Conley
09-21-2011, 09:52 AM
The United States is assembling a series of secret drone bases in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula to launch an aggressive campaign against al-Qaida-linked groups in Somalia and Yemen, the Washingon Post reported Tuesday night.
The Post said the new bases are in Ethiopia, the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean and on the Arabian Peninsula. The military has also flown drones out of Djibouti, at the conjunction of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
The Post said the expansion of the drone program in the Arabian Peninsula reflected U.S. alarm over al-Qaida affiliates in Yemen and Somalia.
The United States began using drones launched from the Seychelles, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, to track pirates off Somalia in 2009. But diplomatic cables revealed by WikiLeaks show that the unmanned aircraft has also been used for counterterrorism missions over Somalia, the Post reported.
The Post said that to get the Seychelles to agree to allow the original drone base, U.S. officials said they didn't plan to arm the drones. The cable show U.S. officials were thinking about just that.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44603201/ns/us_news-security/?GT1=43001
How good can this intel be before we go weapons hot? I mean with nobody on the ground they just assume these villages and huts have AQ so they can blow them up and no media notices? To say nothing of the cost of all of this at a time when we should be slowing down. Apparently it is all about the shipping lanes.
The Post said the new bases are in Ethiopia, the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean and on the Arabian Peninsula. The military has also flown drones out of Djibouti, at the conjunction of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
The Post said the expansion of the drone program in the Arabian Peninsula reflected U.S. alarm over al-Qaida affiliates in Yemen and Somalia.
The United States began using drones launched from the Seychelles, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, to track pirates off Somalia in 2009. But diplomatic cables revealed by WikiLeaks show that the unmanned aircraft has also been used for counterterrorism missions over Somalia, the Post reported.
The Post said that to get the Seychelles to agree to allow the original drone base, U.S. officials said they didn't plan to arm the drones. The cable show U.S. officials were thinking about just that.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44603201/ns/us_news-security/?GT1=43001
How good can this intel be before we go weapons hot? I mean with nobody on the ground they just assume these villages and huts have AQ so they can blow them up and no media notices? To say nothing of the cost of all of this at a time when we should be slowing down. Apparently it is all about the shipping lanes.