Unmanned: America's Drone Wars--a new film from Robert Greenwald

A new film about the human costs of drone warfare hopes to reach the hearts and minds of all of us average Americans. Read the article by George Zornick at The Nation. You will also find a link there that takes you to the Brave New Films website where, for a limited time, you will be able to live stream the film for free, starting on October 30.

There are definitely pluses and minuses to our brave new technological world. The opportunity to watch this film is definitely on the plus side.

Yeah, this isn't good...

According to Danger Room, both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have come out with damning reports on recent drone activity in Pakistan and Yemen, suggesting that some drone strikes may be war crimes.. I had received an email myself from Amnesty about the sad case of the 68 year old grandmother who was blown to pieces while working in the fields in Waziristan, all within sight of her grandchildren. Sorry to be so graphic, but sometimes, needs must.   

"Robotic flying bull's-eye"

The U.S. Air Force has found another use for aging jet fighters, reports Danger Room. Instead of sending them to the Air Force "Boneyard" in Arizona, they are being re-outfitted as one-manned drones, to be used for military target practice. Six F-16's have already been transmuted into QF-16s. I don't know what the Q stands for...

     

Other drone uses

Just caught this on Care2--Australian activists have outfitted a drone to spy on a free range chicken farm. There were no chickens doing any free ranging at the time the drone flew over, but the farm said the chickens were inside for deworming.

 

The CARE2 article is HERE.

Gary Patton's post on drone legislation

I've been a bit of a slacker about this blog for some reason lately. But the reason definitely isn't that there's no news to report.

Gary Patton served on my local Board of Supervisors for some years and now writes a blog called Two Worlds, where he reflects on many things, both political and personal. Today's post is about where things stand with drones and the law at the moment. You can check his post out, and find a link to a substantial piece in the California Lawyer on the current legal situation here.
 

ACLU on security drones in California

It's a nice coincidence that the ACLU has just put up an action for Californians (like me) asking us to tell the State Assembly not to give a blank check to law enforcement when it comes to using drones. If you're a Californian or just interested in this issue, you can visit them HERE.  

Drones over America

Although surveillance drones over the U.S are not my particular quibble with U.S policy--I'm not crazy about them, but with all the other ways we appear to be surveilled, they don't seem to add that much to the equation. As we all know, though, even their advocates, drone use is a very slippery slope. In any case, here's an article from the FBI about their use of drones in this country,  both warranted and unwarranted. And you can take that last word any way you want to.