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Posts Tagged ‘Drones’

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MoA – Long Range Attack On Saudi Oil Field Ends War On Yemen

Posted by M. C. on August 19, 2019

All the wars the U.S. and its allies waged in the Middle East, against Afghanistan (2001), Iraq (2003), Lebanon (2006), Syria (2011), Iraq (2014) and Yemen (2015), ended up with unintentionally making Iran and its allies stronger.

There is a lesson to learn from that. But it is doubtful that the borg in Washington DC has the ability to understand it.

Another war lost against one of the poorest places on earth.

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/08/long-range-attack-on-saudi-oil-field-ends-war-on-yemen.html

by Moon of Alabama

Long Range Attack On Saudi Oil Field Ends War On Yemen

Today Saudi Arabia finally lost the war on Yemen. It has no defenses against new weapons the Houthis in Yemen acquired. These weapons threaten the Saudis economic lifelines. This today was the decisive attack:

Drones launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels attacked a massive oil and gas field deep inside Saudi Arabia’s sprawling desert on Saturday, causing what the kingdom described as a “limited fire” in the second such recent attack on its crucial energy industry.
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The Saudi acknowledgement of the attack came hours after Yahia Sarie, a military spokesman for the Houthis, issued a video statement claiming the rebels launched 10 bomb-laden drones targeting the field in their “biggest-ever” operation. He threatened more attacks would be coming.

New drones and missiles displayed in July 2019 by Yemen’s Houthi-allied armed forces

biggerToday’s attack is a check mate move against the Saudis. Shaybah is some 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) from Houthi-controlled territory. There are many more important economic targets within that range:

The field’s distance from rebel-held territory in Yemen demonstrates the range of the Houthis’ drones. U.N. investigators say the Houthis’ new UAV-X drone, found in recent months during the Saudi-led coalition’s war in Yemen, likely has a range of up to 1,500 kilometers (930 miles). That puts Saudi oil fields, an under-construction Emirati nuclear power plant and Dubai’s busy international airport within their range.Unlike sophisticated drones that use satellites to allow pilots to remotely fly them, analysts believe Houthi drones are likely programmed to strike a specific latitude and longitude and cannot be controlled once out of radio range. The Houthis have used drones, which can be difficult to track by radar, to attack Saudi Patriot missile batteries, as well as enemy troops.

The attack conclusively demonstrates that the most important assets of the Saudis are now under threat. This economic threat comes on top of a seven percent budget deficit the IMF predicts for Saudi Arabia. Further Saudi bombing against the Houthi will now have very significant additional cost that might even endanger the viability of the Saudi state. The Houthi have clown prince Mohammad bin Salman by the balls and can squeeze those at will…

Today’s attack has an even larger dimension than marking the end of the war on Yemen. That Iran supplied drones with 1,500 kilometer reach to its allies in Yemen means that its allies in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq have access to similar means.

Israel and Turkey will have to take that into consideration. U.S. bases along the Persian Gulf and in Afghanistan must likewise watch out. Iran has not only ballistic missiles to attack those bases but also drones against which U.S. missile and air defense systems are more or less useless. Only the UAE, which bought Russian Pantsir S-1 air defense systems on German MAN truck chassis(!), has some capabilities to take those drones down. The Pentagon would probably love to buy some of these.

It was the U.S. use of stealthy drones against Iran that gave it a chance to capture one and to analyze and clone it. Iran’s extensive drone program is indigenous and quite old but it benefited from technology the U.S. unintentionally provided.

All the wars the U.S. and its allies waged in the Middle East, against Afghanistan (2001), Iraq (2003), Lebanon (2006), Syria (2011), Iraq (2014) and Yemen (2015), ended up with unintentionally making Iran and its allies stronger.

There is a lesson to learn from that. But it is doubtful that the borg in Washington DC has the ability to understand it.

Be seeing you

Living WELL with Food Allergies: Missed it by THAT much!

We keep missing it by this much.

