US Using Drones in Hunting Down the Rogue Former LAPD Officer

Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Mali come finally to the US mainland.

From Zero Hedge (2/10/2013; emphasis is original):

Update: this just in - Authorities offer $1 million reward for information leading to arrest of ex-LAPD officer Christopher Dorner

We were hoping to evade coverage of the latest mass distraction du jour, that of the former LAPD officer Chris Dorner who recently went rogue following a three man murder spree and who has vowed to kill again as per his 6,000 word manifesto, but the US government had made it impossible following confirmation
that the search for Dorner is now the first official drone-hunt in US history.

The Express reports:

 Yesterday, as a task force of 125 officers, some riding Snowcats in the rugged terrain, continued their search, it was revealed that Dorner has become the first human target for remotely-controlled airborne drones on US soil.

A senior police source said: “The thermal imaging cameras the drones use may be our only hope of finding him. On the ground, it’s like looking for a needle in a haystack.”

Asked directly if drones have already been deployed, Riverside Police Chief Sergio Diaz, who is jointly leading the task force, said: “We are using all the tools at our disposal.”

The use of drones was later confirmed by Customs and Border Patrol spokesman Ralph DeSio, who revealed agents have been prepared for Dorner to make a dash for the Mexican border since his rampage began.

He said: “This agency has been at the forefront of domestic use of drones by law enforcement. That’s all I can say at the moment.”

And once Dorner is found by remote-control, it will be again up to drones to secure his "elimination." If for no other reason than to perform a ground test of just how the recently enacted drone-facilitated extermination of US citizens sits with various instances of the US judicial system.

Tweet

OT: Obama Sends Letter to Congress Saying the US Was Part of the Failed French Rescue Attempt in Somalia

That's nice of him to do so, after the fact.

Somalia is one of Obama's favorite target practice sites for drone attacks.

France says the US is assisting them also in Mali, to fight the "rebels" so that Europe remain protected. Whatever.

France says the French hostage, who had been held since 2009, was killed by the terrorists. The terrorists say he is alive.

From CBS News (1/13/2013):

Obama: U.S. assisted France's failed Somalia rescue

President Barack Obama says U.S. forces assisted in a failed attempt to rescue a French citizen in Somalia on Friday.

Obama says the U.S. forces provided limited technical support to French forces leading the operation. The president says the Americans had no direct role in the assault on the compound where a French intelligence agent was believed to be held hostage.

French officials say the hostage is almost certainly dead. A French commando was also killed in the rescue attempt.

Obama disclosed the U.S. role Sunday in a letter alerting Congress about the deployment of U.S. forces.

The French commandos were there to free a French intelligence agent captured on Bastille Day in 2009. The man, known by his code-name Denis Allex, was chained up, abused and moved from one safe house to another, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Sunday. Le Drian said the government decided to stage the rescue a month ago, when Allex's location seemed to have settled down "in a spot accessible by the sea."

The local accounts, along with that of a Somali intelligence official and the French defense minister, offer a glimpse into a chaotic rescue attempt in which nothing seemed to go as planned.

French officials, including the president, and a Somali intelligence official said Allex was almost certainly killed by his captors. The intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to speak to the press, said Sunday that the home where the agent was held was destroyed in the attack Saturday, and that intelligence networks "do not have any information indicating he is still alive."

The Somali al Qaeda affiliate Al-Shabab has offered no proof for its claims that Allex was still alive and that a wounded French soldier was in its custody as well. French officials acknowledge a missing soldier, but say they believe he is dead.

The fighting took an even steeper toll on the Islamists, according to French officials and locals. French officials said they counted 17 dead among the Islamists.

Tweet

Israel Trains German Air Force on Afghan Drones

Irony is not lost on participants, but Germany is now a "very, very good friend, if not the best friend of Israel today in the world".

German drone pilots eye Afghanistan... from Israel
(Dan Williams, 7/27/2010 Reuters AlertNet)

"EIN SHEMER AIR BASE, Israel, July 27 (Reuters) - As World War Two raged in the years before Israel's founding, colonial British planes were scrambled here to fend off German forces. Now the German Luftwaffe is back, preparing for a far more remote fight with the modern equipment and expertise of the Jewish state established after the Nazi Holocaust.

"Worried by insurgent ambushes on its soldiers in Afghanistan and return fire that sometimes kills civilians or local allies, Germany last year ordered a small fleet of Israeli Heron spy drones designed to provide real-time images above a battlefield.

"That has brought German jet pilots to coastal Ein Shemer air base for accelerated retraining on the unmanned propeller planes, already daubed with their flag and Iron Cross emblem.

"...Israel is a pioneer of combat drones, having deployed them in Lebanon in the Palestinian territories. Heron's manufacturer, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), says it is also used by Canadian, French and Australian forces in Afghanistan.

"Yet the fact Israeli know-how may now be saving German military lives offers up a unique historical irony lost on none.

"The Defence Ministry in Berlin declined to allow the Luftwaffe trainees to be interviewed about such symbolism, but one of them described how they took time off to visit the central Holocaust memorial at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. Dressed in civilian clothes while in Israel, trainees on an earlier course stood at attention for annual commemorations in April of the six million Jews killed in the Nazi genocide.

"As a Jew, I felt very proud at this specific moment," said Tomer Koriat, deputy director of the IAI training programme, who praised the Germans' mastery of the Heron within intensive courses lasting just three-and-a-half weeks.

"All of us have learned that today we are talking about another Germany than what we used to know ... A very, very good friend, if not the best friend of Israel today in the world."" [The entire article at the link above.]

Tweet

UK Police Welcomes Armed Robot Drones Soon

This is getting to be too bleak and dismal a future for the rest of us.

Wired U.K. tells us what kind of assistance the Britain's 'coppers' are going to have: surveillance drones and armed robot drones. Not content having CCTV everywhere to monitor everyone, they will have drones to keep track of and attack, albeit non-lethal (supposedly), everyone that moves.

(Skynet cannot be too far away...)

Future police: Meet the UK's armed robot drones
(David Hambling, 2/10/2010 Wired UK)

"Police forces all over the UK will soon be able to draw on unmanned aircraft from a national fleet, according to Home Office plans. Last month it was revealed that modified military aircraft drones will carry out surveillance on everyone from protesters and antisocial motorists to fly-tippers [people who dump waste somewhere other than an authorized landfill], and will be in place in time for the 2012 Olympics.

"Surveillance is only the start, however. Military drones quickly moved from reconnaissance to strike, and if the British police follow suit, their drones could be armed -- but with non-lethal weapons rather than Hellfire missiles.

"The flying robot fleet will range from miniature tactical craft such as the miniature AirRobot being tested by Essex police, to BAE System's new HERTI drone as flown in Afghanistan. The drones are cheaper than police helicopters -- some of which will be retired -- and are as wide as 12m in the case of HERTI."

The article continues to explain what kind of "weapons" are being considered to be mounted on the drones. They include:

• LRAD (Long Range Acoustic Device), which was used against G20 protesters in Pittsburgh; it can permanently damage hearing.
• Light-based personnel immobilization device; think strobe light that can make you dizzy and disoriented, or worse, cause seizures.
• Double-barrelled 44mm Flash-Ball gun
• Taser, which has killed how many people by now?

The picture is iDrone, developed by a French company.



I can't wait to find out what the U.S. military and law enforcement have in store for us. After all, the U.S. has become such an expert in using drones, blasting funerals and wedding parties in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Tweet