the media thinks the strike targeted. As the demo video above shows, that’s about it.

It works best, Begley thinks, when users enable push notifications for Drones+. “I wanted to play with this idea of push notifications and push button technology — essentially asking a question about what we choose to get notified about in real time,” he says. “I thought reaching into the pockets of U.S. smartphone users and annoying them into drone-consciousness could be an interesting way to surface the conversation a bit more.”

But that conversation may not end up occurring. Begley, a student at Clay Shirky’s lab at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program, submitted a threadbare version of Drones+ to Apple in July. About two weeks later, on July 23, Apple told him was just too blah. “The features and/or content of your app were not useful or entertaining enough,” read an e-mail from Apple Begley shared with Wired, “or your app did not appeal to a broad enough audience.”

Finally, on Aug. 27, Apple gave him yet another thumbs down. But this time the company’s reasons were different from the fairly clear-cut functionality concerns it previously cited. “We found that your app contains content that many audiences would find objectionable, which is not in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines,” the company e-mailed him.

It was the first time the App Store told him that his content was the real problem, even though the content hadn’t changed much from Begley’s initial July submission. It’s a curious choice: The App Store carries remote-control apps for a drone quadricopter, although not one actually being used in a war zone. And of course, the App Store houses innumerable applications for news publications and aggregators that deliver much of the same content provided by Begley’s app.

Wired reached out to Apple on the perplexing rejection of the app, but Apple was unable to comment.

Begley is about at his wits end over the iOS version of Drones+. “I’m kind of back at the drawing board about what exactly I’m supposed to do,” Begley said. The basic idea was to see if he could get App Store denizens a bit more interested in the U.S.’ secretive, robotic wars, with information on those wars popping up on their phones the same way an Instagram comment or retweet might. Instead, Begley’s thinking about whether he’d have a better shot making the same point in the Android Market.

Drones+ iPhone App from Josh Begley on Vimeo.

Source: https://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/08/drone-app/

Filed Under: Censorship, Genocide, Internet, Media, Military, Murder, Pakistan, Technology, Terrorism, USA, War, Weapons

Ground-To-Air Missiles ‘May Protect’ London 2012 Games

December 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment

By BBC News on 14 November 2011

Defence Secretary Philip Hammond has told MPs that ground-to-air missiles will be deployed to protect the 2012 Olympic Games in London if deemed operationally necessary.

He was asked to confirm this by the former defence secretary Liam Fox.

It was Mr Hammond’s first appearance at Defence Questions since taking over from Mr Fox.

The US embassy in London has denied reports that it was unhappy with the UK’s security plans.

The Guardian claimed the US was furious about security plans and wanted to send up to 1,000 of its own people, including 500 FBI agents but the Home Office says it has “full confidence” in the plans.

‘All necessary measures’

Mr Hammond was asked by his predecessor to confirm whether there would be a “full range of multilayered defence and deterrents” in place for the 2012 Games including surface-to-air missiles.

He replied: “I can assure him that all necessary measures to ensure the security and safety of the London Olympic Games will be taken including - if the advice of the military is that it is required - appropriate ground-to-air defences.”

The BBC’s Political Correspondent Robin Brant said Mr Fox would almost certainly have been aware of the security plans for the event - so the exchange may have been designed to show how seriously the UK’s contingency planning was being taken.

The deployment of overseas security officers at the Olympics has become standard procedure in recent years but final responsibility for security rests with the host government.

National Olympic security co-ordinator Chris Allison said there would be a small number of “foreign security liaison officers” in London to act as a link between their national teams and UK police.

But he insisted their numbers would not be on the scale reported

“The Games will be delivered by the British police service, working with Games organisers Locog,” he told the BBC. “We will have support from other colleagues up and down the country but it is the British police service that will be doing it.”

The US was providing “great support”, Mr Allison added, and their officials did not “recognise” the concerns expressed in the newspaper.

