I worked on the US drone program. The public should know what really goes on

From:  The Guardian 

COMMENT - Yes, we need to mandate jaunts to Afghanistan for drone contractors and their families, including children, so they can experience the reality they have extruded into the world.  "Mommy, Daddy, can Green Hills Software put those children together again?  No, son, they like it this way.  They are different, you know." 


Few of the politicians who so brazenly proclaim the benefits of drones have a real clue how it actually works (and doesn't

Heather Linebaugh
Sunday 29 December 2013 07.30 EST

Whenever I read comments by politicians defending the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Predator and Reaper program – aka drones – I wish I could ask them some questions. I'd start with: "How many women and children have you seen incinerated by a Hellfire missile?" And: "How many men have you seen crawl across a field, trying to make it to the nearest compound for help while bleeding out from severed legs?" Or even more pointedly: "How many soldiers have you seen die on the side of a road in Afghanistan because our ever-so-accurate UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicle] were unable to detect an IED [improvised explosive device] that awaited their convoy?"

Few of these politicians who so brazenly proclaim the benefits of drones have a real clue of what actually goes on. I, on the other hand, have seen these awful sights first hand.

I knew the names of some of the young soldiers I saw bleed to death on the side of a road. I watched dozens of military-aged males die in Afghanistan, in empty fields, along riversides, and some right outside the compound where their family was waiting for them to return home from mosque.

The US and British militaries insist that this is such an expert program, but it's curious that they feel the need to deliver faulty information, few or no statistics about civilian deaths and twisted technology reports on the capabilities of our UAVs. These specific incidents are not isolated, and the civilian casualty rate has not changed, despite what our defense representatives might like to tell us.

What the public needs to understand is that the video provided by a drone is a far cry from clear enough to detect someone carrying a weapon, even on a crystal-clear day with limited clouds and perfect light. This makes it incredibly difficult for the best analysts to identify if someone has weapons for sure. One example comes to mind: "The feed is so pixelated, what if it's a shovel, and not a weapon?" I felt this confusion constantly, as did my fellow UAV analysts. We always wonder if we killed the right people, if we endangered the wrong people, if we destroyed an innocent civilian's life all because of a bad image or angle.  MORE

Drone survival guide is go-to manual to hide from, hack and detect UAVs

From:  Voice of Russia 

COMMENT - Let's hope sales are heavy in Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan and where ever the specter of Death by Drone hangs over the heads of the people.   That does, if course, include America so get your copy today.  But it is far better to take direct action by calling out the drone contractors in advance of needing to protect ourselves directly from drones. 

Humiliating and identifying drone contractors is good for the soul.  Start today.  Read this site for pointers and get in touch.  They are there, they need to be confronted with the deaths their profits cause. 

By  Sarah Neary

Drone survival guide

© Photo: dronesurvivalguide.org

How to block a heat signature and how to hide from armed UAVs can all be found in The Drone Survival Guide— a poster that helps educate users on what a drone looks like, how to avoid them, and different ways these unmanned devices are hacked. Created by Pater's, he claims that "of course, the idea you can hide from UAVs or be safe from them if they have harmful intentions is absurd," who made this as a graphic design project.

The drone guide starts off with explaining what a drone is and its sole purpose. The guide reads "As robotic birds will become commonplace in the near future, we should be prepared to identify them. This survival guide is an attempt to familiarise ourselves and future generations, with a changing technological environment."

Instructions in the second section tell people how to hide from drones, such as taking cover in shadows of buildings or trees. The manual also warns of not using flashlights or spot lights as drones can easily find these during missions when the entire region is pitch dark. Avoiding good weather is also recommended as these unmanned units cannot work during high winds or rainstorms. If a person decides to use a cellphone or device with GPS capabilities, this may give up their location making the drone's job less difficult.

^{Photo: (c) dronesurvivalguide.org}

In the last section, the short but informative guide goes into how to hack a drone. Three different ways are listed as to how a drone can reach confusion— interception, interference, and GPS spoofing. All methods are suggested as a way of detracting a drone from a targeted region.

For the most part, the use of the term drones forces people to realize that nations that own unmanned drones perceived as innocent in fact participate in invisible assassinations on foreign soil. Pater said that accepting more blandly descriptive terms like UAV diminishes this impact. "When the public has adopted a name like that, it's impossible to change it to something 'less scary,'" Pater mentioned, "That's why I use the word. My Afghan translator said that even in Afghanistan they also use the English word 'drone'. The whole point of military acronyms is to make dangerous technologies sound less scary."

