I worked on the US drone program. The public should know what really goes on

[Jazzbot]

.

I worked on the US drone program. The public should know what really goes on​

Few of the politicians who so brazenly proclaim the benefits of drones have a real clue how it actually works (and doesn't)​

​

Whenever I read comments by politicians defending the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Predator and Reaper program – aka drones – I wish I could ask them a few questions. I'd start with: "How many women and children have you seen incinerated by a Hellfire missile?" And: "How many men have you seen crawl across a field, trying to make it to the nearest compound for help while bleeding out from severed legs?" Or even more pointedly: "How many soldiers have you seen die on the side of a road in Afghanistan because our ever-so-accurate UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] were unable to detect an IED [improvised explosive device] that awaited their convoy?"

Few of these politicians who so brazenly proclaim the benefits of drones have a real clue of what actually goes on. I, on the other hand, have seen these awful sights first hand.

I knew the names of some of the young soldiers I saw bleed to death on the side of a road. I watched dozens of military-aged males die in Afghanistan, in empty fields, along riversides, and some right outside the compound where their family was waiting for them to return home from the mosque.

The US and British militaries insist claim that this is an expert program, but it's curious that they feel the need to deliver faulty information, few or no statistics about civilian deaths and twisted technology reports on the capabilities of our UAVs. These specific incidents are not isolated, and the civilian casualty rate has not changed, despite what our defense representatives might like to tell us.

What the public needs to understand is that the video provided by a drone is not usually clear enough to detect someone carrying a weapon, even on a crystal-clear day with limited cloud and perfect light. This makes it incredibly difficult for the best analysts to identify if someone has weapons for sure. One example comes to mind: "The feed is so pixelated, what if it's a shovel, and not a weapon?" I felt this confusion constantly, as did my fellow UAV analysts. We always wonder if we killed the right people, if we endangered the wrong people, if we destroyed an innocent civilian's life all because of a bad image or angle.

It's also important for the public to grasp that there are human beings operating and analysing intelligence these UAVs. I know because I was one of them, and nothing can prepare you for an almost daily routine of flying combat aerial surveillance missions over a war zone. UAV proponents claim that troops who do this kind of work are not affected by observing this combat because they are never directly in danger physically.

But here's the thing: I may not have been on the ground in Afghanistan, but I watched parts of the conflict in great detail on a screen for days on end. I know the feeling you experience when you see someone die. Horrifying barely covers it. And when you are exposed to it over and over again it becomes like a small video, embedded in your head, forever on repeat, causing psychological pain and suffering that many people will hopefully never experience. UAV troops are victim to not only the haunting memories of this work that they carry with them, but also the guilt of always being a little unsure of how accurate their confirmations of weapons or identification of hostile individuals were.

Of course, we are trained to not experience these feelings, and we fight it, and become bitter. Some troops seek help in mental health clinics provided by the military, but we are limited on who we can talk to and where, because of the secrecy of our missions. I find it interesting that the suicide statistics in this career field aren't reported, nor are the data on how many troops working in UAV positions are heavily medicated for depression, sleep disorders and anxiety.

Recently, the Guardian ran a commentary by Britain's secretary of state for defence, Philip Hammond. I wish I could talk to him about the two friends and colleagues I lost, within a year of leaving the military, to suicide. I am sure he has not been notified of that little bit of the secret UAV program, or he would surely take a closer look at the full scope of the program before defending it again.

The UAVs in the Middle East are used as a weapon, not as protection, and as long as our public remains ignorant to this, this serious threat to the sanctity of human life – at home and abroad – will continue.

I worked on the US drone program. The public should know what really goes on | Heather Linebaugh | Comment is free | theguardian.com



----------------------------

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=254257154738100

سابق امریکی خاتون ڈرون ا ٓپریٹر نے ڈرونز کی صلاحیتوں کا بھانڈا پھوڑ دیا، ڈرون طیارےکی فوٹیج اس قابل ہی نہیں ہوتی کہ اس سے ٹارگٹ،مشکوک شخص یا اسلحہ کا پتہ چلایا جا سکے،آج تک جتنے بھی حملے ہوئے سب محض اندازوں پر کئے گئے۔​

@Leader @A.Rafay @Aeronaut @nuclearpak @RescueRanger @Jungibaaz @mafiya @pkuser2k12 @Slav Defence @Imran Khan @RazPaK @FaujHistorian @hasnain0099 @cb4 @Armstrong @Khalidr @Aamna14 @DESERT FIGHTER @American Pakistani @Cheetah786 @cleverrider @jaibi @Alpha1 @Saifullah Sani @Oscar @airmarshal @W.11 @Irfan Baloch @Tameem @

 

[RescueRanger]

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Kompromat]

@FaujHistorian @Imran Khan @pak-marine

What a massive pack of lies, no?