 

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The Secret Campaign for 2020: Where the Democratic Candidates Stand on Foreign Policy – Antiwar.com Original

Posted by M. C. on May 14, 2019

https://original.antiwar.com/ted_rall/2019/05/13/the-secret-campaign-for-2020-where-the-democratic-candidates-stand-on-foreign-policy/

by

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According to the latest Pew Research poll, the five most important issues for Democrats are health care, education, Medicare, poverty and the environment.

So it’s not surprising that the major Democratic presidential contenders’ campaigns are focusing on economic and other America-centric issues. Nor is it shocking that the news media, never more anemic or less willing to question the candidates, is ignoring their stances on foreign policy…

Still, voters deserve to know the would-be presidents’ positions on issues that extend beyond U.S. borders. Here’s what I found:

The Democrats on Our Crazy Defense Spending

The military sucks up 54% of discretionary federal spending. Pentagon bloat has a huge effect on domestic priorities; the nearly $1 trillion a year that goes to exploiting, oppressing, torturing, maiming and murdering foreigners could go to building schools, curing diseases, funding college scholarships, poetry slams, whatever. Anything, even tax cuts for the rich, would be better than bombs. But as then-presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said in 2015: “The military is not a social experiment. The purpose of the military is to kill people and break things.” If you’re like me, you want as little killing and breaking as possible.

Unfortunately, no major Democratic presidential candidate favors substantial cuts to Pentagon appropriations. Read the rest of this entry »

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We work for Google. It shouldn’t be in the business of war | Open letter signed by Google employees | Opinion | The Guardian

Posted by M. C. on April 10, 2018

Data mining personal information and working for other government agencies like the NSA is OK. Still, even Google employees might have a little integrity. It is hard to believe they didn’t know what Google was about when they signed on.

Watch for the headline “3000 Google employees quit”. But don’t hold your breath.

Google and it’s government masters won’t let this stop them.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/04/google-ceo-drones-ai-war-surveillance

Dear Sundar,

We believe that Google should not be in the business of war. Therefore we ask that Project Maven be cancelled and that Google draft, publicize and enforce a clear policy stating that neither Google nor its contractors will ever build warfare technology.

Google is implementing Project Maven, a customized AI surveillance engine that uses “wide area motion imagery” data captured by US government drones to detect vehicles and other objects, track their motions and provide results to the Department of Defense.

Recently, Googlers voiced concerns about Maven internally. Diane Greene responded, assuring them that the technology will not “operate or fly drones” and “will not be used to launch weapons”. While this eliminates a narrow set of direct applications, the technology is being built for the military, and once it’s delivered it could easily be used to assist in these tasks. This plan will irreparably damage Google’s brand and its ability to compete for talent. Read the rest of this entry »

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Drones and Obamacare, Waivers and Lies

Posted by M. C. on June 22, 2015

The ‘surprise’ killing via drone of an Al Qaeda big shot had me thinking. Didn’t our president tell us we were not going to guess anymore at who we ‘drone’? The victims were going to have to be more than just ‘suspect’ and not civilian?

It was those darn secret waivers. See here.

Obama’s waivers did not end with Obama’s union cronies. (Psst, join the SEIC and get hired because your employer won’t have to shell out for mandated healthcare). Now countries get drone waivers only the recipients don’t feel to healthy.

Obama tells the nation that his drone reform legislation will double down on the evidence that whomever we are assassinating is really a terrorist. While signing with his left hand he is writing secret waivers for Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen with his right.

Just another day in Foggy Bottom.

Be seeing you

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Hyper-Power Maybe, Hyper Successful-Definitely Not

Posted by M. C. on February 22, 2015

Eighty years ago there were all sorts of “powers”. None really super-powers but they had a bigger stick. Great Britain, Germany, Russia, Japan and the US. Post WW II there was just the US and Russia. Now it’s just the US.

But you wouldn’t know it from the record. We haven’t been on the winning team since since the sign off in Tokyo Bay. There was Iraq but they basically gave up.

We spend more on defense annually than the next ten or so countries combined.

The F35 Joint Strike Force Fighter project alone cost $400B and counting and is a massive boondoggle to boot.

