America’s Secret Empire of Drone Bases: Its Full Extent Revealed for the First Time

http://www.alternet.org/story/152756/america%E2%80%99s_secret_empire_of_drone_bases%3A_its_full_extent_revealed_for_the_first_time_?akid=7722.277129.ft77aR&rd=1&t=2

October 16, 2011 |

They increasingly dot the planet. There’s a facility outside Las Vegas where “pilots” work in climate-controlled trailers, another at a dusty camp in Africa formerly used by the French Foreign Legion, a third at a big air base in Afghanistan where Air Force personnel sit in front of multiple computer screens, and a fourth that almost no one talks about at an air base in the United Arab Emirates.

And that leaves at least 56 more such facilities to mention in an expanding American empire of unmanned drone bases being set up worldwide. Despite frequent news reports on the drone assassination campaign launched in support of America’s ever-widening undeclared wars and a spate of stories on drone bases in Africa and the Middle East, most of these facilities have remained unnoted, uncounted, and remarkably anonymous -- until now.

Run by the military, the Central Intelligence Agency, and their proxies, these bases -- some little more than desolate airstrips, others sophisticated command and control centers filled with computer screens and high-tech electronic equipment -- are the backbone of a new American robotic way of war. They are also the latest development in a long-evolving saga of American power projection abroad -- in this case, remote-controlled strikes anywhere on the planet with a minimal foreign “footprint” and little accountability.

Using military documents, press accounts and other open source information, an in-depth analysis by AlterNet has identified at least 60 bases integral to U.S. military and CIA drone operations. There may, however, be more, since a cloak of secrecy about drone warfare leaves the full size and scope of these bases distinctly in the shadows.

national sovereignty of nations, to blow the victim up without even the courtesy of notifying the violated country?

How much longer will the rest of the world tolerate us waging war on them?

I think the state of emergency pretends to give this power to the CIC and SecD via a legal team of crazies.

For every dollar spent on drones, the MIC gets to rip-off the public for a million. An insanely hellish and unsustainable feed-back loop.

But hey, mums the word.

:thumbsup:

The first time we attack a real enemy, instead of just propping up a dictator for oil, they're going to fight back seriously. Our infrastructure is exactly as valid a target as their infrastructure.

We need to understand that this is setting us all up as targets for terrorism - THIS is what they mean by permanent global war.

I don't like it, but I think this is just the way things are going to be in the future. The battle for us is going to be to find a way to keep these things from being turned against us, though that's probably already happening.

GameBoy advanced.


K&R

think that this won't be used against us?? jeesus....:eyes: