Paramilitary Police State & Private Prisons

Rep. Paul Broun: Obama’s 'Socialist Elite' Planning to 'Declare Martial Law'

August 13, 2009

Republic Broadcasting Network - The Athens Banner-Herald reports today that Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) told constituents yesterday that he thinks Democratic leaders are planning to declare martial law:

He also spoke of a “socialistic elite” – Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid – who might use a pandemic disease or natural disaster as an excuse to declare martial law.

“They’re trying to develop an environment where they can take over,” he said. “We’ve seen that historically.”

The Banner-Herald also notes that Broun told town hall attendees that they should tell friends and relatives in surrounding states to lobby conservative Blue Dog Democrats to fight progressive health care legislation, who are also the targets of the insurance industry’s campaign to make themselves the primary benificiaries of any health care legislation.

Military Killer Robots Could Lead to Major Escalation in Civilian Deaths

August 3, 2009

Telegraph - “Terminator”-style machines that decide how, when and who to kill are just around the corner, warns Noel Sharkey, Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics at the University of Sheffield.

Far from helping to reduce casualties, their use is likely to make conflict and war more common and lead to a major escalation in numbers of civilian deaths, he believes.

“I do think there should be some international discussion and arms control on these weapons but there’s absolutely none,” said Prof Sharkey. “The military have a strange view of artificial intelligence based on science fiction. The nub of it is that robots do not have the necessary discriminatory ability. They can’t distinguish between combatants and civilians. It’s hard enough for soldiers to do that.”

Iraq and Afghanistan have both provided ideal “showcases” for robot weapons, said Prof Sharkey.

The “War on Terror” declared by President George Bush spurred on the development of pilotless drone aircraft deployed against insurgents. Initially used for surveillance, drones such as the Predator and larger Reaper were now armed with bombs and missiles.

The US currently has 200 Predators and 30 Reapers and next year alone will be spending 5.5 billion dollars (£3.29 billion) on unmanned combat vehicles. Britain had two Predators until one crashed in Iraq last year.

At present these weapons are still operated remotely by humans sitting in front of computer screens. RAF pilots on secondment were among the more experienced controllers used by the US military, while others only had six weeks training, said Prof Sharkey. “If you’re good at computer games, you’re in,” he added.

But rapid progress was being made towards robots which took virtually all their own decisions and were merely “supervised” by humans. These would be fully autonomous killing machines reminiscent of those depicted in the “Terminator” films.

“The next thing that’s coming, and this is what really scares me, are armed autonomous robots,” said Prof Sharkey speaking to journalists in London. “The robot will do the killing itself. This will make decision making faster and allow one person to control many robots. A single soldier could initiate a large scale attack from the air and the ground.

“It could happen now; the technology’s there.”

A step on the way had already been taken by Israel with “Harpy,” a pilotless aircraft that flies around searching for an enemy radar signal. When it thinks one has been located and identified as hostile, the drone turns into a homing missile and launches an attack – all without human intervention.

Last year the British aerospace company BAe Systems completed a flying trial with a group of drones that could communicate with each other and select their own targets, said Prof Starkey. The United States Air Force was looking at the concept of “swarm technology” which involved multiple drone aircraft operating together.

Flying drones were swiftly being joined by armed robot ground vehicles, such as the Talon Sword which bristles with machine guns, grenade launchers, and anti-tank missiles.

However it was likely to be decades before such robots possessed a human-like ability to tell friend from foe.

Even with human controllers, drones were already stacking up large numbers of civilian casualties...

Photo of Combat Vehicles on the Streets of Springfield, Illinois

August 3, 2009

Infowars - On July 30, Infowars reported on an Illinois Army National Guard plan to put Armored Security Vehicles on the streets.

“A Springfield-based military police company will be training with a new armored vehicle in the area this week,” the Associated Press reported. “The Illinois Army National Guard says training with the new Armored Security Vehicles will start Thursday and run through Sunday.”

An Infowars reader captured an image of the combat vehicles over the weekend. “Here is a picture of the Illinois National Guard driving the new armored military police vehicles through the streets of Springfield, Illinois.”

Staff Sgt. Daniel Becker told the AP people shouldn’t be afraid of the vechicles.

“No, they shouldn’t be afraid — they need to let the idea sink in that it is normal for armed troops to be on the streets. After they get used to military vehicles on the roads, they will need to get accustomed to military checkpoints like the ones in Iraq and Afghanistan,” we wrote at the time.