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A Drone Operator Speaks: "This Is What You Are Not Told"
Submitted by Mike Krieger of Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,
Over the weekend, Heather Linebaugh wrote a powerful Op-ed in The Guardian newspaper lamenting the lack of public understanding regarding the American drone program. Heather should know what she’s talking about, she served in the United Stated Air Force from 2009 until March 2012. She worked in intelligence as an imagery and geo-spatial analyst for the drone program during the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Here are some key excerpts from her article:
Whenever I read comments by politicians defending the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Predator and Reaper program – aka drones – I wish I could ask them a few questions. I’d start with: “How many women and children have you seen incinerated by a Hellfire missile?” And: “How many men have you seen crawl across a field, trying to make it to the nearest compound for help while bleeding out from severed legs?” Or even more pointedly: “How many soldiers have you seen die on the side of a road in Afghanistan because our ever-so-accurate UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] were unable to detect an IED [improvised explosive device] that awaited their convoy?”
Few of these politicians who so brazenly proclaim the benefits of drones have a real clue of what actually goes on. I, on the other hand, have seen these awful sights first hand.
I knew the names of some of the young soldiers I saw bleed to death on the side of a road. I watched dozens of military-aged males die in Afghanistan, in empty fields, along riversides, and some right outside the compound where their family was waiting for them to return home from the mosque.
What the public needs to understand is that the video provided by a drone is not usually clear enough to detect someone carrying a weapon, even on a crystal-clear day with limited cloud and perfect light. This makes it incredibly difficult for the best analysts to identify if someone has weapons for sure. One example comes to mind: “The feed is so pixelated, what if it’s a shovel, and not a weapon?” I felt this confusion constantly, as did my fellow UAV analysts. We always wonder if we killed the right people, if we endangered the wrong people, if we destroyed an innocent civilian’s life all because of a bad image or angle.
Moreover, the many civilians being incinerated without a trial are not the only victims here. So are the actual drone operators themselves, many of whom end up committing suicide. Recall my article from December 2012: Meet Brandon Bryant: The Drone Operator Who Quit After Killing a Child. Of course, our so-called political “leaders” never get their hands dirty, other than to take a lobbyist bribe that is. Now more from Heather:
Recently, the Guardian ran a commentary by Britain’s secretary of state for defence, Philip Hammond. I wish I could talk to him about the two friends and colleagues I lost, within a year of leaving the military, to suicide. I am sure he has not been notified of that little bit of the secret UAV program, or he would surely take a closer look at the full scope of the program before defending it again.
Full article here.
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If you want your dead wedding party you can keep your dead wedding party.
"We always wondered if we killed the right people.........."
Hey you fucking navel gazing basement dweller....just hit the reset button and everything will be fine. Stop thinking. You've been conditioned.
The last wedding party they murdered were given money and, by agreement, several guns. That's right! We poured acid vengence into their souls and gave them guns. Jeepers, I wonder what the'll use them for?
Could it be the "defence" industries are trying to make viable enemies?
The American people don't give a shit about people being slaughtered half way around the world by kids playing video games. Now if some bearded guy with a teevee show says something about gay people, that's something to get worked up over. The iSheeple won't even know what hit them when TPTB turn the drones on them.
The American people are the grass, their government is a raging bull that is sustained by the grass, TPTB is the bulls rider, Zion is the trainer, Satan is Zions conditioner operating as g-d from behind the veil. The grass is fertilized by the blood of the bulls victims and are content to remain grass as long as they have welfare, nfl, reality tv and chips. God whispers his Truth and those blades of grass with hearts and minds to hear take note, but the field is mostly deaf and their free will remains impotent. In the meantime Fukushima radiation comes, the world economy collapses, Zion fans the flames of war, and their puppet golfs. It seems like Putin, the rottweiler of this age, is all we have left, besides our own free will, God and search for Truth. I keep thinking this is going to be worse than bad when the top blows off.
"besides our own free will"
Also, for the most part, gone.
All of these crimes, all of this complicity.
The deligitimization of authority is so subtle, so serpentine in its casual, incremental evil.
Yet it is Satan's work nonetheless.
