Project @DroneStream
As a project for an NYU graduate class, Josh Begley set out to tweet "a complete history of known U.S. drone strikes Tuesday with the goal of doing it all in ten minutes." The first one was:
Nov 3, 2002: In the first known US targeted assassination using a drone, a CIA Predator struck a car, killing 6 (Yemen)Each tweet includes a link to the source news story reporting the strike.
It's going to take a little longer than ten minutes to complete the project. When this was posted at Atlanic Wire, @DroneStream had been at it for five hours with no end in sight. Plus "he's only documenting the strikes we know about, and doesn't include strikes in Afghanistan."
I'm against bombs in general -- always -- but the main reason I'm glad to see a focus on drones is because their use is becoming normalized and civilian police departments are quickly adopting them as tools to fight ordinary domestic crime right here in the U.S. Our civilian law enforcement is already disturbingly over-militarized. Not sure I'm right, but willing to bet, somewhere in America, surveillance drones are being used against us almost every day. Would love to see the same project done documenting that activity.
Labels: Drones, rule of law, Social Media, World politics
posted by Libby Spencer at 7:00 PM
4 Comments:
We've far exceeded Orwells ability to envision a modern surveillance State yet instead of worrying about our walls having eyes, ears, GPS trackers and Infrared sensors we pretend that our real problem is that we're being overtaxed and we're being too lax in regulating private consensual behavior.
Sadly, it seems Liberals are also willing to sell their freedom for a false sense of security.
Thanks media. We love you too.
That boiling frog parable comes to mind...
And all that BS from the Loser party about how Liberals think Obama is Jesus too. That he hadn't done anything or said much in support of our implied right to be left alone and not followed or spied on or listened to in our private matters is very much on my mind of late.
These drones have done more to rid us of al Qaeda operatives however than Bush's gazillion dollar invasions and occupations however. I think they have a place, but that place is not here.
Yes. I hate the whole military response to "fighting" terrorism in the first place, but I agree that the using drones instead of military ground operations are preferable if they're going to do it anyway. Cuts down on the carnage.
But they're slowly trying to normalize them for domestic law enforcement and that's really too far. Bad enough they give them tanks which they use to deliver simple warrants.
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