U.S. Building Secret Drone Bases In Africa, Arabian Peninsula, Officials Say

The Washington Post:

The Obama administration is assembling a constellation of secret drone bases for counterterrorism operations in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula as part of a newly aggressive campaign to attack al-Qaeda affiliates in Somalia and Yemen, U.S. officials said.

Read the whole story

Comments

[jdjay]

10:42 AM on 09/22/2011

If we are approaching an apocalyptic end the expansion of the drone warfare programs are up on the top of the list for the reasons why. This drone warfare is obnoxious national elitism in its most repulsive form. It stands in complete contradiction to the codes of honor that are to be maintained during times of war. How many innocent women and children has the U.S. killed with these drones? Thousands.

I would argue, in fact, that programs like this are bringing bad karma on the U.S. in ways that are not so obvious. If there is a God, which I do believe there is, how do you think He feels when he sees a man playing video games in Arizona killing innocent people in Pakistan? How do you think He feels when he sees a 2 year old girl slaughtered by a man playing atari in Arizona? I would say it makes Him very, very angry.

[vippy]

09:57 AM on 09/22/2011

Pretty soon, we will have all Africa invaded, but wait, not those with nothing to offer but genocide!

[shelby35]

02:28 AM on 09/22/2011

I actually like drones. It means less troops have to be sent over to some foreign land and be killed. It practically saves our soldiers lives. Why is that wrong?

[glenn113]

01:14 AM on 09/22/2011

Didn't these wonderful upstanding terrorists know it was a boo-boo to set up ied's along a road the American and allied troops use. Well, I guess we won't have to worry abou them anymore. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUMpI7NiHNo&list=FLm9lJYpyWCPZl3HcP89FHjg&index=2 or these guys either. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjOUA6YxvpU&list=FLm9lJYpyWCPZl3HcP89FHjg&index=1

[vascopyjama]

11:35 PM on 09/21/2011

US government is building secret schools, hospitals, roads and bridges across the United States.

[Hel P]

08:01 PM on 09/21/2011

the world is not your little playground...

[Starling5]

11:37 PM on 09/21/2011

Try telling that to the members of the New World Order Agenda...
USA...UK...ISRAEL...FRANCE...GERMANY.

ISRAEL being the HUB of it all.

I do believe that the AntiChrist is not one person, but a BODY of people's mindsets:
Israel will take the World down, and for no particular reason but to 'make a senseless point'...
A kind of suicide mission, but one that nobody cares about...least of all myself.
Well, I say, good riddance to you, even if I have to go down with you and your corrupt, perverted and sordid stance against Mother Earth, I will stand satisfied that your kind has been obliterated for good.

You spoilt my whole extended day on Earth!

[Netta Chinn]

10:56 AM on 09/22/2011

More please Starling!

[Eye Sea You]

06:24 PM on 09/21/2011

Put a token in and play the video game. Kill real live human beings with a joy stick.

[Jan Allen McDaniel]

05:42 PM on 09/21/2011

Flying drones are just the beginning:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/national-security/a-future-for-drones-automated-killing/2011/09/15/gIQAVy9mgK_story.html?hpid=z1

[RationalityPlease]

03:16 PM on 09/21/2011

Political football teams, completely aside: May our nation survive all of those who cheer on our country's criminal behaviors in service of the New Feudal Masters (financial/ war crimes) around the world.

[Salfana]

09:16 PM on 09/21/2011

I read many of your comments. I share your views on many subject. If you read sometimes my posts you will find I have a lot of problems on my written English. It is not given to everyone to express themselves so eloquently,although I have tried for years.

On the other hand I draw well (Ha! Ha!).

[RationalityPlease]

12:16 AM on 09/22/2011

Sometimes those who have difficulties with writing wind up being the most eloquent of all.

Pleased to meet you.

[Karl Gartner]

02:14 PM on 09/21/2011

There goes Obama...
Apparently he's reading the political polls for the war upside down - again.
When somebody gives him poll data, they should really mark it with "This Side Up"

[flkewlkid00]

01:51 PM on 09/21/2011

pssssst can you keep a secret? catch this the us is building drone bases in africa dont tell anybody

[Staxx]

01:34 PM on 09/21/2011

Yay! Hail, the killer nation!

[natureboy10307]

05:05 PM on 09/21/2011

*Killer nation*? If we didn't take out most of Al-Qaeda, they would of attacked us again, we found documents of them planning hundreds of future attacks before we killed Osama, so how about you move our or get off our !@#$s.

