Weapons

Are drones effective? Obama is certainly the drone-meister, deploying and utilising drones more than any other president. Of course technology has advanced at a greater pace too. But are they effective?

There’s no doubt that drone strikes can have horrific consequences. Beyond the disputed numbers of noncombatants killed, there are psychological consequences to consider as well. In the Senate hearing, Farea al-Muslimi, an American-educated Yemeni writer and activist, spoke eloquently of the heartbreak and fear that drones cause in Yemen. News reports from Pakistan suggest something similar: People are deeply afraid of drones. These perspectives matter greatly. But they only scratch at the surface of a much bigger problem with how the U.S. government uses drones. At a basic level, are they effective?

Gauging the effectiveness of drones is not simply a question of body counts. It is a larger evaluation of whether the terrorist threat is affected, whether the countries where drones are used are becoming more stable or less, and whether America’s ability to partner with other governments for future counterterrorism missions is improving or getting worse. The human factor, which Congress has focused on recently, is an important part of that evaluation, but it is only one part. In other words: Can we tally up all the costs and benefits of the drone war?  Read more »

A member of the MILF Army?

Maurice Williamson was warned about the pending gay onslaught…he needn’t have worried…it is the MILF army he should really be concerned about.

As abbreviations go, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s has got to be among the most unfortunate.

But this didn’t stop members of the former Muslim rebel group from patrolling the jungles of the Philippines today ahead of the country’s contentious general elections.   Read more »

It seems things are getting desperate for Kim Dotcom. He is now calling home to Germany to try and avoid extradition…pity he won’t go in person.

Why doesn’t he just go to the US and clear his name? What is he afraid of?

Kim Dotcom’s lawyers intend to ask the German government to intervene with the United States and try to block his extradition on criminal copyright charges, German news agency DPA has reported.

London-based Canadian human rights lawyer Robert Amsterdam, who co-wrote a “white paper” released last week criticising the case against Dotcom’s MegaUpload business, told the DPA that Germany had not done enough to assist Dotcom. Read more »

via Gizmag

Lockheed Martin has released a video of ADAM, its high energy laser (HEL) system, taking out a rocket from a range of 1.5 km (0.9 miles). Slowed down, the 300-fps video clearly shows the laser beam striking and tracking a point towards the front of the rocket, before destroying it mid-flight.

ADAM, which stands for Area Defense Anti-Munitions is a self-contained unit designed to nullify attacks from unmanned aerial vehicles, or improvised rocket attacks from the ground. The intention is that the system will be used to protect vulnerable assets such as military bases near the frontline, acquiring and tracking short-range targets from a distance of 5 km (3.1 miles), and destroying from a range of up to 2 km (1.2 miles).

In the test, which took place April 22, an ADAM prototype takes out a “Qassam-like” rocket. Qassam rockets are artillery munitions used by the military wing of Hamas in attacks against Israel.  Read more »

Look at this bullshit from Kim Dotcom

I don’t think it’s a good idea to print guns. I think the world would be a better place without guns. #Peace

— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) May 11, 2013

Versus the reality:

The State Department has now demanded Defense Distributed take down its printable gun files due to possible export control violations.

The controversial gun-printing group is hosting those files, which include everything from the gun’s trigger to its body to its barrel, on a service that has attracted some controversy of its own: Kim Dotcom’s Mega storage site. Although the blueprint is only publicly visible on Defense Distributed’s own website Defcad.org, users who click on it are prompted to download the collection of CAD files from Mega.co.nz, which advertises that it encrypts all users’ information and has a reputation for resisting government surveillance.  Read more »

The Chinese cyber army are at it again, this time they have been busted.

Chinese cyber spies have been caught trying to steal the secrets of Britain’s most sophisticated combat jet, The Mail on Sunday has learned.

A covert unit within the Chinese Army has been using highly sophisticated cyber weapons in a desperate attempt to acquire classified information about the stealthy Joint Strike Fighter (JSF).

Manufacturer Lockheed Martin claims it is thwarting tens of thousands of computer attacks every week to keep secure secrets about the jet – due to be in service with the Royal Navy and RAF by 2018.  Read more »

via The Firearm Blog

Independent filmmaker Cathryne Czubek is directing a documentary about female gun culture. The trailer is embedded below …

Read more »

Barack Obama has done more than any other person in the world to rescue US arms manufacturers. Good on ya Barack, NRA membership is surging.

Leaders of the National Rifle Association announced that its membership has surged to a record five million, a figure they aim to double in the “long war” to preserve gun ownership in America.

The organisation’s executive vice president and public face Wayne LaPierre told its annual convention that proposed legislation to introduce expanded background checks had “got the defeat it deserved” last month.

Mr LaPierre told members the fight over background checks had been “but one skirmish in what can only be defined as one long war against our Constitutional rights,” and that the NRA was in a “once in a generation fight for everything we care about.”  Read more »

Israel has confirmed their attacks on the Syrian regime and supplies of rockets bound for Hizbollah. The Egyptians are cutting up rough but Israel just needs to do what it needs to do to barge through the diplomatic hubris to protect itself:

Israel carried out an air strike near Damascus airport overnight, targeting Iranian missiles destined for Lebanon’s Shia Muslim Hizbollah movement, a senior Israeli source has said.

“The attack was very close to the airport, the target was Iranian missiles which were destined for Hizbollah,” the anonymous source said.

The warplanes struck areas in and around the Syrian capital Sunday, setting off a series of explosions as they targeted a shipment of highly accurate, Iranian-made guided missiles believed to be on their way to Hizbollah.  Read more »

There are unsubstantiated claims that Israel has attacked Syrian government forces and weapons stockpiles.

Foreign Policy reports on the awkwardness of this news for the opposition and inconvenient for the anti-Israel left who have been calling for intervention on the side of the Syrian opposition:

Syrian Facebook pages are reporting a series of massive explosions in Damascus, as are the Syrian regime’s media outlets. A video claiming to be of these explosions can be seen here:

Read more »