The Guardian article says the London riots, the arrest of a security guard at the Olympic site and arrests before the visit of the Pope last year have raised US anxieties while the restriction of the scope of anti-terrorism stop-and-search powers was also claimed to have caused concerns.

‘Safe and secure’

In response, the Home Office said security planning was “on track” and funding had been protected.

“The government is committed to delivering a safe and secure Games that London, the UK and the world can enjoy,” a spokesman said.

Philip Hammond: “All necessary measures available… including ground-to-air defences”

The International Olympic Committee (IOC), which undertakes detailed inspections of security preparations, had “full confidence” in the UK’s plans, he added.

Responding to claims in the article, the games organisers Locog said precise numbers of security officers are only now being finalised because the venues themselves have only just been completed.

The US embassy said it had the “utmost confidence” in the British government’s arrangements to ensure safety and security for the Olympic Games.

In a letter to the Guardian newspaper charge d’affaires Barbara Stephenson said it was “normal and prudent for the US to engage in discussions”.

Earlier this year Mr Allison said 12,000 officers may be needed nationally to police the event and another 10,000-15,000 security officials could also be deployed by private security firm G4S.

The BBC’s security correspondent Gordon Corera said: “The US is understood to be taking a close interest in the plans and is intending to send over hundreds of personnel to protect its athletes.”

 

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-15724639

Filed Under: United Kingdom, Weapons Tagged With: ,

Major Explosion At Iranian Steel Plant

December 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment

By https://flipthepyramid.com

At least seven people were killed Sunday night in an explosion at a steel mill in the Iranian city of Yazd. Foreign nationals, possibly North Korean nuclear arms experts, are believed to be among the dead.

The explosion follows two blasts that occurred in Iran in recent weeks at sites linked to Tehran’s nuclear program.

The Ghadir steelworks was opened by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad some six months ago, and the factory’s link to Tehran’s nuclear development program remains unclear. According to reports in recent months, however, the Iranians are struggling to produce steel of the grade required for the construction of centrifuges for the enrichment of uranium. Some of the reports note that the new factory includes a closed military zone used for the production of an unknown material.

The cause of Sunday night’s explosion remains unknown, with Iranian reports initially putting it down to water getting into the facility. Subsequent reports said the blast was caused by munitions that had accidentally found their way into steel that was being recycled in the plant.

There is no evidence linking the three blasts, and no one has claimed responsibility for the explosions, but if the three incidents are indeed connected, the choice of targets indicates a clear attempt to strike at the various links of the Iranian nuclear program chain - the production of raw materials, uranium-enrichment operations, and the development of launch capabilities for missiles with nuclear warheads.

The explosions in the past few months join a series of assassination attempts on Iranian nuclear scientists over the past two years. Tehran has accused Israel and the United States of being behind these attempts.

 

Source: https://flipthepyramid.com/index.php/entry/major-explosion-at-iranian-steel-plant

Filed Under: Iran, Weapons Tagged With:

Cyber War On US Drones? Another Spy Craft Goes Down, Now In Seychelles

December 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment

By rt.com

With America still scrambling to explain why and how they lost a drone aircraft over Iran last week, the Pentagon is trying to make sense of how another high-tech unmanned spy craft crashed Tuesday morning in Seychelles.

For the second time in two weeks, American authorities lost contact with a drone aircraft, this time resulting in a fiery crash on the Indian Ocean island of Seychelles. The United States has operated an Air Force base there since 2009 to dispatch drone crafts for use in anti-piracy missions and to patrol the skies over Somalia and elsewhere.

Officials at the US Embassy in Mauritius confirmed Tuesday morning of the crash, revealing that a MQ-9, or “Reaper” drone, landed at Seychelles International Airport, citing mechanical issues.

