It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
(CBS) But beyond all of that, Woodward reports, for the first time, that there is a secret behind the success of the surge: a sophisticated and lethal special operations program.
"This is very sensitive and very top secret, but there are secret operational capabilities that have been developed by the military to locate, target, and kill leaders of al Qaeda in Iraq, insurgent leaders, renegade militia leaders. That is one of the true breakthroughs," Woodward told Pelley.
"But what are we talking about here? It's some kind of surveillance? Some kind of targeted way of taking out just the people that you're looking for? The leadership of the enemy?" Pelley asked.
"I'd love to go through the details, but I'm not going to," Woodward replied.
The details, Woodward says, would compromise the program.
"For a reporter, you don’t allow much," Pelley remarked.
"Well no, it’s with reluctance. From what I know about it, it's one of those things that go back to any war, World War I, World War II, the role of the tank, and the airplane. And it is the stuff of which military novels are written," Woodward said.
"Do you mean to say that this special capability is such an advance in military technique and technology that it reminds you of the advent of the tank and the airplane?" Pelley asked.
"Yeah," Woodward said. "If you were an al Qaeda leader or part of the insurgency in Iraq, or one of these renegade militias, and you knew about what they were able to do, you'd get your ass outta town."
Originally posted by Shere Khaan
It's pretty easy to put together. sophisticated UAV's with weapon systems and advanced visual capabilities plus enhancements in facial recognition means you can have swarms of automatic targetting systems that just need a human to verify the target and press a button.
The trick is then monitoring communications and networks to find out who they are.
Originally posted by robertnesta
i myself think it may be sometype of NSA space station in stationary orbit over the middle east with the capibility to zoom in anywhere with night vision and maybe even weapon capable. what you all think???
(emphasis mine)
A circular geosynchronous orbit in the plane of the Earth's equator has a radius of approximately 42,164 km (from the center of the Earth). A satellite in such an orbit is at an altitude of approximately 35,786 kilometersabove mean sea level. It will maintain the same position relative to the Earth's surface. If one could see a satellite in geostationary orbit, it would appear to hover at the same point in the sky, i.e., not exhibit diurnal motion, while one would see the Sun, Moon, and stars traverse the heavens behind it. This is sometimes called a Clarke orbit. Such orbits are useful for telecommunications satellites.