And in the final, terminal wreckage, be it a collapse or a tepid grey twilight, who will have stood up and told the truth?
Only a few.....so few......
HAPPY TRUTH YEAR ZERO HEDGIANS
May the Lord have mercy upon our fair Republic, measure for measure as much as we perform good works to secure Her freedoms.
Sorry, the Lord ain't incorporated, therefore doesn't exist in the Fascist utopia formerly with states rights.
Could be soothing in China or North Korea though...
I remember Harry Reid accusing Bush of starting a war in Iraq for his owm amusement. At the time I was appalled ol' shitty cock Reid would say such a thing. Now I agree with him. Except now that his team is on control he is getting to enjoy it first hand. These fuckers make me sick. People aren't going to give a shit until they have nothing left to live for. It's going to take shutting down the NFL, banning all firearms, charging a monthly fee to use facebook, a few bail-ins, public executions, squads of brownshirts, toilet paper shortages, frequent cable/satellite blackouts, gas at $10/gallon, famine, locusts, and spiders for most people to realize we've got a problem.
Yep.
I'm afraid your list would not suffice, though.
Sir, what is this "facebook" you speak of?
https://www.facebook.com/Arrest.The.Bankers
You can ban firearms all you want, they aren't going anywhere.
All drone operators, amongst others, should always keep four things in mind:
1) Their oath to the Constitution.
2) That without a doubt, "following orders" is not a viable defense.
3) Article 3, Section 3.
4) They may one day meet a guillotine operator face to face.
Article 3, Section 3 is for treason against the US. Drone operators have not yet attacked US soil. It appears the constitution forbids military courts from trying cases of treason, supposedly that is reserved for federal courts. So when you hear the term 'extra-judicial powers' on US citizens, done in secret, it is troublesome.
two friends and colleagues I lost, within a year of leaving the military, to suicide.
It always amazes me how people do such a job for years without ever thinking it through, but then suddenly discover their conscience within a relatively short time after they leave.
Is it information overload that keeps them from thinking for themselves while in the job, or more direct government/services propaganda that keeps them dazed, is it colleagues helping to rationalize it to each other?
The uniform, group psychology, meeting every morning to "affirm" the mission, the reinforcement of not thinking in order to act.
You find the same blindness in SWAT teams and Police Forces that storm the wrong house and kill innocents or shoot dead someone in a car or on the street.
Look at the insanity behind sports figures in uniform and their rabid fans who beat and kill others who wear the uniform of the other "tribe".
The society has a terminal case of propaganditis.
Many people have a need to be on the "winning" team. It is their identity. They are joiners that have to be part of something to feel good about themselves. I've seen it with people who join biker gangs. As part of the gang they will do just about anything. Apart form the group they suffer postpartum depression. Some type of group mentality allows people in groups or mobs to do things they would never do individually. We humans are a fucked up bunch which makes many of us very easy to manipulate. There are those who have multiple generations of study invested in our manipulation. Societally, there is no individual thought, as we are indoctrinated and manipulated from birth. The only thing we know is what they want us to know. The few retards like us that show up on ZH are the exception and outliers. Still not sure I took the right pill.
Plus .... wearing a uniform/patch exudes power, and even though it's only symbolism, gets you laid.
"Is it information overload that keeps them from thinking for themselves while in the job, or more direct government/services propaganda that keeps them dazed, is it colleagues helping to rationalize it to each other?"
All of the above
Politicans are cowards who give orders but are unwilling to do the dirty work themselves.
Out of trade school, I built space shuttle parts for awhile, then graduated to weapons systems. It sneaks up on you. Plus, you can't underestimate the power of USA!, USA!, USA! conditioning, or the need to eat. I would've been a Canadian if Tricky Dicky hadn't abolished the draft, but I wound up on the wrong side of the ball, anyway.
That's ancient history, but I can't deny it. Nowadays, I eschew all gubmint work, even from the one horse town I live in. They all think I'm un-American. Is that irony, or something else?
The politicians don't give a shit.
Look at John McCain: served in Vietnam, a POW, and now a war hawk. WTF is wrong with that man? Is it senility or abject greed?