A week earlier, the Department of Defense denied losing a drone, only for Iran authorities to in turn publish video proof of an American craft that they have recovered. The Pentagon later admitted that they lost contact with the drone while allegedly flying it over Afghanistan, prompting President Obama to ask Tehran to return the spy plane. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has shot down Obama’s plea, however, telling Venezuelan state television this week, “The Americans have perhaps decided to give us this spy plane. We now have control of this plane.” Ahmadinejad added that Iranian authorities are able to make sense of the craft’s complex technical system, perhaps providing a crucial addition to Iran’s arsenal as tensions between Tehran and Washington intensify over a budding nuclear program overseas.

The Department of Defense has remained relatively mum on the exact capabilities of the lost craft, although insiders insist that the drone in question can sniff out chemicals in the sky and intercept cell phone transmissions miles in the sky while remaining undetected.

The loss of the second drone within days raises questions about security within the US military and the unmanned crafts themselves. It was reported earlier this year that drones dispatched from Creech Air Force Base in Nevada were plagued with a computer virus that made its way into the cockpits of the crafts without American authorities able to quickly identify it. Even though US military officials claimed that the virus didn’t harm the security of US aircraft, it is suspicious that now two American drones have been downed in only such a short amount of time, raising questions whether it is possible retaliation from Iran for an alleged cyber attack the year prior. Stuxnet, a 2010 computer warm that targeted Iranian nuclear facilities, was suspected to be perpetrated by American intelligence agencies, much to their dismissal.

In the case of the down drone over Seychelles, authorities say that government officials of the island nation were“immediately notified” and are coordinating an effort with the United States to arrange for “the removal of debris,” says the US Air Force. Pending further investigation, the US Air Force released a statement on Tuesday saying that “It has been confirmed that this drone was unarmed and its failure was due to mechanical reasons.”

Editor Gervais Henrie of the local Le Seychellois Hebdo tells the Washington Post that the craft burst into blames upon crashing, describing the wreckage in a phone interview as charred and “totally destroyed.”

The MQ-9 Reaper has the capability of launching laser-guided bombs and air-to-ground missiles, although the DoD says the craft in question was not armed and no injuries resulted in the crash.

Filed Under: USA, Weapons Tagged With: ,

India And China, The New Great Game

December 13, 2011 By 1 Comment

By Andrew North on BBC South Asia correspondent

”China to open first military base in Indian Ocean.” Nothing to worry about, says the defence ministry in Beijing.

The base – in the Seychelles – is just for supplying passing Chinese navy ships. But seen from Delhi, it is another move in what a former Indian defence minister has called China’s policy of “strategic encirclement”.

Even as Indian diplomats insist they want “cordial ties”, tensions are rising everywhere between the two giant Asian neighbours, in what looks increasingly like a new “great game” – with the US and other powers upping their stakes. Willliam Burns, America’s number two diplomat, is in Delhi this week to try to rekindle relations after a period of stagnation, and a stalled deal on nuclear co-operation. Next week, Washington hosts diplomats from India and Japan for a first ever “trilateral dialogue” of the “three leading Pacific democracies”.

An increasingly assertive China is clearly their main focus. The Great Game was a term coined for the shadowy battle for influence and control in central Asia between Russia and the British empire. Yet even as the latest round plays out in Afghanistan, this new and less-noticed Asian great game could be of far greater global importance – and pose more dangers.

It is already provoking regular media hostilities, the Chinese papers lashing out at India as “jealous” of China’s success, after the former Indian defence minister’s broadside. While playing down the chances of real conflict, a senior Indian diplomat admits: “There is a trust and a perception deficit” between the two.

Nearly 50 years after they fought a brief border war, Delhi and Beijing still cannot agree on much of their nearly 4,000km (2,500 miles) of frontier, with an arms race happening on both sides. A regular border meeting was recently cancelled because of disagreements over another frequent irritant in the relationship – the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who lives under Indian protection. This is bound to be an “adversarial” relationship, says Shyam Saran, India’s foreign secretary until last year. But what he calls China’s “hierarchical’ outlook” makes it more difficult. “It wants to be on top, maybe not to dominate territory, but to have veto power over any of its neighbours’ policies it doesn’t like.” ‘Cheque-book diplomacy’, just like the original great game, this is a battle on many fronts, being fought with aid, investment, politics and culture – from Pakistan (a long-time Chinese ally) to Nepal, and across South East Asia. But paradoxically, part of the reason for relations “getting more complicated” is “because they are getting closer”, says Jonathan Holslag, a China expert at the Brussels Institute of Contemporary Studies.

