Re-reporting, editing by Carolyn Bennett
Christian Science Monitor staff writer Brad Knickerbocker
reported on Saturday, “The presence of drones in the United States was brought
home Wednesday night when some people thought they saw a UFO along the Capitol
Beltway in Washington.”
It was in fact “a disc-shaped X-47B UCAV (Unmanned Combat
Air System) being hauled from Edwards Air Force Base in California to Naval Air
Station Patuxent River in Maryland for testing.”
Civil libertarians have warned “that ‘unmanned aircraft
carrying cameras raise the prospect of a significant new avenue for the surveillance
of American life,’” as the American Civil Liberties Union reported in December
2011. Quoting the ACLU, Knickerbocker continued.
The technology is quickly becoming
cheaper and more powerful. Interest in deploying drones among police
departments is increasing. And our privacy laws are not strong enough to ensure
that the new technology will be used responsibly and consistent with democratic
values.
All the pieces appear to be in line for
the eventual introduction of routine aerial surveillance in American life – a
development that would profoundly change the character of public life in the
United States.
Tom Carter today at the World Socialist Web Site linked this
U.S. threat to an ongoing global breach of law and human rights.
“With the push of a button,” Carter wrote, “thousands of
pounds of high explosives can be dropped on anyone anywhere in the world.…
“Thousands of innocent civilians have already been murdered
in this way in Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan and elsewhere.”
From safe spaces “behind video screens at military bases” on
the mainland of the United States, “military drone operators refer to their
victims as ‘bug splats.’
With disturbingly deadly omen, he concludes, “With tens of
thousands of drones flying overhead; with the U.S. mainland designated as a ‘battleground’
in the never-ending, geographically unlimited ‘war on terror,’ —
[t]he U.S. ruling class hopes one day
soon to be able to eliminate its domestic opponents with similar ease.
Sources and notes
“Drones over America: Are they spying on you? — Thousands of
drones could be routinely flying over the United States within the next ten
years. They can help with law enforcement and border control, but they also
raise questions about invasion of privacy” (by Brad Knickerbocker, Staff writer),
June 16, 2012, http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2012/0616/Drones-over-America.-Are-they-spying-on-you/(page)/2
“Thousands of military drones to be deployed over U.S.
mainland” (by Tom Carter, wsws.org, published by the International Committee of
the Fourth International) , June 18, 2012, http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/jun2012/dron-j18.shtml
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