Most politicians are lawyers - trained Sophist's, razor sharp equivocators who were taught that if they wanted the money and power they would have to leave their morality and ethics in the trash can at the undergraduate dormitory.
Hang the lot; we need a cleansing of the the structures of government so badly it hurts.
That includes you - you spineless two-faced power hungry Generals and other Officers.
Your fellow citizens are watching, taking notes, and stewing.
"Look at John McCain: served in Vietnam, a POW, and now a war hawk. WTF is wrong with that man? "
I once read an interview with ex-Defense Secretary Gates in which he said that those politicians in DC who have seen actual combat tend to be doves. As you said: WTF is wrong with McCain...and I'd add Kerry.
Manchurian candidates?
and now a war hawk
He's also a Progressive.......yeah......don't know.
"WTF is wrong with McCain...and I'd add Kerry."
Perhaps they have "different" values that are "superior" (in their twisted minds) to integrity and honor? As they sow however, so shall they reap.
Unfortunately a number of honorable men in uniform are being purged from the military by Obama. He wants loyalty to him and not their oath to the Constitution.
As for McStain, what a disgusting human being and he dishonors his service to this country with his current diatribe.
EDIT: I'd add Kerry to that list too. However, I still don't understand the long face.
Poor McCain has being trying to make up the fact that he broke under torture & collaborated with the N. Vietnamese. It's why he left hundreds of POWs in Vietnam after the war; shame. He's still in denial. But he was broken, so has to be as hawkish as possible, it's a guilt complex; he is sick.
video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMcYqtayU7c
article: http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/mccain-and-the-pow-cover-up/
Go Team America: Fuch Yeah!
Everyone is fighting their last war. McCain got his ass kicked so he likely want to still kick some "gook's ass". Others who had more success in the military conflicts may carry a little guilt for their past victims and go dove upon the reflection. Doesn't really matter becasue every single person is tallking their own book, their own interests and the best we can hope for is a representative who's "book" aligns with our own. We are all insane trying to pick the least insane to guide us. We ain't doin so good.
We are all insane trying to pick the least insane to guide us. We ain't doin so good."
No, we aren't, that's true. So maybe we should stop doing that.
Its just too damn scary out there for most to live as free range chickens when there is always a coup available. Freedom with individual thought is best in my mind, but I don't know who put those thoughts in there. They can't possibly be mine alone so I must have picked it up somewhere. The older I get the more The Matrix seems more of a real possibility.
"That includes you - you spineless two-faced power hungry Generals and other Officers."
And the spineless immoral (by lack of action) citizenry that has allowed this to go on and on and on and........
The ones who were ambushed while carrying weapons were defending their homeland from Saudi/Western/International Banking Cartel imperialism.
It doesn't look like the world will wise up before drones no longer need remote human operators.
If Heather Linebaugh or the Guardian even as much as whisper a faint breath of a hint that Obama somehow is connected with the last 5 years of drone attacks, they are both racist, bigoted, homophobic, intolerant, and maybe even members of the Tea Party.
No it will just mean they are telling the truth.
" racist, bigoted, homophobic, intolerant, and maybe even members of the Tea Party."
usually reveal themselves through propaganda and sterotyping those they are afraid of.
In the end "Drone Operator" is just a job.
Emotions are used as a device to coverup disonnance in logic. Emotions can be conditioned / manipulated.
There is just something wrong with people and their ability to be manipulated whether willingly or not.
Q1: How do you staff a concentration camp?
Q2: Do you see those methods being used now in other ways?
How much official staff would you really need? Identify 5 or 6 strong people and give them one extra food ration for cooperating. Golly that's a nice pension. Let's call you a hero too.
"Obedience to Authority", by Dr. Stanley Milgram contains the answers...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment
I think this lady is going to be in serious trouble very soon. Now I am not familiar with todays military, but she recently served, and she may be still responsible for her actions under military justice. She hopefully consulted a lawyer expert in military justice before going public. If not, then the military may have avenues for charging her with an act under the UCMJ. I know for a fact that I could not go public with what I did in the military even years after getting out. You sign papers when you go in and get out, I doubt any service member reads them, but you get a lecture the day before discharge that details your ongoing responsibilites to the military even as a newly mintied civilian.