Even though one of the items on the poster is considered a hobby-like item for the time being, the creator of the guide claims that it was done because of future possibilities. "A Parrot AR Drone, which is sold on Amazon and electronic stores everywhere for an affordable price, could easily be outfitted with weapons, spyware, or whatever else people can think of. Because there is so little oversight, I think most people should be more aware of those than the large UAVs that the military uses."

Though, the guide is not deemed to be a specifically functional "the fact that people are not sure whether it's an artistic project or something else is interesting for me, especially because I notice people find it scary that it is translated in an Arabic language" according to Pater. So far, the poster has been translated into a multitude of languages including but not limited to Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, Turkish, and Spanish.

Free copies of the poster are available for download but the reflective ones are sold online. The creator claims that he is speaking with groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan so the guide can be used for education and activism.

Voice of Russia, Theverge.com, Dronesurvivalguide.org

Sarah Neary
Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2013_12_25/Drone-survival-guide-is-go-to-manual-to-hide-from-hack-and-detect-UAVs-1780/

Posted on23 December 2013.

Well at this point it’s pretty common knowledge that all the bloated banksters in the cartel are literally sucking the soul out of us, homeowner by homeowner, house by house, city by city, state by state. Puffing themselves up like the Pillsbury Doughboy that ate Godzilla and Manhattan. Picking their teeth with our land records.
So where are the Attorneys General? Where is that, oh geez, what was it called again? Oh yeah, The Mortgage Fraud Task Force. What ever happened to that? Maybe Jamie Dimon bought it for his daughter and commemorated it into a nice little holiday snow globe for his 2013 holiday party give away bags.
In California we have the oh so special California Homeowner Bill of Rights. AG Kamala Harris beamed, eyes glistening at the signing of that photo op behind Gov Jerry Brown, as if she’d just handed over the mega lottery loot to a homeless family of twelve. Kamala Harris is always camera ready, always ready for her next sound bite on CNN or PR release in front of the state flag. Her career path looks promising, maybe the Supreme Court, DOJ or Governor. But try to engage her in anything that actually has any real teeth to it, like say for example, millions of Californians losing their homes to Fraudclosure, neighborhoods being decimated by empty homes and neglected properties, a second tsunami of fraudclosures looming, and she’ll block you from her Facebook page. The Homeowner “Bill of Rights” offers Californians false hope of surviving the Homeowner Hunger Games. New rules and all that. It’s like telling Tony Soprano’s men that they can’t whack you while Pauly Walnuts is still raping you. Wait your turn.
But I digress. Where does a homeowner actually get anyone to really hear them out? To fully understand the soul sucking misery that we find ourselves in when trying to work with these mega banks that are on robotic search and destroy mode? Who really understands the complexities? The anguish and the insanity of the matrix we are placed in when following the “rules” in place to try to save what is ours in these unprecedented times; Our homes. Our investment. Our legal rights in a complex bloody labyrinth of red tape and manufactured BS.
We try our congressional office, they smile and nod with compassion and knowing. Tsk tsk sigh. They act as if they’ll try their best to intervene on our behalf, set you up with a special Single Point Of Contact (aka SPOC) in the “executive offices” that have a little more accountability since it’s a US Congressional office letterhead and all. Sorta put more time constraints on Pauly Walnuts to respond to our requests and the infinite supply of paperwork we fax, mail, Fed Ex and produce time after time after time after time after time. We have turned into a paper producing incoherent human copy machine, holding the tiniest pessimistic optimism somewhere in the back of our minds that this time we have a “complete package” with every T crossed. We have become wild eyed Vegas strip junkies gambling the entire nest egg at this point. Come on baby, ten times is the charm. I’m due damn it I’m due. Alright one more time….

- See more at: http://stopforeclosurefraud.com/2013/12/23/lainey-hashorva-stealing-home/#sthash.O1QfHuEQ.dpuf

“Bride and Boom!”

From:  Mother Jones Magazine 


COMMENT - Let's imagine for a moment the wedding of Dan O'Dowd hit by a drone or a member of his 'management team' having such a moment obliterated in a shower of body parts. 

