Spy-in-the-sky drone sets sights on Miami

By Tom Brown

MIAMI (Reuters) - Miami police could soon be the first in the United States to use cutting-edge, spy-in-the-sky technology to beef up their fight against crime.

A small pilotless drone manufactured by Honeywell International, capable of hovering and "staring" using electro-optic or infrared sensors, is expected to make its debut soon in the skies over the Florida Everglades.

If use of the drone wins Federal Aviation Administration approval after tests, the Miami-Dade Police Department will start flying the 14-pound (6.3 kg) drone over urban areas with an eye toward full-fledged employment in crime fighting.

"Our intentions are to use it only in tactical situations as an extra set of eyes," said police department spokesman Juan Villalba.

"We intend to use this to benefit us in carrying out our mission," he added, saying the wingless Honeywell aircraft, which fits into a backpack and is capable of vertical takeoff and landing, seems ideally suited for use by SWAT teams in hostage situations or dealing with "barricaded subjects."

Miami-Dade police are not alone, however.

Taking their lead from the U.S. military, which has used drones in Iraq and Afghanistan for years, law enforcement agencies across the country have voiced a growing interest in using drones for domestic crime-fighting missions.

Known in the aerospace industry as UAVs, for unmanned aerial vehicles, drones have been under development for decades in the United States.

The CIA acknowledges that it developed a dragonfly-sized UAV known as the "Insectohopter" for laser-guided spy operations as long ago as the 1970s.

And other advanced work on robotic flyers has clearly been under way for quite some time.

"The FBI is experimenting with a variety of unmanned aerial vehicles," said Marcus Thomas, an assistant director of the bureau's Operational Technology Division.

"At this point they have been used mainly for search and rescue missions," he added. "It certainly is an up-and-coming technology and the FBI is researching additional uses for UAVs."

SAFETY, PRIVACY CONCERNS

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has been flying drones over the Arizona desert and southwest border with Mexico since 2006 and will soon deploy one in North Dakota to patrol the Canadian border as well.

This month, Customs and Border Protection spokesman Juan Munoz Torres said the agency would also begin test flights of a modified version of its large Predator B drones, built by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, over the Gulf of Mexico.

Citing numerous safety concerns, the FAA -- the government agency responsible for regulating civil aviation -- has been slow in developing procedures for the use of UAVs by police departments.

"You don't want one of these coming down on grandma's windshield when she's on her way to the grocery store," said Doug Davis, the FAA's program manager for unmanned aerial systems.

He acknowledged strong interest from law enforcement agencies in getting UAVs up and running, however, and said the smaller aircraft particularly were likely to have a "huge economic impact" over the next 10 years.

Getting clearance for police and other civilian agencies to fly can't come soon enough for Billy Robinson, chief executive of Cyber Defense Systems Inc, a small start-up company in St. Petersburg, Florida. His company makes an 8-pound (3.6 kg) kite-sized UAV that was flown for a time by police in Palm Bay, Florida, and in other towns, before the FAA stepped in.

"We've had interest from dozens of law enforcement agencies," said Robinson. "They (the FAA) are preventing a bunch of small companies such as ours from becoming profitable," he said.

Some privacy advocates, however, say rules and ordinances need to be drafted to protect civil liberties during surveillance operations.

"There's been controversies all around about putting up surveillance cameras in public areas," said Howard Simon, Florida director of the American Civil Liberties Union.

"Technological developments can be used by law enforcement in a way that enhances public safety," he said.

"But every enhanced technology also contains a threat of further erosion of privacy."

The Honeywell Micro Air Vehicle or "Honeywell MAV" is seen during a flight test in this undated photograph taken at an undisclosed location. The MAV weighs 16 pounds when empty (dry) and 18 1/2 pounds when fully loaded with fuel (wet). It is 14 inches in diameter and 22 inches from the feet to the top of the MAV structure. Miami police could soon be the first in the United States to use cutting-edge, spy-in-the-sky technology to beef up their fight against crime.

