The history of pilotless aircraft in the United States military stretches back to the days of the Wright brothers. It’s difficult to describe any good that emerges from warfare, but many modern technological advancements — computers, zippers, microwaves — can be traced back to conflicts of a bygone era. Today unmanned aerial vehicles are being used by a whole slew of people, the U.S. Department of Defense being just one primary example. While drones have been used routinely to support or undertake lethal force abroad for over a decade, their domestic applications are just now being given more serious consideration. The capabilities and contributions of UAVs have, up until recently, been propelled more or less exclusively by the defense community. UAV technology may currently be associated with what some would consider secretive and nefarious militarism, but in examining the range of practical, commercial applications we can only hope that drone technology will begin to move away from the dark side.
President Obama’s approach to counterterrorism has been marked by his embrace of drone technology to target terrorist operatives. But they’ve come a long way since their first strike operations: drone backpacks are now used by soldiers, and Predator drones come equipped with even more powerful warheads. U.S. DOD spending on drones increased from $284M in 2000 to $3.3B in October of 2012. Small surveillance drones, called Cicadas, are now being released from balloons to collect data on the ground in Iraq. In short, the military has a seemingly infinite range of uses for unmanned aerial vehicles, large and small. And the scope of drone missions only continues to expand, as the technology necessary to program and operate them becomes at once more commonplace and versatile. Over the next decade, the Pentagon anticipates that the number of “multirole” UAVs (those capable of both spying and striking) will nearly quadruple.
As of October 2013, the Federal Aviation Administration had issued 285 clearance certificates for drones inside the United States. Under pressure from the Unmanned Systems Caucus (or drone lobby) the Department of Homeland Security has accepted eight Predator drones for use along the U.S.-Canada and U.S.-Mexico borders. The FAA is set to further open skies to commercial drones by 2015, allowing civilians to finally explore and expand upon the uses of UAV technology. But even with the law by their side, can civilian companies ever hope to utilize drones to the extent in which they are employed by the military? Many recognize the civil potential of flying robots, but recognize that with certain valuable contributions also comes the possibility of tighter law enforcement and increased government surveillance.
The dualistic nature of drones is being explored by hobbyists and venture capitalists alike. Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook is even developing a program that will employ drones and satellite internet to deliver internet to disenfranchised communities throughout the world. While this probably speaks to Zuckerberg’s opportunism (and his desire to compete in the marketplace against Google’s Loon Project and HughesNet Internet) that isn’t to say that people in underserved communities don’t stand to benefit. The U.S. government already uses drones to protect endangered wildlife species, like the sandhill crane, and researchers in Indonesia and Malaysia are also using unmanned aerial devices to monitor the activity of similarly threatened orangutan populations. UAV systems are emerging as key tools in agricultural innovation and the monitoring of natural resources. Search and rescue missions, 3-D mapping and surveying projects, and hurricane tracking projects are also being carried out by UAVs. With unmanned aircraft, it seems the sky’s the limit for civil and commercial usage.
But the business of drones still comes with plenty of risks. The American Civil Liberties Union has warned of a “dystopian future” in which “mass, suspicionless searches of the general population” are the norm. Given the history of drones as advanced tools of the government and military, this doesn’t seem like an empty threat. And for now, the law still stands in the way of any real development on the commercial end. Despite the fact that many ideas for drones, from the delivery of Amazon parcels to Domino’s pizzas, have been suggested, the military still holds the key to their innovation from an American standpoint. Their function as a militaristic tool remains at the forefront of their continued growth, resulting in large spending increases for advanced cameras, sensors, and systems with attack capabilities. But the integration of drone technology into domestic airspace by law enforcement — and later, by corporations — seems inevitable. As technological improvements continue to catapult the UAV industry into the future, the true beneficiaries of these developments remain to be seen.
Justice for Aaron Swartz & other Whistleblower Activists – FixTheCFAA.com
U.N. passes sweeping international arms regulation viewed by some as Second Amendment override
Roseanne Barr: “MK ULTRA Mind Control Rules in Hollywood” – The Vigilant Citizen
Nicole Sherzinger: “To make it, you really have to sell your soul to the devil.”
DARPA Robots Evolving, Using Tools
Veteran’s Guns Confiscated After Forced ‘Psychiatric Evaluation’
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The Robot Reality: Service Jobs Are Next to Go
Location Data Can Uniquely Identify Cellphone Users
Scientists Claim 40% of Population is Infected with “Mind Control Parasite”
Forefathers Remembered: Central Bank Warnings
Alien Artifacts In Lost Tomb Of Alexander The Great Found In Illinois Caves
Illegal Pictures From Atop The Great Pyramid
Raw Honey: Liquid Gold In Your Pantry
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Sea Shepard Launches Operation Zero Tolerance
SHOCKER: Vaccines found to be absolutely useless, manipulated ‘research’ explored
Election 2012 Updates – Obama Wins?
