Category: War

Military Spy Drones: How Domestic U.S. Drone Integration is Propelling Next Wave of Killer Drone Proliferation

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Saturday, 22 January 2022 — CovertAction Magazine

“Gorgon Stare will be looking at a whole city, so there will be no way for the adversary to know what we’re looking at, and we can see everything.” [Source: wired.com]

Drones, or Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), were developed for war. The idea was first conceived in World War I and they were first adopted for surveillance purposes at the end of World War II and in the Korean and Vietnam Wars. Then military drones like the Predator became armed during the “Global War on Terror.”

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Why Washington’s focus on ‘credibility’ is a recipe for war

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Thursday, 13 January 2022 — Jonathan Cook

The world is entering what looks like a new, even more complex cold war, in which any misunderstanding, mishap or false move could rapidly escalate into nuclear confrontation

Middle East Eye – 13 January 2022

The most pressing threat to global security right now isn’t so-called “provocations” by either Russia or China. It is the United States’ misplaced obsession with its own “credibility”.

This rallying cry by Washington officials – echoed by the media and allies in London and elsewhere – is code for allowing the US to act like a global gangster while claiming to be the world’s policeman. US “credibility” was apparently thrown into question last summer – and only when President Joe Biden held firm to a pledge to pull US troops out of Afghanistan.

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What War With Russia Would Look Like

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Monday, 10 January, 2022 — Consortium News

Wendy Sherman thinks her aim in talks with Russian officials starting Monday is to lecture them on the cost of hubris. Instead she’s set to lead the U.S., NATO, and Europe down a path of ruin, warns Scott Ritter. 

Ahead of the formal talks, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman met with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov on Sunday in Geneva and told him Washington “would welcome genuine progress through diplomacy.” (Russian Mission in Geneva)

By Scott Ritter
Special to Consortium News

If ever a critical diplomatic negotiation was doomed to fail from the start, the discussions between the U.S. and Russia over Ukraine and Russian security guarantees is it.

The two sides can’t even agree on an agenda.

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Skyborg: AI control of military drones begins to take off

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4 January 2022 — Drone Wars

In June 2021, Skyborg took control of an MQ-20 Avenger drone during a military exercise in California.

The influential State of AI Report 2021, published in October, makes the alarming observation that the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) for military purposes is now moving from research into the production phase.  The report highlights three indicators which it argues shows this development, one of which is the progress that the US Air Force Research Laboratory is making in testing its autonomous ‘Skyborg’ system to control military drones.

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Long read: Six strikes that show the reality of drone warfare today

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3 December 2021 — Drone Wars

Chris Cole

Weddings. Hospitals. Refugee camps. Aid workers. All have become the target of lethal strikes this year due to the spreading use of drones by a growing number of states.  Here we detail six particular strikes and, below, reflect on what they show about the reality of drone warfare today.

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Australian War Propaganda Keeps Getting Crazier

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16 November 2021 — Caitlin Johnson

by Caitlin Johnstone

Listen to a reading of this article: 

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60 Minutes Australia has churned out yet another fearmongering war propaganda pieceon China, this one so ham-fisted in its call to beef up military spending that it goes so far as to run a brazen advertisement for an actual Australian weapons manufacturer disguised as news reporting.

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Military pollution is the skeleton in the West’s climate closet

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8 November 2021 — Jonathan Cook

Leaders at the COP26 summit have no intention of tackling the growing environmental impacts caused by their ‘defence’ spending

Middle East Eye – 8 November 2021

World leaders gathered in Glasgow last week for the COP26 summit in a bid to demonstrate how they are belatedly getting to grips with the climate crisis. Agreements to protect forests, cut carbon and methane emissions and promote green tech are all being hammered out in front of a watching world.