ARTICLE 

We’re Number One... In Obliterating Wedding Parties

By Tom Engelhardt
The headline -- “Bride and Boom!” -- was spectacular, if you think killing people in distant lands is a blast and a half.  Of course, you have to imagine that smirk line in giant black letters with a monstrous exclamation point covering most of the bottom third of the front page of the Murdoch-owned New York Post.  The reference was to a caravan of vehicles on its way to or from a wedding in Yemen that was eviscerated, evidently by a U.S. drone via one of those “surgical” strikes of which Washington is so proud.  As one report put it, “Scorched vehicles and body parts were left scattered on the road.”

It goes without saying that such a headline could only be applied to assumedly dangerous foreigners -- “terror” or “al-Qaeda suspects” -- in distant lands whose deaths carry a certain quotient of weirdness and even amusement with them.  Try to imagine the equivalent for the Newtown massacre the day after Adam Lanza broke into Sandy Hook Elementary School and began killing children and teachers.  Since even the New York Post wouldn’t do such a thing, let’s posit that the Yemen Post did, that playing off the phrase “head of the class,” their headline was: “Dead of the Class!” (with that same giant exclamation point). It would be sacrilege.  The media would descend.  The tastelessness of Arabs would be denounced all the way up to the White House.  You’d hear about the callousness of foreigners for days.

And were a wedding party to be obliterated on a highway anywhere in America on the way to, say, a rehearsal dinner, whatever the cause, it would be a 24/7 tragedy. Our lives would be filled with news of it. Count on that.

But a bunch of Arabs in a country few in the U.S. had ever heard of before we started sending in the drones?  No such luck, so if you’re a Murdoch tabloid, it’s open season, no consequences guaranteed.  As it happens, “Bride and Boom!” isn’t even an original.  It turns out to be a stock Post headline.  Google it and you’ll find that, since 9/11, the paper has used it at least twice before last week, and never for the good guys: once in 2005, for “the first bomb-making husband and wife,” two Palestinian newlyweds arrested by the Israelis; and once in 2007, for a story about a “bride,” decked out in a “princess-style wedding gown,” with her “groom.” Their car was stopped at a checkpoint in Iraq by our Iraqis, and both of them turned out to be male “terrorists” in a “nutty nuptial party.”  Ba-boom!  FROM

Russia Plans to Build 'UAV-Killers' Based on Pantsir-S Systems

From:  Rianovosti

Pansir-S1 © RIA Novosti. Mikhail Fomichev


MOSCOW, December 18 (RIA Novosti) – Russia is upgrading its short-range Pantsir-S air defense systems with an improved capability to intercept unmanned aerial vehicles, a Defense Ministry spokesman said Wednesday.
“The modernization of these unique systems aimed at increasing their effectiveness against UAVs has already started,” Col. Igor Klimov said.
The modernized Pantsir-S systems will also be adapted for deployment in harsh climate conditions of the Arctic, the official said.
“The extensive modernization program will be completed by 2015, and the Russian military will start receiving the new Pantsir-SM systems,” Klimov added.
Pantsir-S (SA-22 Greyhound) is a gun-missile system combining a wheeled vehicle mounting a fire-control radar and electro-optical sensor, two 30-mm cannon and up to 12 57E6 radio-command guided short-range missiles, and is designed to engage a variety of low-altitude, highly maneuverable targets.  MORE

Military Drones as Street Art

From:  The Atlantic Cities

COMMENT - As a technology, drones were born in death delivered from a sky which once stood for freedom and light.  A generation of people in the Middle East are now being raised to a reality which sees the sky as the harbinger of fear and lacerating and unexpected annihilation. 

Every individual in the chain of causality who profited in delivering this should be haunted by the reality their lack of conscience evoked. 

• Sarah Goodyear
• Dec 17, 2013

Courtesy of James Bridle

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Unless you live in a country where military drones in the sky are a terrifying fact of life – Pakistan, say, or Yemen – you might not know exactly what they look like. James Bridle, a writer and artist who lives in London, wants to change that.
Bridle's Drone Shadow Handbook [PDF] provides detailed instructions on how to sketch the outline of a drone - the imagined shadow of such an aircraft overhead – on a city street near you. The book, which I read about on Policy Mic, enables anyone to replicate one. It's an ongoing art project for Bridle, who wants to bring public awareness of drones to the citizens of the countries that launch them.

Drone shadow installation. Image courtesy of James Bridle/booktwo.org


The reaction to the drone shadows he has drawn on street in the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, and elsewhere has been revealing, Bridle writes in an email. "There has been a great and growing reaction from the public," he writes.  MORE

Green Hills Software Signs Teaming Agreement With HP to Offer Secure Android Smartphones and Tablets to UK Public Sector

From:  Market Watch 

COMMENT - If not for the fraud which bolstered his faltering career in 1985 Dan O'Dowd and his wife, Amy would today be grubbing around in Glendale and dealing with the problems confronting the rest of us.  The Ethics of Drone Contractors

 

It is really rather stomach wrenching to see them use the term, 'INTEGRITY.'  

