by John W. Whitehead

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Drones
– unmanned aerial vehicles – come in all shapes and sizes,
from nano-sized drones as small as a grain of sand that can do everything
from conducting surveillance to detonating explosive charges, to
massive “hunter/killer” Predator warships that unleash
firepower from on high. Once used exclusively by the military to
carry out aerial surveillance and attacks on enemy insurgents abroad,
these remotely piloted, semi-autonomous robots have now been authorized
by Congress and President Obama for widespread use in American airspace.
The military empire is coming home to roost.

While there
are at least 63 active drone sites around the U.S., the Obama administration
is calling for drone technology to be integrated into the national
air space by 2015. By 2020, just eight short years from now, it
is estimated that at least 30,000 of these drones will be crisscrossing
the nationÂ’s skies, serving a wide range of functions, both
public and private, governmental and corporate. The end result,
however, will be the same: we will find ourselves operating under
a new paradigm marked by round-the-clock surveillance and with little
hope of real privacy, a paradigm foisted upon us and from which
there will be no escape, short of living in a cave, far removed
from the reach of modern technology. Caves, by the way, are rather
scarce.

While the legislative
vehicle for this rapid transition into a surveillance state came
in the guise of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization
bill, passed by Congress and signed into law by Obama in February
2012, it was steamrollered into place after intense corporate lobbying
by drone makers and potential customers hoping to capitalize on
the $12-30 billion per year industry.

As with every
egregious government policy, there are politicians who stand to
make money off the implementation of drones in America. Fifty-three
members of the House of Representatives are part of the drone caucus
which works to expand the use of drones domestically. So far this
election season, 15 members of the caucus have received a total
of $68,500 from General Atomics PAC, the political action committee
of the drone manufacturer General Atomics. There is also a lobbying
group with 507 corporate members spread across 55 countries, the
Association for Unmanned Vehicles International, which is responsible
for the language in the FAA bill which mandates the accelerated
implementation of drone technology. Thus, our so-called representatives
and the corporations which support them will make a great deal of
money off of the decimation of AmericansÂ’ privacy rights.

While drones
will undoubtedly be put to a host of legitimate uses, such as helping
to spot wildfires, monitoring illegal border crossings, and carrying
out search-and-rescue missions, their “beneficence” is
a double-edged sword. Indeed, in the name of efficiency and cost-effectiveness,
law enforcement agencies will find a whole host of clever and innovative
ways to use drones to invade our daily lives, not the least of which
will be traffic enforcement and crowd control.

In fact, the
drones will be outfitted with crowd control weapons. Vanguard Defense
Industries has confirmed that its Shadowhawk drone, which is already
being sold to law enforcement agencies throughout the country, will
be outfitted with lethal weapons, including a grenade launcher or
a shotgun, and weapons of compliance, such as tear gas and rubber
buckshot. Such aerial police weapons send a clear and chilling message
to those attempting to exercise their First Amendment rights by
taking to the streets and protesting government policies –
the message: stay home.

American scientists
have created blueprints for nuclear powered drones which would increase
air time from days to months. Potential problems are dire, such
as a crashed drone becoming a dirty bomb or a source of nuclear
propulsion for any terrorist groups that get their hands on it.
However, while the lethal capabilities of these drones are troubling,
especially when one factors in the possibility of them getting into
the wrong hands or malfunctioning, the more pressing concern has
to do with the dronesÂ’ surveillance capabilities. With the
help of nanotechnology, scientists have been able to create ever-smaller
drones that mimic the behavior of birds and insects and are almost
undetectable. Despite their diminutive size, these drones are capable
of capturing and relaying vast amounts of data and high-definition
video footage. ItÂ’s inevitable that as more local police agencies
acquire these spy flies, their surveillance efforts will expand
to include not only those suspected of criminal activity but anyone
within range of the cameras. In such a surveillance state, we shall
all be treated as suspects.

Unfortunately,
it is too late to do anything about drones coming home to roost.
Indeed, as drone technology expert Peter W. Singer recognizes in
remarks to the New York Times, “the debate over drones
is like debating the merits of computers in 1979: They are here
to stay, and the boom has barely begun. ‘We are at the Wright
Brothers Flier stage of this,’ he said.” The point is
that with 56 government agencies now authorized to use drones, including
22 law enforcement agencies and 24 universities, the drones are
not going away. Included among the institutions authorized to fly
drones are police departments in Arkansas, Utah and Florida as well
as Virginia Tech and the University of North Dakota. The University
of North Dakota even has a degree program in unmanned vehicle flight
with 78 majors.

As with just
about every freedom-leeching, technology-driven government policy
inflicted on us by Congress and the White House in recent years,
from whole-body scanners in airports to RFID chips in our passports
and drivers licenses, the mass introduction of drones into domestic
airspace has one main goal: to empower the corporate state by controlling
the populace and enriching the military industrial complex. In the
meantime, all you can do is keep your eyes on the skies. As Singer
noted, “There’s no stopping this technology. Anybody who
thinks they can put this genie back in the box – that’s
silliness.”

May
1, 2012

Constitutional
attorney and author John W. Whitehead [send
him mail] is founder and president of The
Rutherford Institute. He is the author of The
Change Manifesto (Sourcebooks).

Copyright
© 2012 The Rutherford Institute

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