 

[Cheetah786]

.

I worked on the US drone program. The public should know what really goes on​

Few of the politicians who so brazenly proclaim the benefits of drones have a real clue how it actually works (and doesn't)​

​

Whenever I read comments by politicians defending the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Predator and Reaper program – aka drones – I wish I could ask them a few questions. I'd start with: "How many women and children have you seen incinerated by a Hellfire missile?" And: "How many men have you seen crawl across a field, trying to make it to the nearest compound for help while bleeding out from severed legs?" Or even more pointedly: "How many soldiers have you seen die on the side of a road in Afghanistan because our ever-so-accurate UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] were unable to detect an IED [improvised explosive device] that awaited their convoy?"

Few of these politicians who so brazenly proclaim the benefits of drones have a real clue of what actually goes on. I, on the other hand, have seen these awful sights first hand.

I knew the names of some of the young soldiers I saw bleed to death on the side of a road. I watched dozens of military-aged males die in Afghanistan, in empty fields, along riversides, and some right outside the compound where their family was waiting for them to return home from the mosque.

The US and British militaries insist claim that this is an expert program, but it's curious that they feel the need to deliver faulty information, few or no statistics about civilian deaths and twisted technology reports on the capabilities of our UAVs. These specific incidents are not isolated, and the civilian casualty rate has not changed, despite what our defense representatives might like to tell us.

What the public needs to understand is that the video provided by a drone is not usually clear enough to detect someone carrying a weapon, even on a crystal-clear day with limited cloud and perfect light. This makes it incredibly difficult for the best analysts to identify if someone has weapons for sure. One example comes to mind: "The feed is so pixelated, what if it's a shovel, and not a weapon?" I felt this confusion constantly, as did my fellow UAV analysts. We always wonder if we killed the right people, if we endangered the wrong people, if we destroyed an innocent civilian's life all because of a bad image or angle.

It's also important for the public to grasp that there are human beings operating and analysing intelligence these UAVs. I know because I was one of them, and nothing can prepare you for an almost daily routine of flying combat aerial surveillance missions over a war zone. UAV proponents claim that troops who do this kind of work are not affected by observing this combat because they are never directly in danger physically.

But here's the thing: I may not have been on the ground in Afghanistan, but I watched parts of the conflict in great detail on a screen for days on end. I know the feeling you experience when you see someone die. Horrifying barely covers it. And when you are exposed to it over and over again it becomes like a small video, embedded in your head, forever on repeat, causing psychological pain and suffering that many people will hopefully never experience. UAV troops are victim to not only the haunting memories of this work that they carry with them, but also the guilt of always being a little unsure of how accurate their confirmations of weapons or identification of hostile individuals were.

Of course, we are trained to not experience these feelings, and we fight it, and become bitter. Some troops seek help in mental health clinics provided by the military, but we are limited on who we can talk to and where, because of the secrecy of our missions. I find it interesting that the suicide statistics in this career field aren't reported, nor are the data on how many troops working in UAV positions are heavily medicated for depression, sleep disorders and anxiety.

Recently, the Guardian ran a commentary by Britain's secretary of state for defence, Philip Hammond. I wish I could talk to him about the two friends and colleagues I lost, within a year of leaving the military, to suicide. I am sure he has not been notified of that little bit of the secret UAV program, or he would surely take a closer look at the full scope of the program before defending it again.

The UAVs in the Middle East are used as a weapon, not as protection, and as long as our public remains ignorant to this, this serious threat to the sanctity of human life – at home and abroad – will continue.

I worked on the US drone program. The public should know what really goes on | Heather Linebaugh | Comment is free | theguardian.com



----------------------------
comments above express the devastation soldiers operating these drones feel.Cause they dont enjoy killing also known as human being.

