US Provides Drones to Speech-Suppressing United Arab Emirates
Credit: General Atomics AeronauticsFor those who might wonder why
Americans fear domestic drones might be used to spy on them, look
at who we’re selling surveillance drones to. Courtesy of
Quartz:
At a weapons bazaar in Abu Dhabi on Feb. 18, defense officials for the United Arab Emirates announced the purchase of $1.4 billion in American military hardware, including $197 million in drones built by General Atomics Aeronautics, which supplies the US military with its Predator and Reaper drones.
While armed forces in the United Kingdom and Italy have purchased and fielded drones that include mounting points for missiles, the aircraft GAA will sell to the UAE will be only be capable of “intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance.” The UAE’s air force will have a good view—but not a view to a kill.
Writer Tim Fernholz makes brief mention of UAE’s human rights record, saying the nation has “pushed back against pro-democracy demonstrators.”
Human Rights Watch has a bit more detail in their report for the nation for 2012:
The UAE intensified its campaign to silence critics of its ruling elite. Authorities detained 61 human rights defenders and civil society activists without charge on the pretext that they aimed to harm national security. The authorities detained two prominent human rights lawyers, Mohammed al-Roken and Mohammed al-Mansoori, and arrested, deported and intimidated foreign lawyers employed by the UAE law firm that offered legal assistance to the detainees.
The report goes on to talk about issues of torture and the treatment of migrant labor and women. It concludes:
Key allies such as the United States and the United Kingdom have refrained from publicly criticizing the UAE’s crackdown on freedom of expression and repression of civil society, although US officials say that they have raised these issues privately. In 2012, the US signed a $3.48 billion dollar deal with the UAE to provide a missile defence system. In June, “industry sources” in Abu Dhabi cited criticism of the UAE in the UK press as one factor in a decision not to invite British oil company BP to tender for 2014 oil concessions.
In December, a British woman in Dubai went to police because she had allegedly been gang-raped by three men. They responded by arresting her for drinking alcohol without a license.
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Well I'm just glad that we live in a country with a strong tradition of inalienable human rights that the people with their thumbs on the joystick are bound to respect by the highest law in the land.
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I'm sure it will be totally impossible for the UAE to have some other, less ethical country/aerospace industry work on their drones to make them capable of carrying and launching missiles.
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Deploy the modesty drones! And dance into the fire to fatal sounds of broken dreams.
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I'm totally naming my rock band the Modesty Drones.
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It's hard to tell with defense contractors. Is this headline accurate, is it the US providing drones to the UAE, or is it a company in the US selling them to the UAE? What is the level of government involvement here?
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I don't know if it is still the same, but ten years ago the DOD was spending 5 billion a year promoting sales of American made military hardware to other countries.
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Selling Predator Lites, now with no weapon hardpoints.
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The drones are built and sold by private contractors, but they need the permission of the US government to sell to UAE.
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What is the level of government involvement here?
You sure you really want to go down that rabbit hole?
http://pmddtc.state.gov/regula.....icial.html
http://www.bis.doc.gov/policie...../index.htm
...and I'm sure there's probably a few thousand more pages of laws and regulations that apply. Let's just say it's complicated.
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The US: providing an inspiration to oppressive governments all over the world. And then providing equipment.
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A weapons bazaar sounds awesome.
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I thought the same thing. I'm imagining a scene out of Aladdin or something, but with tanks and AKs.
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The UAE also has a web server. Therefore, web servers must be tools of oppression.
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In December, a British woman in Dubai went to police because she had allegedly been gang-raped by three men. They responded by arresting her for drinking alcohol without a license.
And cue everyone's favorite microcephalic, Joshua S. Heller, to screech at Shackford with accusations of Islamophobic fear-mongering in 3, 2, 1....
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Shackford is reporting facts, not kavetching about how the West is going to be overrun by Sharia in 20 years.