Are Drones Coming to U.S. Skies?

Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Predator B

It likely is just a matter of time before unmanned aircraft, including the type being used in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, are flying over America’s friendly skies. State and federal officials, especially the Department of Homeland Security, are pressuring the Federal Aviation Administration

(FAA) to allow pilotless planes of all sizes to move through U.S. airspace in order to carry out a variety of missions.
 
Border patrol operations already are using Predators to help monitor areas near Mexico, and homeland security officials want to expand this use to guard the border with Canada and spot drug smugglers off American coastlines. The ability of the pilotless aircraft to fly up to 20 hours at a time makes them attractive to law enforcement.
 
Other proponents of drones include tornado researchers who want to send them into storms to gather data; energy companies seeking to monitor pipelines; and police pursuing suspects in cars.
 
The FAA has been at work since 2006 on plans to allow unmanned aircraft to fly over the U.S. Officials in the Department of Defense have accused FAA officials of dragging their feet, but the agency insists it’s erring on the side of safety.
 
“I think industry and some of the operators are frustrated that we’re not moving fast enough, but safety is first,” Hank Krakowski, FAA’s head of air traffic operations, told the Associated Press. “This isn’t Afghanistan. This isn’t Iraq. This is a part of the world that has a lot of light airplanes flying around, a lot of business jets.”
-Noel Brinkerhoff
 
FAA Under Pressure to Open U.S. Skies to Drones (by Joan Lowry, Associated Press)

Comments

FreshMeatz 14 years ago
That is fine with me I will have a fine collection of used parts for them to choose from once they start flying over my house. I have a feeling civil war will overcome military complex corruption.
CrashingTiger 14 years ago
Have you ever read more of a fluff FLACK piece on another brick in the wall move by the good ole' US Government to prison-a-tize life in Amerika?! This is a huge control the population move. If allowed, constant live aerial surveillance with state of the art optics, cameras, and recording equipment that will receive full tax paid funding will be an invasive reality in more ways than we can currently imagine. These blowhards are simply part of the sell your soul machine for a dollar and damn a single thought about any consequence. How illustrative of the brain dead, zombified media drones already buzzing our airspace on a daily basis. I hope folks can comprehend the grade school misdirection of the media and commenters thinly veiled as positive feedback to get this put in place, disguised as "feel good momentum" and "entertainment" and "pressure on the Fed" (from who exactly?), and "gee, this will be cool and good for everyone". This country is on a Marxist Elite know better take over plan that was put in place long ago and is now accelerated. The annihilation of the middle class and poor has been underway since the 70's. As a primer, read the Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein. She captures the historical elements and formula in detail about what has been going as a means to steal power and do away with people's rights while folks are purposely distracted by flat wages, rising costs, and forced to work several jobs to stay afloat and attempt to keep family together. All by design...and theres a lot more...
Joseph Conrad 14 years ago
If Americans permit pilotless drones an other surveillance aircraft to fly over this nation on phoney Social Control missions, they deserve to lose their nation FOREVER to the Welathy Old White Men ruining it now!

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