Trade between India and China is expanding, but it is imbalanced in China’s favour. And with its greater economic weight, it is going “all out in its cheque-book diplomacy”, says Mr Holslag, with India struggling to compete. But while it could not stop the Seychelles hosting China’s new base, India drew the line earlier this year when Nepal – landlocked between the two giants – contemplated accepting $3bn (£2bn) worth of Chinese investment. But China already has firm foundations there, recently upgrading the Friendship Highway across the Himalayas between Kathmandu and Lhasa in Tibet. Work is now under way on a railway link, with nothing comparable from the Indian side. “Start Quote The US still appears unable to decide whether to treat India as a partner… as far as technology matters are concerned.”

Senior Indian diplomat China is years ahead of India in building up transport links along their disputed frontier, giving it a head start in moving troops if there is another war. US factor Yet from Beijing’s point of view, India is helping in what it perceives as an emerging US policy of containment. Next week’s meeting will only heighten these suspicions, coming soon after US President Barack Obama’s announced plans to send US marines to Australia’s northern coast – facing China.

Beijing chafes at Indian oil companies encroaching on what it regards as its backyard in the South China sea. Indian officials though play down an incident in the summer when a Chinese ship is reported to have warned an Indian ship to leave the area. There is no question of India being used as “a cat’s paw” by the US, according to the senior Indian diplomat. And despite better ties, India remains cautious about how close it gets to Washington, says Mr Saran, because of a perception that it is still not willing to share enough. “The US still appears unable to decide whether to treat India as a partner… as far as technology matters are concerned,” he says.

Watering down nationalism

That both India and China are now nuclear-armed helps concentrate minds against war. Along their border, the most likely flashpoint, things have been quiet for more than 30 years – despite or perhaps because of the military build-up “Not a bullet has been fired, not a soldier lost,” says Indian foreign ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash. Yet some see dangers in the continuing war of words in the Indian and Chinese media. Jonathan Holslag says that although it is only “25% real, it plays up nationalist sentiment and reduces the scope for making compromises”. If economic growth slows much more in either India or China – and there are already signs – that could spell trouble, encouraging nationalism that could turn “nasty”.

 

Source: https://www.sananews.net/english/2011/12/india-and-china-the-new-great-game/

Filed Under: China, Nuclear, Weapons Tagged With: ,

U.S. Asks Iran To Return Spy Drone

December 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment

By David S. Cloud and Ken Dilanian, Los Angeles Times

The Defense secretary says he doesn’t expect Tehran to comply. Iran says it is planning to clone and mass produce the bat-winged craft for use against its enemies.

Reporting from Washington— The Obama administration has sent a formal diplomatic request asking Iran to return the radar-evading drone aircraft that crashed on a CIA spying mission this month, but U.S. officials say they don’t expect Iran will comply.

“We have asked for it back,” Obama said Monday at a news conference in Washington with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki. “We’ll see how the Iranians respond.”

His comments marked the first public confirmation that the RQ-170 Sentinel drone now in Iranian hands is a U.S. aircraft, though U.S. officials privately acknowledged that in recent days. Iran has claimed it downed the stealthy surveillance drone, but U.S. officials say it malfunctioned.

Capture of the futuristic-looking unmanned spy plane has provided Tehran with a propaganda windfall. The government announced that it planned to clone and mass produce the bat-winged craft for use against its enemies.

The embarrassing loss of the CIA drone has focused attention on the use of an air base in western Afghanistan over the last several years to launch aerial surveillance missions against suspected nuclear facilities and other targets in neighboring Iran.