Let see

1)soldiers that feel guilty that they might have killed a civilian operative word here is ''MIGHT''and it bothers them to a point where they kill themselves cause they might have hurt or killed an innocent person in a far far away land.

On the other hand

2)Terrorist Kill civilians on purpose by committing suicide bombings or remotely detonating bombs to kill as many UN armed civilians or security personals as possible in a country they call home to spread fear and achieve their goals what ever they might b.

 

[Bratva]

"Logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few", First Officer Spock

 

[SQ8]

.

What the public needs to understand is that the video provided by a drone is not usually clear enough to detect someone carrying a weapon, even on a crystal-clear day with limited cloud and perfect light. This makes it incredibly difficult for the best analysts to identify if someone has weapons for sure. One example comes to mind: "The feed is so pixelated, what if it's a shovel, and not a weapon?" I felt this confusion constantly, as did my fellow UAV analysts. We always wonder if we killed the right people, if we endangered the wrong people, if we destroyed an innocent civilian's life all because of a bad image or angle.

This is the biggest issue with the drone program which is otherwise effective. Let Pakistan handle the systems.. let its knowledge of the local environment be in the loop..and the drones are still the best weapon to break the TTP.

 

[airmarshal]

@Jazzbot Thanks for sharing. I have already read it.

This is their side of the story. My side of the story is more heart breaking as its our leaders who let this drone program continue in my country.

My concern is not that PMLN has side stepped the issue of drones. It was expected. The thieves who have their money abroad have no moral courage to confront the west.

My bigger concern is Punjab govt letting the US do special ops in Punjab province. This news is circulating around these days. It will lead to more foreign interference, more violence and of course more slavery.

We cant see the light of freedom unless we elect people who have their stakes in the country.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

I think it depends upon what you are targeting.

For instance the drones in Pakistan aren't targeting IED placers. They aren't targeting every person carrying a rifle (you'd need a lot more drones for that to make a dent).

However in Iraq and Afghanistan I can agree with her point. If you were some farmer digging a hole on your property right next to a main road to plant some crops the odds that you may get hit are not exactly zero.

 

[SQ8]

I think it depends upon what you are targeting.

For instance the drones in Pakistan aren't targeting IED placers. They aren't targeting every person carrying a rifle (you'd need a lot more drones for that to make a dent).

However in Iraq and Afghanistan I can agree with her point. If you were some farmer digging a hole on your property right next to a main road to plant some crops the odds that you may get hit are not exactly zero.

True, but when looking for a high value target on a suspected farmsite.. one is likely to end up firing on a farmer with a shovel regardless of bad intel. Quite simply, you need the local knowledge and knowhow. There are only two ways of doing this:

1. Embed US Intel with Pakistani intel ops to scout the area(unlikely with the mistrust, allegations and counter allegations).

2. Keep a Pakistani guy who knows the area in the decision loop for weapons release. Someone who known the terrain and people like the back of his head(and preferably has been deployed there) to ensure that collateral is kept to a minimum.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

True, but when looking for a high value target on a suspected farmsite.. one is likely to end up firing on a farmer with a shovel regardless of bad intel. Quite simply, you need the local knowledge and knowhow. There are only two ways of doing this:

1. Embed US Intel with Pakistani intel ops to scout the area(unlikely with the mistrust, allegations and counter allegations).

2. Keep a Pakistani guy who knows the area in the decision loop for weapons release. Someone who known the terrain and people like the back of his head(and preferably has been deployed there) to ensure that collateral is kept to a minimum.

They must already have some people doing this. They aren't doing facial recognition with these drones. They are tracking them somehow. I'm sure those they are targeting have smartened up and are not walking around with active cell phones. Somebody is pointing them out.

 

[SQ8]

They must already have some people doing this. They aren't doing facial recognition with these drones. They are tracking them somehow. I'm sure those they are targeting have smartened up and are not walking around with active cell phones. Somebody is pointing them out.

The Taliban are smarter than most people think.They use a combination of Sat phones, stolen cellular sims along with more archaic communications means. Their COMSEC is not at all that of ragtag militias.. This account of what a typical Taliban cell looks like should give some inkling of how difficult it is to properly I.D anything through COMINT and ELINT. Informants arent always easy as many are there to make cash and arent always reliable on their purported targets. It is local custom to carry a gun.. however not all gun carrying folk are Taliban.. An informant can pass false intel on some local he may have enmity with and from 20000ft the reaper cant tell you if its just a normal farmer with his gun near his house(with women and children inside) or a Taliban safehouse.