REUTERS/Honeywell/Handout

Stockwell Day admits the deal he made for Canada

I posted about the following back in DECEMBER, when I saw it get inked, in an item in the Jerusalem Post.

Since when can a Canadian official ink a deal like this without it going to Parliament and will Parliament at long last finally SPEAK up about the neocon agenda for Canada?

PUBLIC SAFETY? My ass ..

Security and Prosperity for WHOM??

Canada and Israel Sign Declaration to Cooperate on Public Safety

Global Research, March 23, 2008

vivelecanada.ca/

ISRAEL, March 23, 2008 – Today, the Honourable Stockwell Day, Minister of Public Safety Canada and Avi Dicter, Minister of Public Security of the Government of the State of Israel, signed a Declaration of Intent to enhance cooperation in the area of public safety. “The Government of Canada is committed to enhancing the security of Canadians – both through our actions at home and with our international partners.” said Minister Day. “Today’s declaration demonstrates the longstanding cooperation between Canada and Israel on public safety issues, and we welcome this increased cooperation in order to improve our countries’ capacity to protect our citizens.” This declaration will allow Canada and Israel to better enhance cooperation in the areas of organized crime, emergency management, crime prevention, and other related public safety concerns. The declaration seeks to establish a more structured framework for the continued cooperation on public safety issues between Canada and Israel. “The Declaration of Intent is an opportunity for Canada and Israel to strengthen their commitment to safeguarding their citizens and respective national interests from common threats,” said Minister Dicter. agreement here: http://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/media/nr/2008/nr20080323-1-eng.aspx http://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/media/nr/2008/nr20080323-eng.aspx

Sibelgate, AIPAC, Cynthia McKinney, impeachment and the deccimation of Arabs in the USA

This story is interesting for many reasons.

First, it shows what a Very Good Woman Cynthia McKinney actually is.

Second, she is raising some very interesting points about official US policy towards those of color.

Three, she is not soft soaping what happens to people who run afoul of AIPAC.

Four, some of the same old crew pops up - like Douglas Feith.

and another thing is that point she raises about Dennis Kucinich being visited by AIPAC. This visit has been repudiated by David Swanson, and I was called to task for blogging it. I've personally asked that Dennis Kucinich HIMSELF repudiate the story - not reply in a second-hand fashion. If it is NOT true, then why is Cynthia McKinney repeating it? I am more likely to believe her than David Swanson at this point.

And six, but least, she makes me think she is a real LEADER, which is more than I can say about most other Presidential candidates.

