Feds eye unmanned drones for ocean smuggler patrol

Feds eye unmanned drones for ocean smuggler patrol

www.miamiherald.com

The Associated Press
SAN DIEGO -- Predator aircraft drones will soon be scanning U.S. waters for smugglers.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection says it's buying two Predator B aircraft for sea patrols. The models to be rolled out Monday at the manufacturer's plant in Palmdale have radar sensors that can detect boats.

Agency officials say one will be tested in the Caribbean, with a base in Florida, but it could be used to aid patrols in the San Diego area.

(visit the link for the full news article)

This is not great news as far as I am concerned. Popular in the wars being fought in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan the Predator Drones are starting to be used by domestic law enforcement.

So it begins the Electric Eye in the sky will soon not just be the Satellite variety but one equipped with remote controlled machine guns and missiles and instead of patrolling war torn third world countries they will be patrolling ours!

Makes me feel a lot safer, NOT!

How about you?


www.miamiherald.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

In case people might get the idea that these drones are only being used over water...

Think again.

Another will be based in Corpus Christi, Texas, for use in the Gulf of Mexico.

The remote-controlled drones will look for smugglers of drugs and illegal immigrants. A different Predator version is used for land patrols in Arizona and North Dakota.

Wow just like the Terminator movies, with machines hunting humans. It sure is amazing how they actually convince us these things are for our own safety and security!

Good move, because this could go a very long way toward eliminating the pesky small time competition, there are shipments that get through the proper ways, that is a highly profitable covert business that must be protected at all costs.

Those who get their goods to market in the USA must pay a premium price, those who try to circumvent the established corrupt, covert system are taking a huge risk, and now they will have drones hunting them down.

Don't mess with the feds, they are the ultimate badasses!

reply to post by Walkswithfish


I could not agree with you more friend that the Government is in bed with preferred Drug Cartels and enjoys illegal imigration be unchecked.

Still these deadly highly versatile machines are going to become an increasing part of our world and that's just not good!

Thanks for posting!

Oh yes, this was coming from a while ago, but with all the Iraq WMD capable of launching scuds with bio and radiation warheads on european nations everyone just brushed aside the yellow flags going up. Its typical human nature....

Safety a concern as drones catch on

now laugh at the date.

Updated 8/6/2006 10:47 PM ET

• A Customs and Border Protection Predator B drone, which is as large as some commuter airliners, slammed to the ground within several hundred feet of homes in Arizona on April 25. Its ground operator accidentally shut off its engine, according to a preliminary federal incident report.

• A prototype of an Eagle Eye tilt-rotor plane being developed for the Coast Guard crashed during tests April 5 in Texas. The UAV, which weighs about 2,000 pounds and can hover like a helicopter, went down after an unidentified radio signal triggered a self-destruct mechanism that killed the engine, according to its builder, Bell Helicopter Textron.

Eagle Eye tilt-rotor plane

• The Federal Aviation Administration criticized the Los Angeles County sheriff for conducting a demonstration flight without permission June 16. The 3-pound drone, which carries video cameras, crashed in a media demonstration.

House lawmakers concerned about crashes of drones involving federal agencies have inserted language in homeland security funding legislation that demands reports on the accidents.

www.usatoday.com...

www.usatoday.com...



[edit on 7-12-2009 by tristar]

I'm against these unmanned drones in many ways. I posted in another thread about their inaccuracy. The high count of collateral damage is extreme and disproves their actual effectiveness. I think it was worked out to about 11%. I might have to recheck the numbers.

Going on another theory, the use of military force in domestic disputes is a way of bypassing the right for the accused to defend themselves. No trial, no ability to offer testimony. They just point and the "bad guys" are dead.

This is a barbaric custom and flies in the face of proper justice.

It's times like this that I'm seriously hoping for an apocalypse. There's way, way too much corruption in this world, too much power in the hands of meglomaniacs and lunatics, so much power that there is no turning back.

I hope the walls of Rome will come crumbling down soon. Soon or it will be too late for us.

We need serve nature, not these worthless, shadowy groups.

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler


Having seen and witnessed the "business" in action I can tell you that they "feds" (at least the corrupt members) are deadly serious about this.

Every report you see involving the "war on drugs" are the result of extreme efforts to eliminate competition.

Their bed buddies in organized crime will also dictate a lot of covert activities to eliminate any threatening competition.

They'll use tactical nukes if they have too.

Originally posted by star in a jar
It's times like this that I'm seriously hoping for an apocalypse. There's way, way too much corruption in this world, too much power in the hands of meglomaniacs and lunatics, so much power that there is no turning back.

I hope the walls of Rome will come crumbling down soon. Soon or it will be too late for us.

We need serve nature, not these worthless, shadowy groups.

Rome has almost completed it's conquest and these drones are part of a powerful grid that will lock us all into some form of slavery to it.

Where the heck is that Sparticus when you need him?

reply to post by tristar


Excellent addition to the thread as always Tristar, your might computer never fails to come up with pertinent and important information.

I can't believe citizens don't see the extreme dangers in employing this type of technology.

What you guys don't seem to realize is that these kinds of flights have been taking place for decades using conventional aircraft. Every day, and particularly at night, manned aircraft (US Customs, Coast Guard, Navy for sure, possibly also Air Force) patrol the waters off the Florida coasts and Gulf of Mexico. They also search along the Texas border. I know because I have participated in the past. Also, there are US anti-drug patrol flights taking place over the waters surrounding Mexico and Central America. They are simply switching from expensive manned flights to less expensive unmanned flights. These flights are very successful, not only catching drug-running boats but also suspect aircraft.

Also, I highly doubt that they will be armed in any way as someone suggested. They simply mark the location of the suspect boat and direct Coast Guard ships into the area. Current anti-drug missions done by manned aircraft are not armed in any way.

reply to post by bagari


I feel far more comfortable with manned aviation flights patrolling America than anonymously controlled machines.

There is a higher degree of accountability to the people.

Government must be accountable to the people.

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler


I can completely agree with you on that point. I think this is probably more of a cost-saving initiative, but I could be wrong.

[double post]

[edit on 12/7/2009 by bagari]

Originally posted by bagari
reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler

 

I can completely agree with you on that point. I think this is probably more of a cost-saving initiative, but I could be wrong.

It's a slippery slope and it's not about cutting cost, it's about tightening the internal loop within law enforcement itself.

The DEA and ICE will eventually remote fly these drones like the CIA does in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan. Guys sitting in Langley who can get up and walk down the hall for a bathroom break or out to lunch. Centralized intelligence that cuts more people out of the loop and compartmentalizes information.

Information that is power. Remote controlled access, 24/7 from anywhere. No pilots to debrief, no one but a few people in an increasingly smaller and smaller loop of power.

Anonymous people hiding behind computer banks remotely controlling machines that in time can be upgraded to lethal purposes.

It starts with one foot step, but from there who knows where.

Thanks for posting.

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler


You are right on that as well. The UAV's in Iraq and Afghanistan are launched and recovered locally, but the actually missions are flown by personnel in the US.

reply to post by bagari


It's not a process I feel comfortable with. No one who fights in wars should be unexposed first hand to the carnage they create. We are turning war into a video game of neat esoteric bomb camera footage and waging them like TV sporting events.

Taking a human life should be a little more personal to say the least than it has become.

The more we cheapen human life in this automated process of snuffing them out, the less value all of our lives have in the process.