Walking with warriors: Dispatches from Waziristan

 

[rockstar08]

i dont believe this man .... stop watching IK interviews please or else you will put in shockat khanam for treatment !

 

[HAIDER]

When we will be Pakistani first ? ..When Turks, Arab, Afghan, Iranian all nationalist first....whey Pakistan is free land for all socially rejected monsters.

 

[Leader]

exposing lies, shameless will continue to support violation of our country's sovereignty and killing of civilians.

 

[Slav Defence]

Drone strikes: tears in
Congress as Pakistani family
tells of mother's death

The family of a 67-year-old midwife from a remote village in North Waziristan told
lawmakers on Tuesday about her death and the "CIA drone" they say was responsible.
Their harrowing accounts marked the first time Congress had ever heard from civilian victims of an alleged US drone strike.
Rafiq ur Rehman, a Pakistani primary school teacher who appeared on Capitol Hill with his children, Zubair, 13, and Nabila, 9,
described his mother, Momina Bibi, as the "string that held our family together". His two children, who were gathering okra with their grandmother the day she was killed, on 24 October 2012, were injured in the attack.
"Nobody has ever told me why my mother was targeted that day," Rehman said, through a translator. "Some media outlets reported that the attack was on a
car, but there is no road alongside my mother’s house. Others reported that the attack was on a house. But the missiles hit a nearby field, not a house. All of them reported that three, four, five militants were killed."
Instead, he said, only one person was killed that day: "Not a militant but my mother."
"In urdu we have a saying: aik lari main pro kay rakhna. Literally translated, it means the string that holds the pearls together.
That is what my mother was. She was the string that held our family together. Since her death, the string has been broken and
life has not been the same. We feel alone and we feel lost."
An Amnesty International report,
published last week, lists Bibi among 900 civilians they say have been killed by drone strikes, a far higher number than previously
reported. The Amnesty report said the US may have committed war crimes and should stand trial for its actions.
The US has repeatedly claimed very few civilians have been killed by drones. It argues its campaign is conducted "consistent with all applicable domestic and international law". Unofficial reports,however, have suggested that hundreds have been killed in Pakistan alone, with up to 200 children killed.In poignant testimony, Rehman's son,
Zubair, described the day of the attack, the day before the Muslim holy day of Eid, as a "magical time filled with joy". He told lawmakers that the drone had appeared
out of a bright blue sky, the colour of sky most beloved by his grandmother and himself, he said.
"As I helped my grandmother in the field, I could see and hear the drone hovering overhead, but I didn’t worry" he said. "Why would I worry? Neither my grandmother nor I were militants."
"When the drone fired the first time, the whole ground shook and black smoke rose up. The air smelled poisonous. We ran, but
several minutes later the drone fired again."
"People from the village came to our aid and took us to hospital. We spent the night in great agony in at the hospital and the next morning I was operated on. That is how we spent Eid."
Zubair said that fear over the drone attacks on his community have stopped children playing outside, and stopped them
attending the few schools that exist.An expensive operation, needed to take the shrapnel out of his leg, was delayed and he
was sent back to the village until his father could raise the money, he said.
“Now I prefer cloudy days when the drones don’t fly. When the sky brightens and becomes blue, the drones return and so does the fear. Children don’t play so
often now, and have stopped going to school. Education isn’t possible as long as the drones circle overhead.”
According to Zubair, the fundraising took months.
His sister, Nabila, told lawmakers that she had been gathering okra with her brother and grandmother when she saw a
drone and "I heard the dum dum noise."
"Everything was dark and I couldn't see anything. I heard a scream. I think it was my grandmother but I couldn't see her.
"All I could think of was running."
Rehman told lawmakers that he is
seeking answers to why his mother was targeted. The strike has affected his wider family, who no longer visit because they
fear the drones might kill them too.
In testimony that caused translator to stop and begin to weep, he said:
"Congressman Grayson, as a teacher, my job is to educate. But how do I teach something like this? How do I explain what
I myself do not understand? How can I in good faith reassure the children that the drone will not come back and kill them, too,
if I do not understand why it killed my mother and injured my children?"