Signals from the Predator robot hit

Washington Times ^ | 11/08/02 | Austin Bay

[kattracks]

Al Qaeda's zealots never thought they would be fighting American robots

[Hugin]

The United States bans political assassinations...,p. Actually, the United States law does not ban them. There is a presidential directive that bans the assasination of foreign heads of state, but Bush signed a finding after 9/11that that does not apply to Al Qaeda and their supporters.

[Cultural Jihad]

BTTT for justice.

[jws3sticks]

[Dialup Llama]

Binnie likes asymmetrical war. How does he like assymetical counter strikes? The assymetrical crapola works both ways. That so called American who got greased in the attack. He was there hanging with the 'great leaders' in the rear eschelon all safe... he thought he was the bees kneees. Now he's a carbon smudge.

[Dialup Llama]

The way the predator is painted, you could look up at it and not see it, even in daytime. I wonder if it can change its colors according to local lighting and weather conditions? That would make it invisible.

[Dialup Llama]

If those clowns were politicians then it would have been an assasination. They weren't and it wasn.t'

[VOA]

Al Qaeda's zealots never thought they would be fighting American robots — and losing.

- and dying in a bomb blast and flame.

Once Al Quida has been sufficiently neutralized, the US Military should announce their
thanks for the opportunity to hone their skills with the Predator...

[keepvotin]

Unfortunately, it turns out that this Predator Drone tends to be messy. Last year in Afghanistan it killed the last three remaining men in an afghani village, all of whom turned out to be non-al Qaeda.

Now this article http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/08/international/middleeast/08YEME.html
says one of the guys in that car was an American.

If there was an American in that car, al Qaeda or no, he should have gotten a fair trial. These robots are definitely the future, but they still have a few problems to work out.

From what I hear a big part of the $375 billion defense budget will go towards new drones that are designed as military drones, as opposed to the Predator which was originally just for spying.

That should be an improvement.

[Dialup Llama]

>If there was an American in that car, al Qaeda or no, he should have gotten a fair trial.

Of course not. There were Americans in the Japanese and German armies in WWII. Should we have stopped attacking and sent in US Marshalls, and arrested them to ensure a fair trial? He was an enemy soldier and subject to attack without notice.

[ccmay]

If there was an American in that car, al Qaeda or no, he should have gotten a fair trial.

Fourteen months ago I would have agreed with you. And I would certainly not want to see this device used within our borders. But in this case? Great shoot!

-ccm

[ccmay]

Last year in Afghanistan it killed the last three remaining men in an afghani village, all of whom turned out to be non-al Qaeda.

Regrettable, but a trivial footnote in the history of civilian collateral damage during times of war.

-ccm

[demosthenes the elder]

whatever happened to the extended-range high-bypass jet propelled stealth drone called the "DarkStar"?
That thing looked terrifying... when it was visible at all.

[chuckles]

How about patrolling OUR borders?

[demosthenes the elder]

Is it?

[demosthenes the elder]

http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/infoelect/darkstaruav/

project was terminated as of 1999.
no data of more recent vintage available on cursory search.
any and all: I hunger for more recent information about this drone, and more complete data - it looked like a very promising project, and I'd like to know if it was *truly* scrubbed, if so:why? and whether it was replaced with a more advanced/ambitious daughter program a-la Tacit-Blue/B2Bomber... so get out there and scrounge, FReeps!

[fooman]

Your kidding, right? Look at your passport. If join a forein military as an enemy combatant, you are NOT a citizen.

YOU ARE TOAST!

[Rifleman]

Paging Dean Ing, Dean Ing call your office.


Heh, heh.

[Valin]

From what I hear a big part of the $375 billion defense budget will go towards new drones that are designed as military drones, as opposed to the Predator which was originally just for spying.

Three words
Recon
Recon
Recon.
A very good argument could be made that this is the most important part of any military operation. If you don't know where the bad guys are, you can't kill them.

[Guillermo]

Amazing how the Left condemned this attack.

"Now we're really going to piss them off".