Archive for the 'War' Category
U.S. Participated in Slaughter of Dozens of Civilians in Yemen
December 20th, 2009Via: AFP: A local Yemeni official said on Sunday that 49 civilians, among them 23 children and 17 women, were killed in air strikes against Al-Qaeda, which he said were carried out “indiscriminately.” Exiled southern leader Ali Salem al-Baid had accused the Yemeni authorities of killing at least 62 civilians in Thursday’s air strikes Sanaa […]
U.S. Army Lightning-Gun ‘Approaching Weaponisation’
December 18th, 2009Via: Register: The Pentagon continues to pour funding into Arizona-based laser plasma lightning blaster-gun firm Applied Energetics, formerly known as Ionatron. The US Army says that the firm’s lightning guns are “approaching the level of maturity needed to begin weaponization”. The military assessment came as the US Army Research, Development and Engineering Command (ARDEC) inked […]
Not Just Drones: Militants Can Snoop on Most U.S. Warplanes
December 18th, 2009Via: Wired: Tapping into drones’ video feeds was just the start. The U.S. military’s primary system for bringing overhead surveillance down to soldiers and Marines on the ground is also vulnerable to electronic interception, multiple military sources tell Danger Room. That means militants have the ability to see through the eyes of all kinds of […]
Mexican Navy Kills Top Cartel Kingpin in Shootout
December 17th, 2009Via: AP: Two hundred sailors raided an upscale apartment complex and killed one of Mexico’s top kingpins in a two-hour gunbattle Wednesday, one of the biggest victories yet in President Felipe Calderon’s drug war. Arturo Beltran Leyva, the “boss of bosses,” and three members of his cartel were slain in the shootout in Cuernavaca, just […]
U.S. Predator Drones Use Unencrypted Communications Links in Theater?
December 17th, 2009I’ve seen some stupid shit in my day, but this one takes the cake… Unless… It’s by design and intended to help the insurgents. Or, it might be that this is part of a military deception operation where a video feed is broadcast in the clear for PSYOP or other purposes to insurgents: Military deception […]
Army Again Turns to Depleted Uranium for New Weaponry
December 16th, 2009Via: Wired: For decades, Depleted Uranium (DU) has been the material of choice for anti-tank projectiles – despite a series of controversies about its potential health hazards. But for the near future, at least, the American military will keep on using DU. Alternatives based on tungsten haven’t panned out. Now, the U.S. Army is upgrading […]
Mexico: Widespread Theft of Oil by Drug Traffickers
December 15th, 2009Via: Washington Post: Drug traffickers employing high-tech drills, miles of rubber hose and a fleet of stolen tanker trucks have siphoned more than $1 billion worth of oil from Mexico’s pipelines over the past two years, in a vast and audacious conspiracy that is bleeding the national treasury, according to U.S. and Mexican law enforcement […]
Drug Money Saved Banks During Global Drisis, Claims UN Advisor
December 14th, 2009Via: Guardian: Drugs money worth billions of dollars kept the financial system afloat at the height of the global crisis, the United Nations’ drugs and crime tsar has told the Observer. Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said he has seen evidence that the proceeds of organised crime were […]
Nuclear-Powered Transponder for Cyborg Insect
December 12th, 2009Via: IEEE: This week at the International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM), in Baltimore, Md., Cornell University engineers presented research that shows progress in powering cybernetic organisms with a radioactive fuel source. Electrical engineering associate professor Amit Lal and graduate student Steven Tin presented a prototype microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) transmitter—an RF-emitting device powered by a radioactive […]