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta called the U.S. request for return of the drone “appropriate,” but he acknowledged that Iran’s government, which last week lodged a formal complaint with the United Nations about the U.S. spy plane violating its airspace, was unlikely to send it back.

“I don’t expect that will happen, but I think it’s important to make that request,” Panetta told reporters traveling with him aboard a U.S. military aircraft.

Officials declined to say how the U.S. filed the formal request. Washington doesn’t have diplomatic relations with Tehran, and normally communicates through the Swiss government. Mark Toner, a State Department spokesman, refused to discuss the issue, saying he would not comment on intelligence matters.

Iranian state media reported Monday that Iranian experts were recovering valuable data from the drone, which appeared relatively intact in photographs released by Iran, and were trying to reverse-engineer its unique capabilities.

Parviz Sarvari, head of the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, said that Iran is “in the final steps of breaking into the aircraft’s secret code.”

“The findings will be used to support our accusations against the U.S.,” Sarvari said in comments reported by the state-run Al Alam news channel.

Amir Ali Hajizadeh, who commands the Revolutionary Guard’s Aerospace Forces, told the semiofficial Fars News Agency that the aircraft “was downed in Iran with minimum damage,” according to Israel’s Haaretz newspaper.

U.S. officials said they don’t believe Iran’s scientists can reverse-engineer the craft’s stealth design and skin coating, which help it evade detection on radar. But they expressed concern that Iran may figure out the drone’s flight path, and thus learn the CIA’s surveillance targets inside Iran.

U.S. officials also are concerned that Iran could offer the drone to China or other U.S. rivals or adversaries that are building their own stealth aircraft, including drones.

Panetta said it was unclear how much Iran could glean from the recovered spy plane, or what condition it was in.

Iran said it downed the drone about 140 miles inside Iran through electronic warfare, suggesting hacking or signal jamming. U.S. officials say the aircraft malfunctioned and went down on its own.

 

Source: https://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-obama-drone-20111213,0,6677845.story

 

Filed Under: Iran, Surveillance, USA, Weapons Tagged With:

A Time-Lapse Map of Every Nuclear Explosion Since 1945 - by Isao Hashimoto

December 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Japanese artist Isao Hashimoto has created a beautiful, undeniably scary time-lapse map of the 2053 nuclear explosions which have taken place between 1945 and 1998, beginning with the Manhattan Project’s “Trinity” test near Los Alamos and concluding with Pakistan’s nuclear tests in May of 1998. This leaves out North Korea’s two alleged nuclear tests in this past decade (the legitimacy of both of which is not 100% clear).

Each nation gets a blip and a flashing dot on the map whenever they detonate a nuclear weapon, with a running tally kept on the top and bottom bars of the screen. Hashimoto, who began the project in 2003, says that he created it with the goal of showing “the fear and folly of nuclear weapons.”

It starts really slow — if you want to see real action, skip ahead to 1962 or so — but the buildup becomes overwhelming.

 

Filed Under: Nuclear, Science, USA, Weapons Tagged With: ,

Rioters Beware: Police Set To Deploy £25,000 James Bond-Style Laser That Temporarily Blinds

December 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment
  • Shoulder-mounted device temporarily impairs the vision of anyone looking towards its laser
  • Originally invented to deter pirates from vulnerable cargo ships
  • Resembles a rifle and can hit targets 500m away with a wall of light up to four metres wide

Police may be given a laser weapon that could repel rioters with a blinding wall of light.

The shoulder-mounted device, which resembles a rifle, temporarily impairs the vision of anyone looking towards it.

Developed by a former Royal Marine commando, the £25,000 laser can dazzle and incapacitate targets up to 1,640ft away by creating a 13ft wall of light.

Government scientists have been impressed by initial trials and are preparing to ask police to test it as potential weapon in a growing armoury of equipment aimed at preventing a repeat of the August riots.

The Home Office said it had to be tested further and guidelines drawn up for its use.

