The New York Times reports: A month after the last American troops left Iraq, the State Department is operating a small fleet of surveillance drones here to help protect the United States Embassy and consulates, as well as American personnel. Senior Iraqi officials expressed outrage at the program, saying the unarmed aircraft are an affront to Iraqi sovereignty.
The program was described by the department’s diplomatic security branch in a little-noticed section of its most recent annual report and outlined in broad terms in a two-page online prospectus for companies that might bid on a contract to manage the program. It foreshadows a possible expansion of unmanned drone operations into the diplomatic arm of the American government; until now they have been mainly the province of the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency.
American contractors say they have been told that the State Department is considering plans to field unarmed surveillance drones in a handful of other potentially “high-threat” countries, including Indonesia and Pakistan, and in Afghanistan after the bulk of American troops leave in the next two years. State Department officials say that no decisions have been made beyond the drone operations in Iraq.
The drones are the latest example of the State Department’s efforts to take over functions in Iraq that the military used to perform. Some 5,000 private security contractors now protect the embassy’s 11,000-person staff, for example, and typically drive around in heavily armored military vehicles.
When embassy personnel move throughout the country, small helicopters buzz over the convoys to provide support in case of an attack. Often, two contractors armed with machine guns are tethered to the outside of the helicopters. The State Department began operating some drones in Iraq last year on a trial basis, and stepped up their use after the last American troops left Iraq in December, taking the military drones with them.
Considering the U.S. made a gigantic mess out of the country [Iraq], now they want to overfly the country as well as other countries as well. Truly, insanity does reign in the U.S.Government.
Sorry Paul, but this comment is driven from reading GlennG’s Panetta piece. In his critique of Panetta’s interview with ScottPelley GG says Panetta lies about accused terrorists getting their day in court. That set me to reflecting, and I wonder whether I’d rather they knowingly lie and simply sell propaganda, or whether it isn’t more interesting if they don’t know they are lying.
Do they need to believe the system is fair to sleep at night? Or, do they not give a shit? Is this big ship of state gonna mangle a few dolphins in it’s propeller one way or another, we can’t cry, or lose sleep over some collateral damage? Either is problematic, one is delusional, the other risks laziness over these inevitable losses.
I don’t know, maybe I’m kinda autistic and unaware of it, but I really try to be earnest. I don’t fret petty white lies, though I honestly try to avoid even them. But, is everyone else simply faking it and just gaming the system? I used to have a funny mind screw when I’d try to bring back the 60’s, when somewhat out of my mind, I’d wonder if I was the big stick in the mud keeping the party from becoming an orgy. I thought is was consideration for my modesty that was keeping everyone so restrained. Sometimes I feel like just such a stick in the mud, cleaving to earnestness so.