Romancing the Drones

Predator Drones are reportedly patrolling in civilian skies more and more and Americans had better educate themselves about the use of these machines in law enforcement and the potential for their use to shatter our conceptions of freedom and what is private.





Suppose you are walking down a street. You've just left a bar and it's nighttime, late. The streets are deserted but just then a police cruiser pulls up in a driveway blocking your way, and another pulls up quickly from behind. With guns drawn, they demand you drop your weapon and get on the ground. You just came from a bar and no one saw or knew you had the small pistol in your boot. You're working out of town and feel more comfortable with the backup of the .380 should you need it. How did they know you had a gun?  You didn't know it, but you're in a jurisdiction that outlaws the posession of firearms. They knew your name, and not only you had a gun, but where you're hiding it...right now! Impossible? Of course since you don't carry a gun or work out of town! But this scenario is actually happening with the technological aid of the UAV high above the scene. It is far from impossible.

New UAV's are being produced, at the behest of the Department of Homeland Security, that possess the capability to, among other things, detect a weapon on a person on the ground, and through high-res video can match an identity through facial recognition software. These new features include being able to detect, home in and track a cell phone user, as well as monitor the conversation.

The use of this technology on civilians on United States soil is disconcerting. Those of us who pay attention to this see it for what it is: a further ability of the Government to strip away our privacy. We have another common belief...that you can't trust the Government. This type of technology on their hands will most assuredly be used against us...as needed. So it's time to aquiant ourselves first with the military's UAV's, then with the civilian versions of the original eye in the sky, the Predator Drone.

The Predator is 27' long and has a wingspan of 49'. It was built by General Atomics from San Diego, Ca, whose Tier II platform first flew in '94, first entered production in 97, although early versions were put into service immediately during the Bosnian War in the mid-90's.

The RQ-1 was a long endurance, medium altitude UAV providing surveillance imagery from synthetic aperture radar, video cameras and forward looking infrared or FLIR. Data can be distributed in real time to both the front line soldier and the operations command or worldwide in real time via satellite. New Updates and Upgrades are MQ-1 and  MQ-9 Reaper UAV which has seen action in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The system operates at an altitude of 25,000 ft and at a range of 400nm. Cruising speed is over 70kt. The vehicle is equipped with uhf and vhf radio relay links, a C-band line-of-sight data link which has a range of 150nm and uhf and Ku-band satellite data links.

On the Civilian Version, surveillance and reconnaissance payload capacity is 450 lbs. including electro-optical and infrared cameras, and synthetic aperture radar. DLTV television is equipped with a variable zoom and 955mm spotter. High resolution FLIR has six fields of view, from 19mm to 560mm.

Senator Rand Paul has stood up for us and our rights, including that of due process and privacy by staging a filibuster to block the nomination of the new head of the CIA, John Brennan. As Sen. Paul says, Mr. Brennan appears to be a man who has no problem with the use of predator drones on civilians...and thats a problem!

We should send a letter to our local and state representatives and explain our opposition to being spied upon and having our privacy shrunk even further from complete privacy- which we haven't had , sadly, for a very long time.

-katykarter