Paul Kerr, of Photonic Security Systems, the UK-based firm behind it, said the effect was like looking into a low sun on a bright winter day. He added: ‘It is horrible. It makes you look away.

‘The system would give police an intimidating visual deterrent. If you can’t look at something you can’t attack it.

‘If police spot someone trying to do something untoward, painting them with this would certainly make them think twice about it.’

Developed by a former Royal Marine commando, the £25,000 laser resembles a rifle and can dazzle and incapacitate targets up to 500m away.

James Bond-style: The SMU 100 temporarily impairs the vision of anyone looking towards its source with a wall of lightSet for approval: Government scientists have been impressed by initial tests and a preparing to ask one force to trial its use

It creates a wall of light up to four metres wide and comes with an infrared scope to spot looters in poor visibility.

Those behind the invention believe it has many uses, from deterring rioters to aiding high-risk hostage rescues.

The Home Office has been considering new forms of non-lethal equipment since a wave of looting and arson rocked the country.

The Metropolitan Police is considering buying three water canon at a cost of up to £4million but senior officers remain divided over how effective they would be.

The force is also increasing the number of officers trained to fire plastic bullets and has warned they could be used.

It has already deployed an imposing new portable metal fence in Whitehall during a recent anti-cuts demonstration.

The trailer-mounted fence, complete with spy-holes and police signs, was donated by the Government last year and is similar to those used in European cities.

A Home Office spokesman said the technology must be tested to ensure it does not cause any permanent ill effects and guidelines drawn up for its use.

He added: ‘Laser dazzle technology is one we have recognised as holding some merit.

‘However, prior to any police deployment a number of things need to be done to assess the technology’s suitability.’

Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2072771/Police-set-deploy-25-000-James-Bond-style-laser-temporarily-blinds.html#ixzz1gJ3AMbaj

Filed Under: Police, Rights, Social Unrest, Tyranny, United Kingdom, Weapons Tagged With:

US Vacates Air Base In Pakistan To Meet Deadline

December 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment

QUETTA, Pakistan (AFP) - The United States on Sunday vacated a Pakistani airbase following a deadline given by Islamabad in the wake of anger over NATO air strikes last month that killed 24 soldiers, officials said.

Pakistan’s military said in a statement that the last flight carrying US personnel and equipment had left Shamsi airbase, in the southwestern province of Baluchistan, completing a process that began last week.

Islamabad’s fragile alliance with the United States crashed to new lows in the wake of the November 26 NATO air strikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers and which the Pakistan military called a deliberate attack.

The base was widely believed to have been used in covert CIA drone attacks against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda commanders in northwest Pakistan’s tribal areas, which border Afghanistan.

“The control of the base has been taken over by the Army,” the statement said.

A senior security official requesting anonymity earlier told AFP: “The Americans have vacated the Shamsi air base and it has been handed over to the Pakistani security forces.”

Another official in Baluchistan confirmed that the last batch of US officials left in two flights on Sunday.

Following the November air strikes, Pakistan closed two border crossings to Afghanistan to US and NATO supplies and gave American personnel until Sunday to leave Shamsi airbase.

US Ambassador to Islamabad Cameron Munter told a Pakistan television channel last week: “We are complying with the request.”

A security official said the US aircraft left the Pakistani airfield around 3:00 pm (1000 GMT) with the remaining group of 32 US officials and material.

US President Barack Obama last Sunday expressed condolences to Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari for the soldier deaths and said the NATO air strikes that killed them were not a “deliberate attack.”

But the incident has rocked Washington’s alliance with its counterterrorism ally Islamabad, though officials say neither country can afford a complete break in relations.

US officials and intelligence analysts have said the covert drone war would not be affected by the closure of the base as Washington could fly Predator and Reaper drones out of air fields in neighboring Afghanistan.

But the Shamsi air base was supposed to be particularly useful for flights hampered by poor weather conditions.

Islamabad has tacitly consented to the covert US drone campaign, which many Pakistanis see as a violation of their country’s sovereignty.