Veeger

Framing Muslims and Locking Up Their Money

Wednesday, 20 February 2008

by Cynthia McKinney The U.S. government has for years been engaged in a witch hunt against Muslim charities, seizing assets and persons on little or manufactured evidence of "terrorist" activities. Meanwhile, blatant spying on behalf of Israel goes unprosecuted, and is even rewarded with promotions to the highest, most sensitive levels of government. Human rights cease to exist in a legal free-fire zone in which all things Muslim or Arab are deemed subversive. All pretense of constitutional government vanishes when institutions and individuals are targeted based on ethnicity and religion. The real conspiracy against so-called "American values" is headquartered in U.S. law enforcement and "security" agencies that "wreak fear and terror inside this country's Muslim community." Framing Muslims and Locking Up Their Money by Cynthia McKinney "The government falsified evidence and broke the law while spying on the Foundation." Former Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney delivered the following remarks to a banquet for the Dallas Muslim Legal Fund of America. What I want to talk to you about tonight, is why you must support the Muslim Legal Fund of America even more now than ever before. I know there are some big donors in here, but everyone must donate until you feel it. Then you will know that you did something with your money. You will remember this contribution. And soon enough, you will be glad you did. That's because we haven't reached a point where human rights are respected in this country. We haven't reached a point where justice rolls down like a might stream in this country. And so, we must be prepared for times of injustice, times of abuse, times of great pain and hurt. To illustrate my point, I would like you to consider the case of a powerful and famous organization. It had friends that lavished it with money and it learned to use its resources to achieve its goals. Pretty soon, this organization had a multimillion dollar budget. It became very powerful, some said the largest of its kind in the country. Soon, the organization became so effective that people began to take notice. People began to wonder if the organization was really American, advancing American values, or was in service to non-American or even anti-American goals? Eventually, the organization became ensnared in our country's legal system and its supporters were accused of criminal activity. In some cases even treason! People were maligned, had their lives ruined, and some were even jailed. "We haven't reached a point where human rights are respected in this country." Imagine, you've got large sums of money, foreign intrigue, political power, a court battle, charges of treason, and nothing written in the newspapers at all about the sordid mess. What's the difference between the Holy Land Foundation and the organization I'm talking about? For eight long years, the FBI watched the Holy Land Foundation with surveillance that included illegal wiretaps. The government would have had the jury believe that the supporters and the managers of the Holy Land Foundation and just about every other Muslim organization in the United States that was tied into the litigation was guilty of a crime. Millions of dollars later, after wreaking fear and terror inside this country's Muslim community, the jury told the government what the men and women whose lives were on trial already knew. The charges leveled by the government could not stand the jury's scrutiny. So why was the allegation even leveled in the first place? Why did the press parrot the allegations without one moment of questioning whether or not the government could have been as off in its assessments of the Holy Land Foundation as it was in its estimates of pre-war Iraq's weapons of mass destruction? I would like to take a moment to follow the trail of another trial involving the sale or give-away of U.S. national security secrets to a foreign government; the name of that government is never mentioned; and the litigation never pierces the American psyche due to an effective news blackout. News of this is nowhere to be found while we know in detail the mental state of Brittany Spears. "Why did the press parrot the allegations without one moment of questioning whether or not the government could have been so off in its assessments of the Holy Land Foundation." Consider for just a moment what is happening, though unpublicized, today. In case number one, a Pentagon man is found with 83 top secret documents at his home, some of them having been passed to American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) who then passed them to Israel - known in the newspapers as Country A. The other case involves the outing of a CIA agent who was tracking nuclear proliferation in the Middle East. This is the case of Ambassador Joseph Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, that saw the chief of staff of the Vice President of the United States sentenced to prison, only to be later pardoned by the President! Interestingly, when George Bush came to the White House, he brought with him Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, and others. Perle would soon leave because it was learned that he tried to use his position as head of the Defense Policy Board to make money off the War on Terror. Feith, as head of the Office of Special Plans, presided over the most ignominious period in the history of the Pentagon, with it producing faked intelligence, stovepiping it to the White House, and then to the American people and the U.S. Congress, sending our young men and women into war in Iraq. Feith left the Pentagon as soon as the investigation into Larry Franklin, his subordinate in his Office, started to get hot. Larry Franklin is now in jail. When Franklin met with two AIPAC operatives, Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, what he didn't know was that every word was being recorded. Franklin, Rosen, and Weissman formed