That is more than several countries defense budgets combined.

We have eleven carrier groups. Most countries have one or none.

We collect email, web surfing data and financial transactions from terrorists and innocent civilians world-wide.

We kidnap and torture terrorists and innocent civilians world-wide.

We can launch a hellfire drone anywhere in the Middle East. Killing terrorists and innocent civilians region wide. Read the rest of this entry »

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Chris Dorner, Human Drones And Domestic Signature Strikes

Posted by M. C. on February 12, 2013

The Mundanes looked like they might be bad so they must be guilty. Shoot first, make excuses later.  In a Middle East setting this is hailed as a successful “Signature Strike”.

Fugitive Chris Dorner felt he was wronged.  Dorner was separated from his LA cop job without due process, according to him.  Dorner violated the unwritten law.  He told on fellow officers who brutalized innocent until proven guilty suspects.   Dorner: a former military man trained to kill who then attended finishing school majoring in the arrogance and belligerence that all too often is the modern cop.  The LAPD is getting some of its own medicine, on nationwide TV.

The mindless slaughter of innocents for a dubious cause.  How did he develop his justification?   His experience in the military?

It is a wonder this doesn’t happen more often.  But then it does.  It is just that the VICTIMS are not cops.

See here and here.

Had Dorner been employed and his victims Mundanes the cop union would have all over the department.  Read the rest of this entry »

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The Sunday 20 Jan Erie Times Editorial– The Inauguration and the Big Lie.

Posted by M. C. on January 20, 2013

The Erie Times certainly knows the Constitution is getting buried deeper every day. When it tells the people otherwise, that Obama will protect the Constitution, they are a willing parter in the deception.

Homage is paid to the inauguration. In particular telling us how Obama will “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution”! Let us see, first things first.

First Amendment – Obama wants to control the pesky internet to keep those lying extremists and terrorists from leading us astray. The real reason is that mixed up in all the internet gobbledy gook is the embarrassing, disgusting truth about what our government does. Think Wiki leaks and climategate emails. Musn’t confuse the people with the facts. Read the rest of this entry »

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The Erie Times Ed Matthews Has It For Hillary – Part 2 The Real Issue

Posted by M. C. on November 26, 2012

So What is the Real Issue?  It is not Ed.  It is his Enabler.

We had an incumbent president that tried to appoint an admitted communist and capitalism hater, Van Jones, as green czar.  Obama said he wants to destroy the coal industry.  He inhibits oil drilling in US waters so drillers can go to other countries to help them “catch up”.  He admits he is an advocate of redistribution (stealing) of your money.  He wants to grow government and run private companies (GM).  He goes to NATO and the UN to get an OKey Dokey to go to war instead of congress.  He has given himself the right to detain or execute anyone, anywhere without representation or habeas corpus.  He uses drones for indiscriminate execution and premature endings of Afghan and Pakistani weddings.  He will use the UN to implement domestic gun control (the Erie Times should be OK with that).  He panders to unions with Obamacare waivers and screwed auto company investors to the UAW’s advantage.

If the Erie Times thinks a drone addicted, progressive, mercantilist, corporatist, UN run New World Order advocate like Obama wants to promote peace and freedom, reduce the deficit and government size they should get out of the business now. Read the rest of this entry »

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Obama Targets Abuses-Will He Include Embargos and Co-lateral Bugsplat?

Posted by M. C. on April 23, 2012

According to the Wall Street Journal here Obama is concerned over human right atrocities.  He didn’t mention the UN (US) embargo of Iraq that killed 500,000 children by disease and malnutrition.  Madeleine Albright had no problem with it, I guess Obama doesn’t either.  Will we hear about the 15,000 or higher civilian casualty figures in Iraq?  You remember Iraq, the country we invaded that was not involved in 9/11 nor had any WMDs.  Then there is that nasty bugsplat where we use drones to kill where we have no real idea who is on the receiving end.  Think about what is being targeted the first time there is a drone sighted over your town.

Be seeing you

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