 

 

 

 ARTICLE 

Trusted Mobile Devices Based on INTEGRITY Multivisor Security Architecture Available for Trial and Pilot Programmes Today 

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM and SANTA BARBARA, CA, Dec 18, 2013 (Marketwired via COMTEX) -- Green Hills Software, the largest independent vendor of embedded and mobile virtualization solutions, today announced that it is teaming with HP to offer trusted mobile devices built with Green Hills Software's INTEGRITY(R) Multivisor(TM) virtualization technology for Android and enabled by HP's secure mobility service, to the UK public sector.

As part of a new teaming agreement with Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Services (UK) Ltd, Green Hills Software is piloting a secure mobile device initiative combining HP's secure mobility end-to-end service and Green Hills Software's INTEGRITY Multivisor security technology. The separation kernel-based Type-1 hypervisor delivers security that cannot be achieved with mobile OS-level mechanisms through application wrapping, containers, access control and encrypted workspaces.

These trusted mobile devices demonstrate form factor flexibility, near-zero impact to OEMs, and the ability to deploy high assurance isolation technology at the speed of consumer electronics innovation.

"When you consider that there are over 1.3 million mobile devices in the UK public sector, lowering cost, improving communication and increasing overall mobile security results is a huge benefit to the UK Government," said Christopher Smith, vice president of marketing, Green Hills Software. "Our separation kernel-based Type-1 hypervisor isolates at the hardware level, providing users with confidence in personal privacy while ensuring security and protection of critical enterprise information. Furthermore, the increased security provided with this solution will enable many new public sector departments to adopt mobile smartphones and tablets." MORE

HP secures Android mobiles with Green Hills Software

From: Electronics Weekly 

COMMENT - If not for the fraud which bolstered his faltering career in 1985 Dan O'Dowd and his wife, Amy would today be grubbing around in Glendale and dealing with the problems confronting the rest of us.  The Ethics of Drone Contractors

But keep making those donations to the Santa Barbara Zoo, they do ease the conscience, don't they?  PS - The rose in Craig's teeth is not photoshopped.  His former girlfriend took the photo and gave it to me to use as I thought best.  I have not yet decided which application is best, but I'm working at it. 

 

ARTICLE FROM ELECTRONICS DAILY

HP is offering secure Android mobile devices to the UK public sector built with Green Hills Software’s SoftwareINTEGRITY Multivisor virtualization technology.

As part of a partnership with Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Services (UK), Green Hills Software is piloting a secure mobile device initiative combining HP’s secure mobility end-to-end service and Green Hills Software’s INTEGRITY Multivisor security technology.

“The separation kernel-based Type-1 hypervisor delivers security that cannot be achieved with mobile OS-level mechanisms through application wrapping, containers, access control and encrypted workspaces,” said the companies.

There are estimated to be over 1.3 million mobile devices in the UK public sector.

“Our separation kernel-based Type-1 hypervisor isolates at the hardware level, providing users with confidence in personal privacy while ensuring security and protection of critical enterprise information,” said Christopher Smith, vice president of marketing, Green Hills Software.  MORE

Drone Strikes in Yemen- On Bombing Weddings and Families

From:  Muslim Matters 

COMMENT - And these people, for instance the Team at Green Hills Software, Inc., and all of its little spawn, like INTEGRITY Global Security, probably wonder why donations to the zoo in Santa Barbara do not make them sympathetic characters.  BLOWBACK

Posted by: Hena Zuberi December 12, 2013

 

 

 

 

At least 15 people on the way to a wedding were killed by the United States Government in a horrific drone strike in Yemen, just two days after President Barack Obama spoke at the memorial service for Nelson Mandela and said Madiba “makes him want to be a better man.”

We call on the President to be the better man today. This needs to stop.

Imagine a wedding party, families dressed to the hilt; joy and festivities in the air, and then not even being able to find body parts to hold a funeral. 22 were injured in this 'tragic mistake'. The worst in Yemen since the strikes began.

The group had been en route to the the village of Qaifa, the site of the wedding, when it was hit. The assault left charred bodies strewn in the road and vehicles on fire, officials told AP.