I worry for this girl. If not legally, government can still hound her life for ever, and probably will. She should join Snowden in Russia.
we need more people with the courage to report CORRUPTION masking as 'patriotic' motives-follow the CA$H
As for drones. Obama has vowed to up his game and to expand his drone wars across the globe. He has taken as his right the ability to kill anyone anywhere anytime, if HE, Obama, President of the USA, deems the person a threat to America. This probably will not hold water in Russia, where air defenses can shoot down the Obama drone fleet at will. And don't say stealth either, Russia has plenty of sensors and radars able to detect stealth. It's only shit hole miltiaries like Libya's and Iraq's that could not detect a stealth plane.
With the cost of technology dropping, this monopoly on killing-at-a-distance will not last. Then the instigators and perpetrators face the uncomfortable consequences of justice, aka blowback. Too bad a lot of innocents will be caught in the crossfire as justice is meted out.
Suspect massive surveillance of "everything" will put a crimp in seeking justice. But then I am still stupid enough to wonder why blowback did not occur years ago.
There's that word again. Justice does not exist in the Fascist utopia you live in.
Let me guess, still in denial that inkorporation doesn't own you and hasn't already decimated all you think you stand for. Try and get on a plane or have a private conversation and tell us about "justice."
"Justice" is a totally dead concept that the US forfeited to concentrate on more pressing issues, like gays.
Lets call it for what it is....not the 'Dept of Defence' lol but the WAR DEPT $$$$$$$$
I know this woman is trying to clear her conscience for having 'followed orders' but she doesn't realize she's helping the cause of the hawks. For example, look at this quote: "What the public needs to understand is that the video provided by drone is not clear...."
Sounds like a business opportunity. Once Grumman fixes that, then 'soldiers' can feel good about killing the unknown 'combatants' over in their home land for the noble cause of...um....well, you know.
On the announcement of drones over American skies, I saw nothing that stated they will not be fitted with stantions and frames to hold weapons? Did I miss that?
If they said it would you beileve it?
The US is a disugusting disgrace to Humanity. Of course so is Nkorea, China, etc. Just another day on crazy rock. Perhaps DC needs a closeup with a drone lol. Operator gone mad.
"What if it's a shovel and not a weapon" WTF gun control in Afghanistan? What's next downtown daily bombings in Chicago? This implies anyone with a weapon is to be blown up.
you are a threat....that is all.
Everyone wants the good shit like freedom but does not want to pay the price.
This government creates a thousand wounds and never accomplishes a thing.
Either go to war, conquer and reap the rewards or get the fuck out.
This business of politically correct and terminal war which never accomplishes a thing except the creation of more enemies.
Fuck them and the progressives they rode in on.
Life is war. Nothing of value will ever be given and must be fought for. Live in passivity and take what you get. People seek world peace without acknowledging that the only way that could ever happen is with an absolute surrender of ALL liberties to a central power. The coup chicken versus the free range bird. You decide, or let other decide for you. All we need is a few more UN treaties.
"Fuck them and the progressives they rode in on"
Hmmmmm, Bush, Cheny, Iraq...................
Every four to 8 years is a knee jerk reaction to last 4 to 8 years. I suspect somewhere that is known and planned for.
They are all fucking progressives, regardless of what they might say. "progress" means never going back which means we will never see a "smaller" government, less freedom restricting laws. Nobody seeks a job to eliminate their job. They are all progressives that think with just a little more control they can fix everything. Some wear the label proudly while others are still in denial.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzz - what, huh? oh another whiny bush basher years after he is gone.
These current a-holes have had plenty of time to get the F out, instead they exacerbate the problem with the continual half-ass war mongering.
Give it up - it's their war now - fight to win or get the F out.
Hmmmmm, TSA, NSA, IRS, Benghazi, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Guantanamo - it's all theirs - deal with it
It's all "OURS"! It has always been all ours and we do not have balls enough to deal with it.
Seldon Crisis?
Since when is drone killing and waging non-declared wars on the other side of this planet the "price for freedom"? You amerikans are crazy and dangerous people.
