Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich team up to oppose drones

Saturday, December 8, 2012

The use of combat drones overseas divides Congress, but not in the usual partisan way.

Supporters of the “war on terror” in both parties tend to support the use of unmanned aircraft that often try to assassinate terrorism suspects. But libertarian Republicans have teamed up with civil liberties-backing Democrats to oppose the drones.

Now, the partisan trenches have been crossed by Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D – Ohio, and Rep. Ron Paul, R – Texas, in order to force the administration to release its legal justification.

The two mavericks who are leaving Congress at year’s end have introduced a resolution of inquiry — legislation that is used to compel specific documents from the administration, and must be considered by the committee of jurisdiction, or on the House floor, within 14 legislative days.

Since the legislation was introduced on November 28, it could come before the House this year, which means that the administration will be forced to turn over the legal justification it uses for the strikes, including any memos from the Office of Legal Counsel.

“Thus far, the administration has refused to release the memo or any documents, despite multiple requests from members of Congress on both sides of the aisle. Intelligence operations that have virtually no transparency, accountability or oversight raise serious legal questions, particularly when such programs may constitute possible violations of international law or the Constitution of the United States,” Kucinich said in a press statement.

Both Kucinich and Paul oppose the use of drones “because they increase radicalization among the population of the countries we use them in, violate the U.S. Constitution, kill innocent people and stain our nation’s moral consciousness.”

chron.com

Autonomous attack drones will be with us by 2047

Autonomous attack drones will be with us by 2047, according to the US military, who’s newly released “Unmanned Aircraft Systems Flight Plan 2009-2047″ report states that the US Air Force will have a drone that could fly over a target and then make the decision whether or not to launch an attack, all without human intervention.

On this, the US Air Force said:

“Advances in AI will enable systems to make combat decisions and act within legal and policy constraints without necessarily requiring human input.”

Scary is the word today, because that line ‘without human intervention’ means no rationale or ethical boundaries to be followed by the drone.

Whats more, if anybody has seen Stealth or the Terminator, this all sounds way too close for comfort, being that technology could one day take us over, with robots enslaving us like cattle (Moooh?).

Source Link