[ruolivert]

07:30 PM on 09/21/2011

al-qaeda only had the opportunity to attack us because we supported them in Afghanistan to stop the Russians. Then we didn't leave and they attacked us for the same reason. This didn't all start because of 9/11

[snowballinhell]

02:54 AM on 09/22/2011

Naw, they'd only go after Wall$treet again. They know what hurts us most is the same thing that hurts us most.

[Will98]

01:28 PM on 09/21/2011

I voted for Obama,

NOT Bush version 2.0.

[shelby35]

02:29 AM on 09/22/2011

You weren't listening then. This is exactly what Obama promised.

[snowballinhell]

02:57 AM on 09/22/2011

None of us heard everything, including you. How is the Gitmo closing going? How about the end of torture? How about the killing of American citizens without cause? How about electronic surveillance? Hey, how about those Bush Tax cuts? Taken care of as promised?

[snowballinhell]

02:57 AM on 09/22/2011

x2

[john bruno]

01:25 PM on 09/21/2011

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL.....How can they be SECRET bases if they are on the internet?

Just sayin'

[MarcEdward]

01:06 PM on 09/21/2011

The entire justification for such a program is that life has value, so to protect many lives we have to sacrifice a few, mostly terrorists, and those unlucky enough or with the bad judgment to be in the company of terrorists. If we really believed this, than in the USA, when we have a hostage situation, we’d save time, money, and risking our police officers by simply blowing up the building where the hostage taker is, killing the criminal hostage taker and his hostages all at once. Of course we wouldn’t do that, because you cannot justify killing innocent people just to get one or two guilty ones. This standard, that innocent life must be protected, applies to people in Yemen and Somalia just as much as it applies to Americans.
There is also an issue of sovereignty. Most people (not me) agree with the maxim “Do unto others what you’d have done onto yourself.” Applying this Golden Rule, one must ask, would the USA, or any 1st world nation, put up with any other nation killing their citizens? Would we, in the USA, endure other nation’s drones buzzing over our heads on a day to day basis, trusting that they’d only “take out the bad guys”? We all know that we’d never tolerate such a thing, not having American buildings blown up, not even the drones flying over our heads. If we would not endure this, why should they? We cannot justify this violation of sovereignty if we’d not tolerate it here.
Another problem is the whole question of due process, which is simply this: you don’t execute people based on suspicion. You arrest a criminal, you build a legal case against him, you try him in a court with a judge and jury with the presumption of innocence, and only after a guilty verdict can you punish the criminal. As the current system operates, we are told we should trust the CIA (which has a long history of lying to the American people) to pick out those people who deserve death, and without benefit of judicial review or any legal defense, those folks are killed. Of course we’ve also misidentified people and killed them, a crime for which that person’s family has no recourse. What would we in the USA do if a foreign power started killing innocent civilians in the USA on the basis of mere suspicion? Would we accept the line of “Just trust us, we know what we’re doing”? We are accepting this now because Americans are afraid and it is people who don’t look like us who are being killed. The killing of people without any form of due process or oversight is unacceptable and totally un-American.

[mrhandyman3105]

02:13 PM on 09/21/2011

You are overstating the use of drone attacks when there are clearly hostages involved. I would never believe that the current administration would order or even condone a drone attack where there are clearly innocent hostages involved. However, if there are civilians in the target area it would almost be implied that those civilians are engaged in somewhat of a "support" role or involved in some "business" transaction with the terrorist. No individual who is "NOT" supportive of the terrorist would be in the area as they would have no dealings with the terrorists. Since the country harboring these terrorists knowing allow such activities to occur or continue inside their borders, and "knowing" that the United States will take "unilateral" action to eliminate those terrorists, then they are underhandedly committing acts or supporting acts of aggression against the United States, and therefore the due process rule of international law "should not" apply to them as it has been agreed upon numerous times by the international community, nor the rule of justice as we understand it here in the United States should apply. Our law of due process is made for the citizens of the United States and those individuals within its borders and do not/should not apply to terrorists outside its borders. Also, the United States is not engaged in attacking individuals based on mere suspicion but in all cases there is some irrefutable evidence that the individual(s) are either terrorists or engaged in a supportive role of terrorism.

[MarcEdward]

05:18 PM on 09/21/2011

Wives and children are no different than hostages.

[vippy]

09:49 AM on 09/22/2011

The only way to fight the war on terror is NOT TO PARTICIPATE! But no, this keeps getting bigger and bigger and more and more people despise us. How would you feel if one in your family gets killed by accident from an invading force?

[natureboy10307]

05:09 PM on 09/21/2011

Would you raither have your children or family go there yourself? and were helping the world out by sending in unmanned-aircrafts to take out the people killing innocents, i do not agree with you.