Colorado’s Voters approve Recreational Marijuana
DARPA Robots get nimble – Skynet beefs up
Baltimore Rolls out 24/7 Audio Spying on Public Transit to ‘combat crime’
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The Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency (DARPA) Autonomous Robotic Manipulation (ARM) program seeks to find ways to utilize different remote robotic manipulation systems that are controlled by humans. This program is divided into 3 aspects:
• Hardware: to design dexterous multi-fingered robotic hands
• Software: develop complex algorithms for grasping, manipulation and sensory perception
• Outreach: beta-testing robotics in public forums to further study robotic autonomy
In 2010, DARPA revealed a robot at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International Conference in Denver that was interactive in a public forum. Participants would write software and have the robot preform specified tasks. The goal of this event was to show that robots were being developed by the US government to preform “dangerous tasks” such as disarming an explosive device thereby reducing “significant human interaction”.
Universities and other government-controlled agencies such as Carnegie Mellon University, HRL Laboratories, iRobot, NASA-Jet Propulsion Laboratory, SRI, and the University of Southern California, provided teams of researchers to write software for DARPA.
Boston Dynamics, Inc., has been awarded a $10.9 million contract to manufacture humanoid robots that are bi-pedal, built like humans and have a sensor head with on-board computing capabilities.
These robots are being created to assist in excavation and rescue missions, according to DARPA. They could also be employed to evacuation operations during either man-made or natural disasters.
This week, the Project Offices for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), Apache Attack Helicopter and Armed Scout Helicopter revealed the Manned Unmanned System Integration Capability (MUSIC) at Michael Army Airfield, Dugway Proving Ground, Utah. During the exercise, MUSIC showed that the US Army could use drones armed with lethal weapons that were wired for precise communication with their operator.
The RQ-7 Shadow is another enhanced drone with weapons capabilities. As the US Army endeavors to combine ground forces with drone technology, their tactical operation’s success is multiplied.
The use of government-sponsored universities such as Cornell, MIT and Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands has created prototypes for bi-pedal robots that will someday be the synthetic army or police force.
Stanford University’s Aerospace Robotics Laboratory (ARL) wants to introduce autonomous robots into law enforcement situations; such as response in lieu of police SWAT teams.
Drones for law enforcement are being developed with the creation of the Talon SWAT/MP that can be configured with a multitude of weaponry. Some include a multi-shot TASER, LRAD, 40mm grenade launcher, and a 12-gage shotgun.
An earlier version of Talon, developed for the Israeli Defense Forces and the Israeli Ministry of Defense’s Directorate of Defense, was of the VIPeR series that were equipped with a 9 mm mini-Uzi with scope and pointer, or grenade launcher.
In 2006, Los Angeles began using aerial drones to spy over citizens under the guise of tracking suspects. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) subsequently ended that program. The police force retaliated citing that “there is an immediate need by state and local public safety personnel for unmanned aerial systems.”
The Naval Research Laboratory has developed SAFFiR, the Shipboard Autonomous Firefighting Robot. SAFFiR is an autonomous bipedal humanoid robot, based on the CHARLI-L1 robot created at Virginia Tech. This robot can interact with humans with a comprehensive response system that utilizes language – including slang to make it more familiar. A robot that can hold a conversation and fight fires is quite impressive.
In 2009, with funding from the Pentagon, DARPA created the Multifunction Utility/Logistics and Equipment (MULE) which was a size of a Humvee. This robot car used sensors to drive autonomously and calculate its target, await remote instructions or decide to fire.
MULE’s potential has been in the works for the last 3 years. Its advancement and use as a battlefield vehicle is being tested and readied for deployment. The remote controls mirror those of a gaming console which gives the operator the ease of playing a “video game” while at the same time instructing a deadly piece of equipment on targeted missions.
Unmanned ground vehicles have been in use since Iraq and Afghanistan. They are armed for combat with the same capabilities as ground troops. MULE’s development as an autonomous weapon for the purpose of allowing a robot to decide on whether or not to carry out a mission is advantageous to the US military.
A force of robotic “peacekeepers” that are programed to become violent without remorse – will enable the government to organize and act where human law enforcement and/or trained soldiers may hesitate.
Susanne Posel is the Chief Editor of Occupy Corporatism. Our alternative news site is dedicated to reporting the news as it actually happens; not as it is spun by the corporately funded mainstream media. You can find us on our Facebook page.
Wildcard Friday: Relevant News & Unravelling Reality and the Matrix of Deception. DARPA funding AI Robots, Banking Crisis Warnings, Julian Assange and the future of Whistleb-lowing, Molding Your Reality to what you Prefer, Ley Lines and their Connection to the Mysterious & Impossible Ancient Structures throughout History, Police State Red Flags with Imminent Martial Law? NDAA in USE! Reporting the Facts – You decide.
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Last night I had Nighthawk from Revolution Radio and Ghostwalker, an ex-special forces guy on my show discussing the Batman/Aurora Shooting.
Update as of August 3, 3012 at 1pm: Nitehawkk just sent me the Aurora Police Scanner Transcription click here. (Incredible amount of work :-))
As I posted a few days ago here on this blog the link up between the shooter’s father and the LIBOR scandal is likely a substantial background element that may point to something much bigger going on here.
This recent article by Grace Powers reposted here in with a link to the whole report, is very clear and concise, an excellent overview of the evidence and where it is leading.
Note: I believe Jack Blood broke this story originally regarding the background of Jame Holmes’ father and how that factors in… The links to the Batman movie scenario are also here in Jack Blood’s original article.
Batman Massacre: WHY and HOW and WHO
Written by By Grace Powers July 28, 2012
THE MOTIVES
Robert Holmes, the shooting suspect’s father, is a senior lead scientist with FICO, the American credit score company. He was scheduled to testify in the next few weeks before a US Senate panel that is investigating the largest bank fraud scandal in world history. This banking fraud threatens to destabilize and destroy the Western banking system.
Robert Holmes not only uncovered the true intent of the massive LIBOR banking fraud, but his “predictive algorithm model” also traced the trillions of “hidden”dollars to the exact bank accounts of the elite classes who stole it. In other words, Robert Holmes could NAME NAMES! Those names WOULD AWAKEN THE WORLD to the depth of government and corporate corruption which could include members of Congress, Wall Street, Federal Reserve and EU executives and could even include US Presidential candidates and the British Royal family.
The motives for the massacre are:
1) To silence whistelblower Robert Holmes whose son is now facing a possible death sentence
2) To influence the upcoming vote on the UN Global Small Arms Treaty which could result in gun confiscation and disarming world citizens. The UN treaty could override national sovereignty and give a license to federal governments to assert preemptive gun control powers over state regulatory powers…..continued at
THE BATTLE OF THE ROBOTS OR AI SYSTEMS
With regard to the Batman movie scenario I also think it is significant and not outlined in Jack Blood’s analysis, that the Dark Knight ends up working for the “government” who are portrayed as the good guys in order to stop what I took to be a free energy device that was reconfigured into a “fusion reactor” aka neutron bomb according to the movie. The enemy in other words becomes “free energy devices” which according to the subliminal message can be turned into dangerous weapons (a position that the Illuminati takes to redirect the public away from the exploration into zero-point or what is commonly known as “free energy”). In the movie, the Dark Knight flies the activated device out over the waters around NYC and detonates it, saving the city (and himself) in the process.
It is also notable that the destruction of a stadium is one of the key scenes in the movie… imploding from an underground explosion…
Jack Blood is quite correct with regard to the link between the PROMIS SOFTWARE / OCTOPUS investigation where journalist Danny Casolaro was found dead in a hotel room, supposedly having strangled himself in a bathtub.
The Promis Software story has not reached the mainstream and is key to understanding the DEVELOPMENT OF AI and tracing not only banking transactions but for use in targeting and profiling and a myriad of other capabilities. Whereas the software that the shooter’s father was working on “detects financial fraud” it may be considered a potential and very serious threat to the Promis system and quite possibly be able to detail involvement of the perpetrators in the LIBOR and other banking frauds going on right now.
What comes to mind is the idea here that this enitre scenario as played out in the Aurora Colorado theater was created by an AI that detected a rival software that would threaten those it is SERVING… and therefore constructed a counter to that threat in the form of targeting this apparently quite brilliant (PhD candidate) James Holmes…
In other words, the warning is certainly clear to his father Robert Holmes and likely the entire firm called FICO, Fair Issac Corporation. FAIR ISSAC sounds to me like the name of a robot… I would surmise what we have here is a battle between robots or ARTIFICIALLY INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS. The is something MUCH GREATER going on here than meets the eye or has been yet revealed.
Note that the Credit reporting organization certainly appears on surface to be a loyal part of the surveillance aparatus of the NWO. So how is it that an individual, Robert Holmes, became such a threat to the system, such that his son was sacrificed on the alter of mind control in service of sending such a message?
Yes, lesser objectives such as gun control and public terror is always a goal of such operations. But in light of the links as mentioned in the above articles to the Olympics, what we have here is a picture that begins to look like a multi-city op that has at it’s core a larger objective.
THE GEOMETRIC CONSTRUCTION AKA DARKLY MAGICAL ACT
I am convinced, based on all of the evidence and my previous points that there is much more going on here. The battle of the robots/AI systems may be the only real indicator of something more diabolical and more far reaching than what we have discovered so far.
I suggest that this is a geometrical carefully formulated plot that goes from Aurora Colorado (goddess of the Golden Dawn) to the London Olympics with the Silverstein ownership in the background echoing the Twin Towers of 911, to a third point… that has yet to be revealed. At the very least there will emerge 3 locations creating a triangle because as any magician knows, (whether in service to the dark or the light) that is the very minimum needed when casting a spell or taking an action aimed at changing or affecting ‘reality’.