Obama Administration okays Predator drones surveillance on US soil

[Cleverness]

I hope these will be armed with predator missiles so the next time Mexicans arm themselves with rocks, they'll know we mean business.

[Kyreth]

About time. Stuff like these drones make it a lot easier to watch over a bunch of wide-open real estate like the southern US border- not just for immigrants, but for drug shipments.

Would it make the butthurt less if we instead hired thousands of security guards to do it again? They can hit those with more rocks.

[wagon]

how much does it cost to operate a drone (pilot/fuel/operational costs)? money/time would be better spent on working toward a better immigration policies IMO

The solution is obvious if congress isn't so paralyzed and divisive in the issue. I won't hold my breathe that Obama will tackle this issue in his first term, even if he does, new legislation probably won't take effect until years down the road as to give illegals in the country a grace period and employers around the country time to comply. We talking about t least 5 years away from a half measure, and I am being very optimistic.

[Rhinox]

You guys think unarmed predator drones are gonna stop Drug cartels with more money then most third world countries from finding ways of sneaking in drugs? pretty naive

How about we make it legal and eliminate their source of revenue?

Or are we still worried that little Timmy Anderson will try crack after the 8th grade dance?

Or that Clark will move from weed to harder stuff simply because its legal?


This has nothing to do with immigration btw.

Its our retarded war on drugs that has cost us and Mexico more lives then those lost in Iraq and afghanistan combined

[ZarakiKujata]

That'll teach beaners to cross a border in a warzone.

[ZarakiKujata]

You guys think unarmed predator drones are gonna stop Drug cartels with more money then most third world countries from finding ways of sneaking in drugs? pretty naive

How about we make it legal and eliminate their source of revenue?

Or are we still worried that little Timmy Anderson will try crack after the 8th grade dance?

Or that Clark will move from weed to harder stuff simply because its legal?


This has nothing to do with immigration btw.

Its our retarded war on drugs that has cost us and Mexico more lives then those lost in Iraq and afghanistan combined

War on drugs provides another avenue to create public sector jobs in DEA/FBI/ATF/police/prison system, besides weed I doubt anything harder will be legal for a long long time because there are too many jobs reliant on it.

[*Shinzon*]

You guys think unarmed predator drones are gonna stop Drug cartels with more money then most third world countries from finding ways of sneaking in drugs? pretty naive

How about we make it legal and eliminate their source of revenue?

Or are we still worried that little Timmy Anderson will try crack after the 8th grade dance?

Or that Clark will move from weed to harder stuff simply because its legal?


This has nothing to do with immigration btw.

Its our retarded war on drugs that has cost us and Mexico more lives then those lost in Iraq and afghanistan combined

The Drones can be used to capture high-res pictures and thermal images of vehicles traveling across the border. Usually Cartels will smuggle the drugs to certain points along a major highway or roadway on the US side of the border, and then have someone pick the drugs up at a later time. The CBP is pretty good at covering the roads because they'll follow suspicious vehicles traveling along these roads but there is so much to patrol that they can't nail everyone. The Drones will help them track cars for longer distances without actually having to devout manpower. I think it's actually a significant weapon for the CBP to use. Obviously it's not going to end the trafficking but it'll significantly curb the current methods for trafficking. Much like how Florida has made it very difficult to traffic weapons and drugs along the coastline.

[Rhinox]

How exactly would a drone go about Identifying Drug smugglers?

You say its widely used in California but is there results?

[Cephius]

nvm, misunderstood

[*Shinzon*]

How exactly would a drone go about Identifying Drug smugglers?

You say its widely used in California but is there results?

The drones are for the most part used to monitor the rugged terrain along that border that is sometimes prohibitive for even ATVs to travel quickly. If for example, the drone is patrolling the California-Mexico border they can scan large areas of land using thermal imaging that, which several people can examine rather than just a helicopter pilot, and will capture individuals hiding along the roadways preparing drugs for pickup.

The CBP also flags vehicles as suspicious as they cross the border, and even though they may find nothing, sometimes they follow these vehicles that pickup the drugs hidden along the border and take them deeper into the country. The drones could follow these people for very long distances without being seen and can lead officers to stash houses and the like. I can't give you an exact link, but I mentioned in that thread about the CBP agent killing that kid, that there was a well done discovery channel documentary about the CBP. That was how I originally learned of the drone, and most agents mentioned that they can cover much more ground quickly, and can make better decisions about where to deploy manpower based on images captured by the drones.

Now I don't know if the drones alone have contributed to a larger number of drug trafficking arrests made, but when you can have one drone taking images of a large area and have several people analyze these images, unlike if you had one chopper pilot manually scanning the area, I think that is a much more effective way of spending our money. Hell the maintenance alone on these things outweighs any real benefit having choppers patrol the border. They really are cheap in comparison.

I'll try to use my school database access to do a quick search of CRJ and drone related topics but I'm not sure I'll come up with much, I just graduated too so I might not have access to the peer reviewed stuff.

[Plow]

Guys guys! There's checkpoints at the borders where you have to show a passport and you can be searched for no reason!

Soon those checkpoints are going to be installed at every major intersection so they can control our movement completely!

[ZarakiKujata]

Soon those checkpoints are going to be installed at every major intersection so they can control our movement completely!

Does that mean I won't be able to have Cuban cigars no more?

[SamanosukeShiva]

speaking of limiting things coming in/out US border.....

are we still allowed to buy clove cigs off of internet? or the ban was just on selling them?

[Korietsu]

lol?

The RQ-1 Predator drone became the primary unmanned aerial vehicle used for offensive operations in Afghanistan and the Pakistani tribal areas. Its endurance is such that it can fly 400 nautical miles (740 km) to a target, loiter overhead for 14 hours, then return to its base.[6]

When a predator is in flight, there's always a remote operator at the controls for flying it, its unmanned, not autonomous. Generally a pilot and two sensor operators.

More often than not, you're seeing Global Hawks/RQ-1 Predators doing surveillance. You're seeing MQ-9 Reapers (Predator B) doing drone strikes. Global Hawks can cover 40k Square miles, just a little under a 6th of the state of texas per deployment.


And this is why we're using drones to patrol.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/us/24border.html
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100623/...a_mexico_drugs
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/06/16...der-americans/

Local sheriffs on the border towns are asking for US Nat Guard to be deployed to secure the area. They've even shut down areas of southern Arizona because of the problem.

[Jahb]

brown chicks have fat asses

[Rhinox]

Guys guys! We have to look at this from Both sides. On the one side we have the Overreaching government and on the otherside Drug cartels are a major source of crime in our country. Look at me I'm so edgy!

Whats funny is although Plow is being retarded and an all around douchebag they have unoffically moved the Border 100 miles north and are essentially doing illegal search and seizure in these zones.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPOuj-WzAoA

[alt]

This is not that big of a deal. And no matter if you support the tactics or not, drug trafficking and illegal immigration are major issues. If you don't like the way the current administration/congress/etc. is handling it, become an activist/lobbyist and try to get people in positions of power who will do what you think is right, do something anything... Otherwise your just another criticizing back seat driver.

And the term 'police state' has been tossed around so much now it has lost all meaning to me.

[Rhinox]

lol

[alt]

lol

You're really helping out your argument here. Which isn't even really an argument since all your original post contained was some sense of unhappiness with the article revealed through poor use of sarcasm.

[Kuya]

Can't say a militarization of the border makes me feel better about current trends in the US.