drones

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To Keep Eye on Its Oil, Iraq Buys US Drones

Unarmed drones will watch over Persian Gulf

(Newser) - Iraq is looking to America to help it monitor its oil interests—sort of. The country is buying unarmed surveillance drones from the US that will scour Iraq's Persian Gulf waters, which Iran has spoken of blockading in the past and which the majority of Iraq's oil exports...

White House Defends Drone Campaign

John Brennan: Civilians are not 'intentionally targeted'

(Newser) - White House counterterrorism official John Brennan publicly described how al-Qaeda targets are chosen for drone strikes, the first time the Obama administration has described the widely known practice so openly and in such detail. Brennan, speaking in Washington today, said President Obama wants to be more transparent with the American...

US Restarts Drone Strikes in Pakistan

First strikes in a month could hurt negotiations

(Newser) - Despite Pakistan's insistence that the US cease its drone strikes there , CIA drone missiles struck militant targets in the country for the first time in a month yesterday, the Washington Post reports. Pakistan's Foreign Ministry condemned the strikes, which killed four fighters linked to al-Qaeda. Just last week,...

Due in 2 Weeks: FAA Rules for Drones in US Skies

Some worry short timetable endangers other aircraft, privacy

(Newser) - Thousands of small drones could take wing across the US following a Federal Aviation Administration decision next month. Police departments have been snapping up the unmanned aircraft, whose cameras could be used for everything from missing-person searches to catching drug dealers. Now law enforcement is waiting on the FAA to...

White House Gives CIA OK to Bomb Yemen at Will

No need for agency to know targets' names before launching drone strike

(Newser) - The White House has loosened restrictions on the use of US drones against suspected militants in Yemen, following a CIA request . Now, the CIA and military can target militants seen as dangerous to the US without knowing their names, as is the case in Pakistan, the Wall Street Journal reports....

Iran: We're Copying US Spy Drone

Iran military claims to have reverse-engineered drone

(Newser) - A senior Iranian commander says the country has reverse-engineered an American spy drone captured by Tehran's armed forces last year and has begun building a copy. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, who is chief of the aerospace division of the powerful Revolutionary Guards, was quoted today by the semi-official Mehr...

CIA Wants Green Light to Bomb Yemen at Will

Asks for OK to launch strikes even if it's not sure who will be killed

(Newser) - CIA Director David Petraeus has requested permission to launch drone strikes in Yemen even when the agency is not sure who the strikes might kill. Instead, the CIA would launch attacks based on patterns of suspicious activity, much the way it does in Pakistan, a tactic known as "signature...

New Robotic Jellyfish Powered by Water Itself

Scientists create device powered by external hydrogen

(Newser) - A group of scientists backed by the US Navy is developing a robotic jellyfish that should, in theory, be able to power itself indefinitely, because it draws its fuel from the hydrogen in the water around it, the Telegraph reports. The so-called "robojelly" works a lot like real jellyfish,...

Pakistan Parliament to US: No More Drone Strikes

Parliamentary committee completes review after NATO incident

(Newser) - A Pakistani parliamentary committee wants US drone attacks in the country to stop, it said today. The committee was tasked with reviewing US-Pakistan ties after the November NATO attack that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, Reuters reports. Following that attack, Pakistan stopped supplies to NATO troops based in Afghanistan, and ordered...

Our Dirty Drone War Must End

 Our Dirty Drone War Must End 
OPINION
Feb 20, 2012 1:13 PM CST

Our Dirty Drone War Must End

It may be creating more terrorists than it's killing: Gary Kamiya

(Newser) - Before 9/11, if the US president had announced that the government was going to "play God, reaching down from our high-tech heaven to kill whoever we want, whenever we want, wherever we want"—including US citizens, without a trial—the news would have been met with uproar. But...

Satellites, Drones Spy on Europe's Farms

EU using eyes in the sky to spot subsidy fraud

(Newser) - Satellites and spy drones are scanning farmland in the European Union, and their findings can lead to something nearly as damaging as an air strike: a subsidy cut. The EU spends billions every year in farm subsidies, and eyes in the sky are increasingly being used as a tool to...

US Looks to Grant Drones Airspace—Next to Your Plane

Civilian law enforcement and others increasingly want flying robots

(Newser) - Drones aren't just for Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, or Somalia anymore—they're coming to the good old US of A. The Senate sent a bill to President Obama yesterday that would require the Federal Aviation Administration to come up with rules to safely regulate domestic drones, USA Today reports....

US Drones Return to Hit Rescuers, Funerals

Strikes occurring every 4 days under Obama: report

(Newser) - A few days back, President Obama said that US drone attacks in Pakistan had "not caused a huge number of civilian casualties." But a Bureau of Investigative Journalism report finds that somewhere between 282 and 535 civilians, including 60 children, have been "credibly reported" killed in the...

Human Rights Groups Need Drones

 Human Rights  
 Groups Need  
 Drones 
OPINION
Jan 31, 2012 12:11 PM CST

Human Rights Groups Need Drones

They don't have to be just flying assassins

(Newser) - Drones have transformed warfare, but they're "not just for firing missiles in Pakistan," anti-genocide activists Andrew Sniderman and Mark Hanis argue in the New York Times . Their radical proposal: Human rights groups should be buying drones, and using them to keep an eye on brutal governments. Imagine...

Obama to Woman: Send Me Jobless Husband's Resume

Also defends drone use in Google+ chat

(Newser) - President Obama sat down for an extended "interview" in a Google+ Hangout yesterday, and at one point, things got a little personal, Politico reports. When a woman confronted him over H-1B visas for skilled immigrants, saying that her husband, a semiconductor engineer, couldn't find a job, Obama turned...

Iraqis Fume Over US Drone Use
 Iraqis Fume Over US Drone Use 
Jan 30, 2012 7:55 AM CST

Iraqis Fume Over US Drone Use

State Department is operating surveillance drones in the country

(Newser) - Many Iraqi officials are outraged that the US is operating drones in the country a month after the American military left, calling the drones a violation of Iraq's sovereignty, reports the New York Times . It's the State Department, not the CIA or Pentagon, that's behind the program,...

Under Obama, a Force of Killer Drones Evolved

Semi-secret assassination program has expanded greatly in his term

(Newser) - In the five years before President Obama took office, America’s drones launched 44 strikes, all confined to Pakistan, killing about 400 people. But during his Oval Office tenure there have been almost 240 strikes, killing at least four times as many people, and the US has built dozens of...

Navy to Test Kamikaze Drone From Submarine

Tiny 'Switchblade' unit already has seen use on land by Army

(Newser) - It's small enough to be carried in a soldier's backpack—and now, it's heading underwater. The Switchblade kamikaze drone will be test-launched from a Navy submarine next year. The Army already has used what USA Today calls "essentially a self-propelled, remotely guided missile"; now, the Navy...

29% of Drone Pilots Are Burned Out, Exhausted

Air Force points to three reasons for the stress

(Newser) - Drones may be unmanned, but they're not pilot-less, and many of those pilots are having a pretty rough time. NPR reports on a new Pentagon study, commissioned by the Air Force, that looks at the mental toll that fighting "remote-controlled war" takes, and the stats are somewhat disheartening....

CIA Paused Drone Attacks in Pakistan 6 Weeks Ago

Part of an attempt to improve relations with Islamabad

(Newser) - In an effort to make nice with Islamabad, the CIA paused drone missile strikes against low-level militants in Pakistan nearly six weeks ago, current and former officials tell the Los Angeles Times . The suspension affects so-called signature strikes: attacks on those who were observed, via drone or another form of...

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