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Anti-War Pro-Peace Resources Database Free to All

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27 October 2021 — World Beyond War

World BEYOND War’s Technology Director Marc Eliot Stein, working with the rest of our staff, has created an online database, easy to use and available to all at https://worldbeyondwar.org/resources

This is a collection of what we believe are the very best, most useful resources on numerous important topics. For example, if you choose the topic “Environment”, you’ll find 106 resources of all types on a page that looks like this:

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Cruel Britannia: Britain’s Real Role in the World, with Mark Curtis

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25 October 2021 — MintPress News

MintCast

Britons themselves remember their empire extremely fondly, far more positively than those in countries subjugated by the crown.

by
Alan Macleod

Despite a number of embarrassing political events over the past number of years, Great Britain still likes to regard itself as a forward-thinking, world-leading country and a force for good. Surveys show that the United Kingdom retains a great deal of positive sentiment around the world.

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Airstrike was a “tragic mistake”: Gen. Frank McKenzie (US Central Command)

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21 October 2021 — Airstrikes

Airstrike was a “tragic mistake”: Gen. Frank McKenzie (US Central Command) Posted on October 21, 2021 by admin Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said in a statement late Friday that the United States will make “condolence payments” to families of Afghan civilians killed by mistake in U.S. drone strike on August 29. File photo courtesy the U.S. Department of Defense.

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Military applications at centre of Britain’s plans to be AI superpower

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20 October 2021 — Drone Wars

Peter Burt

The UK government published its National AI Strategy in mid-September, billed as a “ten-year plan to make Britain a global AI superpower”.  Despite the hype, the strategy has so far attracted curiously little comment and interest from the mainstream media.  This is a cause for concern  because if the government’s proposals bear fruit, they will dramatically change UK society and the lives of UK Citizens.  They will also place military applications of AI at the centre of the UK’s AI sector.

Watch: Warton’s War on Yemen

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13 October 2021 — Declassified UK

Tomorrow (14 Oct) we launch our new film “Warton’s War on Yemen” live at 5pm on our YouTube channel followed by a Q&A at 6.30pm, registration required.

In this revealing film we investigate an arms factory in Warton, Lancashire making warplanes to bomb Yemen – the world’s worst humanitarian disaster. Interviewing local residents and a former Foreign Office lawyer, our team tracks down a secretive supply flight that Britain’s largest arms company BAE Systems sends every week from Warton to Saudi Arabia, and questions whether the air war could continue without UK support.

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Watch: War is a Racket with Lowkey: Ex-State Dept. Official Matthew Hoh Speaks Out

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28 September 2021 — Youtube

The U.S. was and is effectively taking part in the established drug trade by backing drug lords in Afghanistan. Watchdog host Lowkey is joined by a man who knows the war from both inside and out. Matthew Hoh was at the forefront of the American empire’s campaign in the Middle East, first serving as a captain in the U.S. Marines, then moving to the Department of Defense and the State Department. In 2009, he publicly resigned from his position in the State Department in Zabul Province, Afghanistan, over U.S. policy in the country, which he saw as both illogical and immoral.

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Why Hypersonic Missiles Are Real Game Changers – by Gordog

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2 August 2021 — Origin: Moon of Alabama

A Technical Look at the Science Behind the Headlines

by Gordog

The Americans are now crying ‘uncle’ about Russia’s hypersonic weapons. After the most recent flight test of the scramjet-powered Zircon cruise missile, the Washington Post on July 11 carried a Nato statement of complaint:

“Russia’s new hypersonic missiles are highly destabilizing and pose significant risks to security and stability across the Euro-Atlantic area,” the statement said.

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Technology and the future of UK Foreign Policy – Our submission to the Foreign Affairs Committee Inquiry

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23 June 2021 — Drone Wars

Peter Burt

Click to download

In a timely and welcome move, the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee has recently launched an investigation into ‘Tech and the future of UK foreign policy‘.  Recognising that new and emerging technologies are fundamentally altering the nature of international relations and the rapidly growing influence of private technology companies, the Committee’s inquiry intends to focus on how the government, and particularly the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO) should respond to the opportunities and challenges presented by new technologies.

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