NightBlogger

Michael Webster
Investigative Reporter
Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV´s) and Space-Based Domestic Spying Surveillance technology the U.S. Government is now watching American citizens under the guise of disaster management and controlling the U.S. Mexican border. The Reaper/Predator B UAV´s robotic killing machines are currently in operation with the USAF, US Navy and the Royal Air Force. In addition non military users of the Predator B include: NASA and Homeland security though the US Customs and Border Protection agencies.

The Reaper/Predator B UAV´s robotic killing machine

The Department of Homeland Security´s (DHS) space-based domestic spy program run by that agency´s National Applications Office (NAO) is now in full operation. Indeed during Hurricane Ike, U.S. Customs and Border Protection for the first time flew the Predator B unmanned aerial vehicle in “support of the Federal Emergency Management Agency´s relief efforts,” the insider tech publication reported. Tom Burghardt in a recent article wrote that the Predator B carries out “targeted assassinations” of “terrorist suspects” across Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan. The deployment of the robotic killing machines in the United States for “disaster management” is troubling to say the least and a harbinger of things to come.

Despite objections by Congress and civil liberties groups DHS, in close collaboration with the ultra-spooky National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), the agency that develops and maintains America´s fleet of military spy satellites, and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) that analyzes military imagery and generates mapping tools, are proceeding with the first phase of the controversial domestic spying program. NAO will coordinate how domestic law enforcement and “disaster relief” agencies such as FEMA will use satellite imagery intelligence (IMINT) generated by military spy satellites. Burghardt wrote earlier this year, unlike commercial satellites, their military cousins are far more flexible, have greater resolution and therefore possess more power to monitor human activity. More

Just for fun, let’s take a look at the ultra-spooky National Reconnaissance Office Control Center:

Watch it:

USAF: National Reconnaissance Office Control Center

The Army has agreed to investigate a disproportionate cluster of suicides among recruiters in an East Texas battalion - news that a local Army widow said she was relieved to hear. Secretary of the Army Pete Geren said the investigation also will focus on allegations from other soldiers and family members that they were pressured to cover up serious problems in the battalion. The investigation was sought by U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who heard from soldiers and family members after the Houston Chronicle reported the cluster of suicides earlier this year. Cornyn, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, complained to Geren in a letter that recruiters and family members felt some battalion leaders were “working to cover up serious problems that evidence a toxic command climate and poor unit morale.” Cornyn told The Associated Press on Friday that he’s concerned about the Houston battalion, but noted “it also has implications militarywide.” More

Source: MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia plans to cut its army to 1 million people by 2013, Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said on Monday. “We propose to have an army of 1 million within four or five years, that is by 2013,” Russian media quoted Serdyukov as telling reporters after meeting President Dmitry Medvedev. Russian officials had earlier put the number of Russian army servicemen at 1.13 million at the end of 2007. Serdyukov said the Defense Ministry had earlier planned to reduce the army to 1 million servicemen by 2016. He said the army would shrink to 1.1 million by 2011.

“…the inspector general criticized the Army investigator for losing a critical piece of evidence.” Lost? Yeah, sure. More likely appropriated.

(Reuters) - U.S. soldiers who killed a Reuters journalist in Iraq acted within military rules, but the Army’s probe of the incident was tainted by its failure to preserve evidence, a Pentagon investigation said on Monday. The Defense Department’s inspector general, the Pentagon’s watchdog agency, found that U.S. soldiers who fired on a Reuters car in west Baghdad in August 2005, killing Reuters Television soundman Waleed Khaled, reasonably responded to what they thought was a threat. But the inspector general criticized the Army investigator for losing a critical piece of evidence — video from a Reuters cameraman in the car that captured events leading up to and including the shooting. More

npr.org
Pentagon officials reported Thursday that 115 soldiers committed suicide during 2007 — the highest number since at least 1980. Army officials said the main reason soldiers ended their lives was a failed relationship, but long or repeated tours of duty were major factors. The suicide rate — a 13 percent increase over 2006 — was the highest since the Army began compiling suicide figures in 1980. The majority of those soldiers who took their own lives were young, white and unmarried. Most were junior enlisted soldiers.

Nearly half the suicides took place after a soldier returned home. About one-fourth of the soldiers who killed themselves were never deployed overseas, army officials said. Army officials also found that most of those who committed suicide did not seek psychiatric care. Military officials said they are now working to remove the stigma of seeing a counselor and hiring more mental health providers. They are also educating fellow soldiers about how to spot the warning signs. Still, the suicides continue. So far this year, the Army has had 50 confirmed and pending suicides.

Sharon Weinberger
Wired
The Army’s very strange webpage on “Voice-to-Skull” weapons has been removed. It was strange it was there, and it’s even stranger it’s gone. If you Google it, you’ll see the entry for “Voice-to-Skull device,” but, if you click on the website, the link is dead. The entry, still available on the Federation of American Scientists’ website reads:

Nonlethal weapon which includes (1) a neuro-electromagnetic device which uses microwave transmission of sound into the skull of persons or animals by way of pulse-modulated microwave radiation; and (2) a silent sound device which can transmit sound into the skull of person or animals. NOTE: The sound modulation may be voice or audio subliminal messages. One application of V2K is use as an electronic scarecrow to frighten birds in the vicinity of airports.

Read more

Photo James Gordon

In an announcement that puts troops and their families in the middle of a political dispute, a Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday that the Army will not be able to pay soldiers after June 15 unless Congress approves an emergency war funding bill…Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell was very clear in a meeting with reporters. “June 15th is the last payroll the Army at this point can make without congressional action,” he said. Read more

I thought the NSA already had this under control.

Even seemingly innocent personal blogs are on the Army’s official watch list, according to a report leaked to the controversial Wikileaks website. Web sites include, but are not limited to, “Family Readiness Group (FRG) pages, unofficial Army web sites, Soldier’s web logs (blogs), and personal published or unpublished works related to the Army.”
Read more

Photo Chavezonico

This from the LA Times: The following “metrics” — data the military collects to assess its strength — were compiled from open sources by the nonpartisan Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

In 2006, the percentage of Army recruits who were high school graduates (82%) was the lowest since 1981, and their scores on the military’s aptitude test were the worst since 1985. The number of “moral waivers” issued to those with criminal records more than tripled since 1996, to 8,500 in 2006. Worse, the number of recruits with felony convictions was up 30% in 2006 compared with 2005. And the Army apparently stooped to social promotion: 94% of recruits graduated from basic training in 2006, compared with 82% in 2005.

Read more