Thursday, July 22, 2010

Drones in U.S. skies – to keep eye on us?

The warning by James Madison below gives me cause for alarm and has, in my mind, elevated this seemingly minor article, to an item of interest. Using drones and "eyes in the sky" for military purposes appears to be a logical and legal use. However, use of drones to spy on your own citizens may be a concern. Challenges have been made against Google Earth Street Views, surveillance cameras on streets, and now drones are in question. Can 1984 be far behind? James Madison would probably be concerned.

Excerpt:
Will we citizens have any say in whether we want to be part of this continually omnivorous government game? Whitehead gives you the answer: "Unfortunately, to a drone, everyone is a suspect because drone technology makes no distinction between the law-abiding individual and the suspect. Everyone gets monitored, photographed, tracked and targeted."

But not terminally targeted like the innocent civilians during Predator and Reaper strikes in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen. However, the Obama administration has made it clear that, like its predecessor, it has decided the battlefield against terrorism can be anywhere – including the United States.

And should there be another 9/11 or a successful suicide bomber in New York's Times Square, the government – with its ever-increasing, undeniable evidence of homegrown jihadists (who look just like your neighbors) may use UAVs not only for surveillance but in the self-defense of us all. Drones have already committed extra-judicial killings outside our borders. Are we immune at home?

Whitehead summons James Madison: "A standing military force with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defense against foreign danger have been always the instruments of tyranny at home." Are the drones to remain beyond the American rule of law? It's past time to begin to find out.

So far, we are told nothing credible of whom we are targeting, and why, in other countries. We should at least be let in on the rules of this grim game as it may affect our own fate. Failing our responsibility as citizens, we have become almost entirely complicit in the extent and depth of our being continually surveilled at home outside the Constitution.

Will drones continue to hover outside the Constitution? Barack Obama knows.
World Net Daily article "Drones in U.S. skies – to keep eye on us?"

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