Special Ops, Drones, Spy Games, Civilian Soldiers, Proxy Fighters, and Cyber Warfare
By Nick Turse
via Tom Dispatch
It looked like a scene out of a Hollywood movie. In the inky darkness, men in full combat gear, armed with automatic weapons and wearing night-vision goggles, grabbed hold of a thick, woven cable [...]
How Obama’s Targeted Killings, Leaks, and the Everything-Is-Classified State Have Fused
via Tom Dispatch
White is black and down is up. Leaks that favor the president are shoveled out regardless of national security, while national security is twisted to pummel leaks that do not favor him. Watching their [...]
This week Al Jazeera English (AJE) aired a program that speaks to an article we published on Monday by Dr. Emile Nakhleh, a former top Central Intelligence Agency officer and Mideast expert. Nakhleh argues that by continuously repressing reform movements within their country, the autocratic rulers of Bahrain, Syria and [...]
By Emile Nakhleh
The rising specter of terrorism in Syria shows that by clinging to power and refusing to implement meaningful reforms, Arab autocrats in Syria, Bahrain, and elsewhere are indirectly contributing to the resurgence of terrorism in their societies. Arab protests started peacefully, but almost in every country regime repression and torture ultimately pushed [...]
What a Busted Robot Airplane Tells Us About the American Empire in 2012 and Beyond
Reposted by arrangement with Tom Dispatch
By Nick Turse
The drone had been in the air for close to five hours before its mission crew realized that something was wrong. The oil temperature in the plane’s [...]
Reposted by arrangement with Think Progress
Nearly half of Air Force drone pilots reported high stress levels in a new survey. The stress, linked to long and erratic work hours and a dramatic increase in the use of drones, leads to “high operational stress” for [...]
Its Full Extent Revealed for the First Time
Reposted by arrangement with Tom Dispatch
By Nick Turse
They increasingly dot the planet. There’s a facility outside Las Vegas where “pilots” work in climate-controlled trailers, another at a dusty camp in Africa formerly used by the French [...]
Reposted by arrangement with Tom Dispatch
In the world of weaponry, they are the sexiest things around. Others countries are desperate to have them. Almost anyone who writes about them becomes a groupie. Reporters exploring their onrushing future swoon at their potentially wondrous techno-talents. [...]
Recent news that the Obama administration plans to expand drone warfare in Yemen under the auspices of the CIA — the military has already been running a smaller-scale drone war in Yemen for some time now — highlights the need to make drones a more central topic of conversation in discussion of the U.S.’s [...]
The State Department seems to have taken to heart a recent criticism that was delivered sharply by a questioner in the daily press briefing. Addressing State’s proactive stance on Iran, which was compared to being publicly behind the curve on Egypt, an unnamed reporter asked, “what about other countries – Bahrain, Yemen, [...]
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