I can’t think of any reason why the Obama Administration would keep dodging this question save one: It believes that, under certain circumstances, perhaps spelled out in a secret legal memo, it is empowered to kill American citizens or non-citizens with drones inside the United States.
And it knows the citizenry would be alarmed by that belief.
Military drones used to track terrorists or insurgents in Afghanistan have also been flying across the U.S. homeland. Newly released documents show U.S. drone flights by the Air Force, Marine Corps and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency for the first time.
The Obama administration has gone to great lengths to keep everything involved with these drone strikes and kill lists as under-the-radar as possible. The article notes that a draft of this rule book has been only hand-carried from office to office and hasn't been emailed to anyone yet.
Democrats and Republicans alike have wondered how concerned they should be with Obama's control of drones. The fact that he didn't want anyone else to have the same power that he has should be a good measure of how serious this really is.
The requirement for probably cause for search and seizure becomes less important as law enforcement gains the ability to accomplish the same goals from afar.
Should the U.S. government be able to target and kill underage U.S. citizens without any kind of due process? - http://2dc4c15c.tinylinks.co
There are a lot of cool things you can do with $1,000, but scientists at an Austin, Texas college have come across one that is often overlooked: for less than a grand, how’d you like to hijack a US government drone?
A group of researchers led by Professor Todd Humphreys from the University of Texas at Austin Radionavigation Laboratory recently succeeded in raising the eyebrows of the US government. With just around $1,000 in parts, Humphreys’ team took control of an unmanned aerial vehicle operated by the US Department of Homeland Security.
After being challenged by his lab, the DHS dared Humphreys’ crew to hack into their drone and take command. Much to their chagrin, they did exactly that.
It won't be too long until drones are giving you speeding tickets...