a neat circle. Elliot Abrams at the National Security Council, Dov Zakheim, Comptroller at the Pentagon, Doug Feith number three at the Pentagon in its Office of Special Plans, and Paul Wolfowitz, number two at the Pentagon, closed that circle. "Perle and Feith were investigated by the FBI for passing secret information to Israel." Ex-CIA agent Phil Giraldi in "Kill the Messenger" confirms that both Perle and Feith were investigated by the FBI for passing secret information to Israel. He continues, "In no cases, were any of them convicted. The prosecutions were dropped ... in my opinion because of political pressure not to get into this kind of case that involves Israel and espionage." Wolfowitz was under investigation for passing U.S. secrets to Israel through AIPAC. Spying inside the United States is not new. In 2001, the FBI discovered new, "massive" Israeli spying operations in the East Coast, including New York and New Jersey," and they began watching Naor Gilon (at the Israeli Embassy), who eventually led them to Franklin. In 1970 while working for a U.S. Senator, Richard Perle was caught by the FBI giving classified information to Israel. In 1985, the New York Times reports that the FBI is aware of at least a dozen incidents in which classified information is transferred to Israel. In 1987, the Wall Street Journal headlined that Israel's role in the Iran-Contra scandal would not be investigated by Congress. In 1993, the Anti-Defamation League is caught operating a massive spying operation on critics of Israel, Arab-Americans, the San Francisco Labor Council, ILWU Local 10, Oakland Educational Association, NAACP, Irish Northern Aid, International Indian Treaty Council, the Asian Law Caucus and the San Francisco police. Data collected was sent to Israel and in some cases to South Africa. Pressure from certain organizations forces the city to drop the criminal case, but the ADL settles a civil lawsuit for an undisclosed sum of cash. General Karen Kwiatkowski, who quit the Pentagon, wrote that during her time there, Doug Feith gave the Israeli military access to the Pentagon without signing in, in violation of security policy. "Data collected was sent to Israel and in some cases to South Africa." And finally, Sibel Edmonds, who has a gag order on her, but she courageously is now speaking, says that Patrick Fitzgerald will find more than just a few guys spying for Israel if he conducts a real investigation. Sibel says that it's basically the same people over and over again and the activities include multi-billion dollar black-market nuclear sales to terrorists and unsavory regimes. She says that the beauty of the larger case is that you can start form any angle. If you start from the AIPAC angle, you wind up at the same people. If you start from the Valerie Plame case, you end up with the same people. The FBI probe of Pentagon intelligence activities had as its target Doug Feith's Office of Special Plans. On her website, Sibel Edmonds shows photographs of those involved. I went to her website and I recognized the following photographs: Retiring former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, retiring Member of Congress Tom Lantos, and Pentagon and State Department officials. Sibel concludes that the investigations were shut down in 2000 and in 2001 "because they ended up going to higher levels and involving maybe way too many people, US persons. I'm talking about individuals who are breaking the law, misusing the trust and abusing their power, and in some cases I would even say engaging in treason." Now in the face of all of this, why is it that we have to defend a young Muslim girl, talented at running track, from being put off the team because she wants to cover her body consistent with Islamic practice? Why is it that Dennis Kucinich gets a visit from representatives of Nancy Pelosi and AIPAC and they tell him that they will guarantee his reelection if he drops his impeachment effort. That tells us, that at the end of the day, AIPAC feels that it can guarantee someone a Congressional seat if the AIPAC agenda is put forward. This exchange, recently made public, might also tell us why impeachment is off the table. "I'm talking about individuals who are breaking the law, misusing the trust and abusing their power." Now, by golly, that's power. Especially if they can get away with it in the midst of an investigation that has already put one person in jail and seen Condoleezza Rice on a list of witnesses to be subpoenaed. In the meantime, the newspapers were filled with the news of a 42-count indictment against the Holy Land Foundation that had to be defended. The government falsified evidence and broke the law while spying on the Foundation. The LA Times reported: "The government's allegations not only proved unpersuasive but engendered skepticism among some jurors. "The whole case was based on assumptions that were based on suspicions," said juror Scroggins, who added: "If they had been a Christian or Jewish group, I don't think [prosecutors] would have brought charges against them." In Lima, Ohio recently, a young mother was murdered by the police as she held her baby in her arms. Yet the face of terror on your local television news is Muslim and the face of crime is black. Dr. King reminded us that injustice anywhere was a threat to justice everywhere. What has happened to you is unjust. But what are you going to do about it? My father paid a price because I recognized that all human beings are supposed to have human rights. And I've paid a price, too for believing that. The Muslim Legal Fund of America gives you an important tool in defense of your rights. And I'm smart enough to know that when your rights are protected, mine are too. So give to the Muslim Legal Fund - give until your bank account knows that you've given. The level of injustice in the world ensures that we'll need it far sooner than we wish. Cynthia McKinney is a candidate for President of the United States. Go to her campaign web site: http://www.runcynthiarun.org/.