Nearly half of all cargo bound for NATO-led forces runs through Pakistan. Roughly 140,000 foreign troops, including about 97,000 Americans, rely on supplies from outside Afghanistan for the decade-long war effort.

Pakistan has shut off the border over previous incidents, partly to allay popular outrage, but the latest closure had entered a third week.

Islamabad has so far refused to take part in a US investigation into the deadly November air strikes, and decided to boycott the Bonn Conference on the future of Afghanistan earlier this month.

Source: https://www.activistpost.com/2011/12/us-vacates-air-base-in-pakistan-to-meet.html

Filed Under: Afghanistan, Military Industrial Complex, Pakistan, USA, Weapons

The Orwellian ‘Non-Lethal’ War Waged Against Peaceful Citizens

December 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Non-lethal weapons are being distributed by the West into protest zones throughout the world, as well as being utilized in crowd suppression within the borders of the Land of the Free.

The producers of weapons such as rubber bullets, tear gas and pepper spray are quick to point out that it is not the weapons themselves that are the cause of fatalities, but rather it is their misuse through faulty training. The Orwellian nature of such a statement is staggering, as the admission of lethality is actually buried in the justification. In fact, one of the main manufacturers, NonLethal Technologies Inc., states in their own search description that they are a “Manufacturer of Less-Lethal riot and crowd control products.” Less-lethal is not non-lethal. Moreover, it seems disingenuous that major players in the military-industrial complex, which has been quite lethal to a large number of nations and peoples, should themselves be developers of supposedly non-lethal technology.

There is also emerging evidence from the front lines of Egyptian protesters, and the medics treating them, that these non-lethal weapons have increased in strength and lethality as Egypt enters its second revolution and the protester death toll rises. So, if these weapons are promoted as non-lethal, why are so many people dying?

So, let’s look at some of these supposedly safety-oriented weapons, their track record, and how the rise in strength and frequency with which they are deployed by governments poses a far greater threat than guns obtained legally under the Second Amendment by any citizen who wishes to defend themselves against legitimate criminals.

Old school - I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the now-old-fashioned fire hose, and its upgraded partner the water cannon. This was used widely in the civil rights protests of the ’60s, and appears to have actually been the first use of a so-called non-lethal weapon . . . in 1930′s Germany. It has more recently been used in countries like Belgium, France, and Northern Ireland, as well as in less-developed countries throughout the world as a tremendously painful crowd suppression, dispersal, or torture instrument. It has resulted in ruptured internal organs, broken bones and eye damage. Despite being very effective — from a police state point of view — and resulting in very few fatalities, it has largely been abandoned for more . . . lethal methods.

Firearm rounds - Rubber, plastic, beanbag rounds, wax bullets and more. There have been some widely publicized cases of this group of non-lethal weapons resulting in horrific injuries and deaths in America, with hundreds more in other countries that have begun employing these weapons. Here is a list of 17 people killed in Ireland (8 of them children) from 1972-89. The well-respected, peer-reviewed medical journal The Lancet studied the perpetual war zone of Palestine and the use of rubber bullets by Israeli forces. Their conclusion was that after a documented 152 casualties, “this ammunition should therefore not be considered a safe method of crowd control.”

Chemical - Article I.5 of the U.S. Chemical Weapons Convention states that “Each State Party undertakes not to use riot control agents as a method of warfare.” While Article II.9 of the CWC specifically authorizes their use for civilian law enforcement. The definitions and criteria themselves are Orwellian, and the effects equally so. Tear gas has resulted in deaths, not only from suffocation, but even from getting hit with the canister itself. Pepper spray is supposed to be the more benign of the two, especially according to Megyn Kelly of Fox News who has now infamously stated that it’s an all-natural product, so what’s the problem? Sayer Ji, however, countered her health tip with a compelling article that shows how pepper or not — it is still a potentially lethal chemical weapon. The death toll is rising across the world, but particularly in Egypt where medics are seeing new, more deadly effects than they saw in revolution number one. Here is what the creator of pepper spray has to say about how his chemical invention is being used:

As an aside, I wonder how law enforcement is going to rule in the case of a woman who used pepper spray against other Black Friday shoppers? Will it be labeled an act of terrorism? Or does this act merely highlight the additional danger of making these weapons appear acceptable for crowd control, thus enabling a trickle-down tyranny.