Where is the outrage by the international community? As Mark Prsyner, an Iraq War vet and anti-war activist tweeted:

This isn't the first time the US government has done this. According to TomDispatch this may be the eighth wedding party that the U.S. has bombed.  A convoy of cars is often seen as 'terrorist activity'. There are some reports that there may have been Al Qaeda operatives in the convoy, but Yemeni journalist Shuaib M. Almosawa recalls an Aug 8 strike that killed 3 brothers and Yemeni security officials said two were from AQAP. “Later they're 2 kids & elder bro”. And there are other instances.

MORE

 

US Drone Attack Kills 14 Civilians in Yemen

From:  Fars News Agency

COMMENT - Guess they wanted the toddler to have some company.
   We know they hit first responders.  How many people believe this was an accident?

 

TEHRAN (FNA)- A US drone mistakenly targeted a wedding convoy in Yemen's al-Baitha province after intelligence reports identified the vehicles as carrying Al-Qaeda militants.

The officials said that 14 people were killed and 22 others injured, nine in critical condition. The vehicles were traveling near the town of Radda when they were attacked, CNN reported.

"This was a tragic mistake and comes at a very critical time. None of the killed was a wanted suspect by the Yemeni government," said a top Yemeni national security official who asked not to be named because he is not authorized to talk to media.

US officials declined to comment on the report.

The convoy consisted of 11 vehicles, and the officials said that four of the vehicles were targeted in the strikes. Two of the vehicles were completely damaged. Among the killed were two prominent tribal leaders within the province.

Residents in Radda were outraged about the attack and called on the Yemeni government to put an end of drone strikes in their region.

"More than 50 innocent civilians in our town have been killed by drones," said Abdullah al-Kabra, an eyewitness to the drone strike.

"All those who were killed were supportive of the governments anti-terror campaign. That will surely not be the case of their tribes and families if the government does not strongly intervene," he added.

Yemeni security experts have argued that drones have on numerous occasions have directly played into Al-Qaeda's favor, turning peaceful tribal communities into vengeful killers.

"The attack proved the need for tighter control and regulations as far as drones are concerned. At times, they have proved deadly and destructive to civilians," said Abdul Salam Mohammed, the president of the Sanaa-based Abaad Studies & Research Center.

Drone Strikes in Pakistan

From:  The New York Times 

COMMENT - Isn't it amazing they can't understand why Pakistanis resent having drones murder toddlers? 

To the Editor:

Re “Visiting Pakistan, Hagel Seeks to Shore Up Alliance” (news article, Dec. 10):

If the United States is serious about addressing Pakistan’s outrage over continued drone strikes, it needs to start by investigating potentially unlawful drone killings.

Across the border in Afghanistan, an American military commander apologized after a drone strike allegedly killed a toddler last month and pledged an investigation. Yet in Pakistan, the United States has never taken such steps.

The United States’ silence on killings is speaking volumes. Instead of clinging to official secrecy about a killing program of the Central Intelligence Agency that has grown notorious, the administration should commit to investigations and accountability for unlawful drone killings. 

NAUREEN SHAH
Washington, Dec. 11, 2013

The writer is advocacy adviser at Amnesty International USA and the author of several reports on drone strikes.

Embedded real-time operating system software secures military mission-critical data from growing threats

From:  Military & AeroSpace

COMMENT - This company is owned by Dan O'Dowd and his wife, who together own 97% of Green Hills Software, Inc., and other corporations which were created for reasons on which it is entirely fair to speculate. 


March 30, 2012

Posted by Courtney Howard
TECHNOLOGY FOCUS, 30 March 2012. The adoption of secure real-time operating system (RTOS) software and related embedded computing security software tools for military embedded systems continues to grow, driven by increased security threats and concerns, real and perceived.
Many pundits agree that the need for information security, especially for critical and classified data, as well as the computing and data storage systems on which it resides, has never been greater. Industry has responded with myriad innovations designed to deliver security and protection at not only the system level, but also at the embedded, component level.

