military industrial complex

Double-barrelled 50 kW German laser weapon shoots down drones and mortar rounds

"German defense contractor Rheinmetall has shown off a new two-part laser system with a combined output of 50 kW, capable of shooting down drones and intercepting mortar rounds in mid-flight. The high-energy laser (HEL) weapon consists of a 30 kW primary laser mounted on a rotating turret and a 20 kW secondary beam for targeting stationary objects. In tests conducted in late November, the beams combined to slice through a 15mm steel girder at a distance of roughly 1,000 yards, while the 30 kW laser on its own was able to intercept a drone moving at more than 110 mph." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDouble-barrelled 50 kW German laser weapon shoots down drones and mortar rounds

‘Citizen Drone Warfare’: Hobbyist explores a frightening scenario

"Less than a month ago, rumors that celebrity news and gossip website TMZ was interested in obtaining a paparazzi drone prompted privacy concerns and public debate about the appropriate personal and commercial uses of unmanned aerial vehicles. Now, a new online video poses a more troubling question: What if civilian drones are equipped to shoot more than just pictures? Titled 'Citizen Drone Warfare' and posted to YouTube last week anonymously, a video shows a hobbyist drone equipped with a custom-mounted paintball pistol flying over a grassy field and peppering human-shaped shooting-range targets with pellets." Continue reading →

Continue Reading‘Citizen Drone Warfare’: Hobbyist explores a frightening scenario

Paula Was Not the Only One in Bed With Petraeus

"Petraeus got what he wanted from the relationship with the Kagans as well. Each time Petraeus descended on Capitol Hill he was treated like a god by lawmakers. That was the Kagans' doing. They rushed home from their extended stints 'running' the war in Afghanistan to pen saccharine pieces on the glories of Patraeus, just the kind of hero the pro-war faction in Congress (as in the entire Congress minus a handful) needed. This, in a nutshell, is why the desperate race to solve the 'fiscal cliff' is in reality a desperate race by Congress and the president to avoid any cuts in the military budget. Otherwise the Fred Kagans of the world will sic their think tank brigades on you." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPaula Was Not the Only One in Bed With Petraeus

Drones Are Like Structured Finance

"What happened with structured finance and what's happening with drones is that the adoption and increased use of the technologies come to have an independent effect on the underlying phenomena, the housing bubble and the war on terror's killing bubble. Being effective and low-cost technologies, they heighten the bubbles as people use them intensively. The indiscriminate use or broad use or overuse of these technologies cause problems all their own and, in the hands of their users, who were investment bankers and now U.S. government officials, they become contributory causes of new problems." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDrones Are Like Structured Finance

Democrat Kathy Hochul Plumps for Drones at Niagara Falls Air Base

"What's wrong with America? One thing for sure: its government. Here's one example. There's an air base in Niagara Falls. It's a U.S. Air Force base called the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station. It's run out of mission. It never had a good mission to begin with but that unproductive mission has run out. So now a local member of Congress has worked to get it a new mission, which would be DRONES. This will be approved today in the Defense Authorization Bill being voted in Congress. Drones and the military in general are one big pork barrel. This is what the U.S. Constitution has wrought by centralizing defense in the federal government." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDemocrat Kathy Hochul Plumps for Drones at Niagara Falls Air Base

U.K. pays Iraqi torture victims millions in compensation

"The Ministry of Defence has paid out £14m in compensation and costs to hundreds of Iraqis who complained that they were illegally detained and tortured by British forces during the five-year occupation of the south-east of the country. Hundreds more claims are in the pipeline as Iraqis become aware that they are able to bring proceedings against the UK authorities in the London courts. Human rights groups and lawyers representing former prisoners say that the abuse was systemic, with military interrogators and guards responsible for the mistreatment acting in accordance with both their training in the UK and orders issued in Iraq." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingU.K. pays Iraqi torture victims millions in compensation

Obama Orders Children Murdered

"As Obama grandstands and uses the Sandy Hook crisis to, in the words of Eric Holder 'brainwash the public' that guns are bad and the cause of violent crime and misery, We decided to show just a few of the documented cases of drone attacks that he personally ordered where children were killed. Drone attack after drone attack you will see the real face of the Globalists. This man does not care about children he cares about disarming the American people to bring in a totalitarian government." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingObama Orders Children Murdered

U.S. Ready to Offer Mercenaries $10 Billion for a Drug-War Air Force

"Unsure how your private security firm makes money as the U.S. war in Afghanistan winds down? One option: Go into the drug trade — more specifically, the lucrative business of fighting narcotics. The State Department needs a business partner to keep its fleet of drug-hunting helicopters and planes flying worldwide. You could make up to $10 billion-with-a-B. Without much publicity, the State Department has built a bespoke air force since the mid-1980s, one that’s stacked with helicopters and heavily reliant on contractors. From its headquarters at Florida’s Patrick Air Force Base, the State Department directs 51,000 annual hours worth of air operations." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingU.S. Ready to Offer Mercenaries $10 Billion for a Drug-War Air Force

Glenn Greenwald: Newtown kids v Yemenis and Pakistanis: what explains the disparate reactions?

"It's easy to express rage over the Newtown shooting because so few of us bear any responsibility for it and there is ultimately little we can do to stop psychotic individuals from snapping. Fury is easy because it's easy to tell ourselves that the perpetrator has so little to do with us and our actions. Exactly the opposite is true for the violence that continuously kills children and other innocent people in the Muslim world. Many of us empowered and cheer for the person responsible for that. US citizens pay for it, enable it, and now under Obama, most at the very least acquiesce to it if not support it." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGlenn Greenwald: Newtown kids v Yemenis and Pakistanis: what explains the disparate reactions?

US deploying troops to 35 African countries

"The United States Army will be deploying troops to nearly three-dozen African nations in the coming year. Soldiers based out of Fort Riley, Kansas’ 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division will begin training in March 2013 in order to prepare for a project that will send troops to as many as 35 African nations. Citing a growing threat from extremist groups, including those with ties to al-Qaeda, the Department of Defense is hoping to install American soldiers overseas in order to prepare local troops there for any future crises as tensions escalate." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingUS deploying troops to 35 African countries