Futuristic - The military-industrial complex, and its police state minions, continue full-speed ahead with non-lethal weapons development despite their horrendous track record thus far. Here are some of their high-tech devices which have now been unleashed upon the human body . . . and even a few new ones that are set to be rolled out. Under the guise of the label “non-lethal,” the frequency with which they will be deployed, as well as the limits of pain that will be pushed are guaranteed to rise.

Tasers - The idea that literally short-circuiting someone’s nervous system could not lead to death is truly indicative of who is running the show. Everyone from the elderly, to the deaf, to 10-year-old girls, have been tortured or killed by this non-lethal weapon. And it’s not only hand-held; police can fire a shotgun taser that can deliver a jolt from within 20 feet. As the promo video below raves “you are about to see the most technologically advanced projectile ever fired from a 12-gauge shotgun.”

Long-range acoustic devices - This was first put to use in the Land of the Free at the Pittsburgh G20 and was indiscriminate in the pain, suffering, and permanent hearing loss some people received. The device seems to have been judged a success for the police state, as it has been brought back for the #OWS protests. However, the maker of the LRAD has claimed that it is not a weapon . . . so it must not be, despite the video evidence.

Drones - To further increase the distance put between cause and effect, the ever-growing fleet of drones that are set to hover over America can be equipped with classic non-lethal weapons, as well as tasers and beyond. Nervous system strafing and chemical clouds are an impending reality for protesters.

Laser weapons - While seemingly futuristic, Sweden was the first to call for a ban on laser weapons . . . in 1973. In 1983 the Inhumane Weapons Convention was established to limit the use certain technologies, which by 1996 codified laser weapons, specifically. However, U.S. defense contractors had already produced a staggering array of these high-tech weapons including the visible-spectrum battlefield optical munitions of the Saber 203 and Perseus programs; the Los Alamos Laboratory (Los Alamos, NM) argon-ion-laser rifle and low-energy systems developed by the Air Force Phillips Laboratory (Kirtland AFB, Albuquerque, NM), some of which generate near-infrared wavelengths. As an answer to the Convention, these weapons were dialed down. Shorter-range versions of these systems were even considered for civil law enforcement purposes (see Laser Focus World, Sept. 1994, p. 49), but so far have not been used against protesters.

Directed Energy Weapons - These weapons have morphed from the above focus on lasers to include the death ray of science fiction. High-frequency microwave radiation weapons cause the water in the upper layer of human skin to rapidly heat up, stimulating the feeling of being burned alive as the nerve endings trigger intense pain. This weapon is widely known by its euphemism: Active Denial System. It is noticeable in the video demonstration below that contrary to non-lethal weapons’ apologists, these weapons are not restricted to imminent threat situations, but are instead perceived to be a valuable tool for general control over protesters. And, yes, directed energy weapons can be deployed from the air via the Vigilant Eagle system developed by Raytheon.

Non-lethal weapons used against peaceful civilians are a sad extension of the war culture. Protesters of all stripes are increasingly viewed by the militarized police as terrorists; and the law of the land is changing to treat the whole of the U.S. as one giant battlefield where the protester/terrorist will be fair game for the whole catalog of weaponry.

Now that the Pentagon has decided to offer free military hardware to every police force in the United States under the 1033 program, we activists should be well aware that when we engage in peaceful protest to redress our grievances to our governments gone wild, if we wind up in the line of fire of any one of the non-lethal weapons listed above . . . we might just wind up dead.

Filed Under: Military Industrial Complex, Police, Politics, USA, Weapons Tagged With:
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