US Seeks “Drone” Domination “Nationally”
While the US is still escalating its use of drone in Afghanistan and Pakistan, it is now planning on exploiting them over its own territories.
In a report, The Washington Post indicated that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recently proposed new rules, after being pressured by the Pentagon, on the use of domestic drones, which would be implemented by 2015.
The Pentagon warned that with two wars wind down, with reference to the US failures in Afghanistan and Iraq, "nearly 7,500 robotic aircraft overseas need a place to come home to", The Post reported.
However, the US daily indicated that journalists and businesses have said that they could make "good use" of the drones, while policemen already started taking advantage of them.
Previously in the first week of February, the US Congress has already passed a bill to make it easier for the government to launch the spy drones above its own territories.
On this level, the Post quoted Steven Aftergood, who heads the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, as saying in light of the passed Congress bill, "There are serious policy question on the horizon about privacy and surveillance, by both government agencies and commercial entities".
Also, US citizens' concerns over this issue has been increasing, however; according to a recent Stanford Law Review study, the Washington Post stated that contemporary privacy law would not be able to make a difference in stopping the bill or new laws posed in this regard.
Moreover, the Post highlighting some expectations that the use of spy drones would be useful in some areas such as journalism; having it become a "platform for journalism" and media, business; benefiting farmers who seek assessment of crop damage after storms or real estate agents who seek surveying targeted areas, or even "security"; with police "air" patrols over all US cities.
In this context, worries about "the boundaries of privacy" therefore accompany the said usage, the Post implied.
In this regard, Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union's Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, told a Washington Post correspondent that "drones raise the prospect of much more pervasive surveillance".
"They can be a valuable tool in certain kinds of operations. But what we don't want to see is their pervasive use to watch over the American people", Stanley also added.
Source: The Washington Post, Edited by moqawama.org team
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