Everyone wants freedom? Nah, most now want big government with their handouts.
War is a racquet and the rewards are only reaped by the war profiteers. Just because it has become more effiecient to kill doesn't make it less profitable. Hell fires are pretty expensive and they don't care if 1000 babies are killed as long as they get a new contract to replace the hell fires.
Either Jews and towel heads have to stop killing each other or the US has to stop givving a shit about either one of these scum. Problem solved
Humans have always been killing each other and its now even more important to do so. Growing population with a shrinking job base and an explosion in healthcare cost demands thinning. It sucks to be us, but there are people out there resolved to fix the situation. The only answer to war is to go Eloy and just voluntarily kill ourselves to maintain peace. Of course there are always those killer influenzas they are developing that could make it much easier. There will be something so fulfilling to off yourself for the good of the collective. I'm sure they will provide us a great sendoff. I'm trying to be sarcastic but it ain't working.
The US has been a source of middle east problems for a very long time
And Crazy Horse who saw it coming went to his death
Absolutely no one cares when dirty blood money is being made.
Go to college, kid.
“Are drone strikes even relevant?” This is the more appropriate question. Put another way, the question is whether or not drone strikes are even operating in the correct battle space required to have an effect on the enemy.
If the drone operations are supposed to be supporting the “war on terror” then it should follow that the drone strikes should have not only a tactical and operational impact, but at the same time they must have strategic effect. They do not. See more on this at: http://www.brokenmirrors.ca/?p=409
compelling article
artificial intelligence/drones/bots are here to stay and will become more pervasive over time
big brother is growing folks
The Drone operators are committing war crimes. Some day they will be held accountable.
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/04/drone-pilots-could-be-tried-for-war-crimes-law-prof-says/
Long gone are the days where wars are won. Prolonging conflicts is far too profitable. Some of you need to ditch this "war nostalgia" bit. We don't fight wars to win anymore, haven't since the end of WW2. Drones are the perfect way to keep tensions high, and to create more enemies for more missions.
MOAR MISSIONS = MOAR CONTRACTS = MOAR PROFIT
You got it B S -- an ever-expanding military footprint trumps trivialities likes causes, victories, dead soldiers, civilian casualties and such.....it's the participation that counts...
"whatta we fightin' for, don't ask me I don't give a damn."
Fuckin goofballs think we're running a hippy commune here...
You put assholes in charge with no oversight, and act suprised when there's dead bodies lying all around while more assholes stuff their pockets with YOUR money that they make by selling the other assholes the murder weapons.
Let's go kill some assholes for Peace.
Wait...that didn't come out right...
Fuck it...I give up.
"She should be executed for sedition for suggesting that the President would bomb a Muslim wedding in low-resolution!" -- unidentified Senior Senator from California.
You get it when you understand that Bush and Obama and indeed all Presidents since Eisenhower are not personally "responsible" for any of this. They answer and report to their bosses in the military-industrial complex. War is big business, and they're not going to let a little thing like a Republic stand in their way. At this point, it would be nearly impossible to tear their steely vise grip off the steering wheel of this nation. NSA, Wall Street, the Fed they're all complicit parts of the crony capitalist system we have morphed into. The coup d'etat was complete in the fall of 2008.
See how we are.
Happy New Year.
We are very close to Executive rule
What's wrong, cupcakes? War a bit too sticky and smelly for you outside of the gaming console?
It's, it's just so.... Mean, isn't it?
Junk away, you footy pajama wearing holding your cocoa cup with both hands faggots.
Little Major -- Nice to see an obedient soldier-boy eager to prostrate himself in front of his metro-sexual Commander-in-Chief.
You don't have to pull the trigger! In Vietnam, I remember once seeing about 30-40 NVA entering a tree line. Asked our Lieutenant if we should engage. His answer, "Shit no, they'll have us looking for them for a week." My kind of officer. Don't get me wrong, when we had to fight, we fought but we didn't go looking for trouble and if we could avoid it, we did - that meant we could have another day getting high and partying with the boom-boom girls - you know, things you can do if you're alive and have all appendages. Oh, and besides, it's their goddamn country; what the hell are we doing there....