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“There is no single architecture, product, or capability that can protect against a continuously evolving threat landscape,” cautions Chip Downing, senior director of Aerospace & Defense at Wind River in Alameda, Calif. “Today’s connected systems need to integrate a wide range of capabilities to achieve continuous security in hostile network environments. Layered, proven security components, along with capabilities to update these system components, need to be integrated to enable continuous application and service availability, while maintaining the required security capability.”
A layered security approach to critical systems and components is just one of Downing’s recommendations to aerospace and defense enterprises and end users. The most important considerations in the selection of an RTOS for aerospace and defense applications, he says, are support for open standards, safety certification, security features, and virtualization support. If a system needs to meet high levels of safety and security assurance, systems designers must have a strategy to achieve these requirements, he says.
“Due to higher system complexity and compressed system budgets, an RTOS with commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) certification evidence is the wisest choice," Downing says. "COTS certification evidence removes significant certification risk whilst lowering program costs."
Aerospace and avionics
“Avionics and aerospace systems have requirements for safety-critical software, and now are requiring security to help prevent malicious fault conditions,” says Robert Day, vice president of LynuxWorks in San Jose, Calif. “DOD [U.S. Department of Defense] environments require security, especially when connected to other systems or networks, which is becoming the norm even in tactical deployments.”  MORE

INTEGRITY Global Security, or Insecurity for Freedom, more accurately

From:  Integrity Global Security


COMMENTS - After spending time in government the elite, you can read this as 'those on the take,' are recycled into lucrative positions in 'the private sector,' though no one in their right mind should think of government contractors as 'private.' 

Here is the Advisory Board for INTEGRITY, which is the property of Dan O'Dowd, whose first venture into the world of BIG MONEY through efficient fascism, founded in 1982, is Green Hills Software, Inc. 

From INTEGRITY site: 

eet the INTEGRITY Global Security Board of Advisors:
Robert R. Ridout, Former Vice President & CIO, Dupont Corporation
Robert DeRodes, Former Executive Vice President, First Data
C. Thomas McMillen, Chairman and CEO, Homeland Security Capital Corporation
General Eugene E. Habiger, USAF, Ret.
Robert (Bob) Ridout, Former Vice President & CIO, Dupont Corporation; Customer Board Member Microsoft, HP, AT&T, Lotus, and IBM
Robert (Bob) Ridout was Vice President and Chief Information Officer of the DuPont Company for more than ten years. He held several executive positions in Information Technology in addition to assignments in field sales, manufacturing and customer service since joining DuPont in 1968. He was a member of the prestigious Research Board, and has served on Microsoft, HP, AT&T, Lotus and IBM customer boards. Currently he provides strategic advice to the executives and large customers of CSC and Salesforce.com. He is a member of the Supervisory Board of Cordys, a global business process management company headquartered in Europe, and is on the Advisory Board of INTEGRITY Global Security, a company leveraging its highly secure technology used in defense and intelligence applications for commercial use.
As CIO at DuPont, Mr. Ridout was responsible for overall operation and direction of Information Technology within DuPont globally, earning the reputation for the group that "IT works." He oversaw the IT organizations in the company's 20 strategic business units (SBU's) and global regions involving several thousand DuPont and IT Alliance employees. Mr. Ridout centralized IT budget and resource responsibility for DuPont globally, implementing the required governance, financial and personnel processes for a mature organization. He led one of the industry's largest SAP programs for all of DuPont's businesses and functions in hundreds of sites worldwide. This resulted in significant working capital reductions, improved customer service and a foundation of standardization across DuPont.
Mr. Ridout served as DuPont's Corporate Process Owner for Intellectual Property Protection, Records Management and Privacy Protection, and he was an executive leader in the company's drive to manage by high level business processes. He was also the leader in effectively using outsourced operations.
Mr. Ridout was a key leader in the chemical industry cyber security program and served as an advisor on the strategic use of IT to the US Department of Homeland Security. He was named I.T. Executive of the Year by the Lattanze Center for Excellence, recognizing his leadership role in eBusiness. Mr. Ridout was also named CIO of the Year by UBS for DuPont's coordinated SAP program.
Mr. Ridout has a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA. He currently resides in Kennett Square, PA.

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Robert (Bob) DeRodes, Former Executive Vice President, First Data; Former Executive Vice President and CIO, The Home Depot; Former CEO, Delta Technology, Former CIO Delta Air Lines
Robert (Bob) DeRodes is an accomplished senior executive with 40 years professional experience working for an impressive list of major multi-national corporations and top industry leaders. Mr. DeRodes is a recognized leader in information technology and business operations with an established track record for transformational change, innovation, and execution inside large corporations. Executive experience spans the banking, payments, insurance, retail, and transportation industries.
Mr. DeRodes recently served as First Data's executive vice president, global operations and technology. In this role, Mr. DeRodes was responsible for product delivery; customer service delivery; technology infrastructure operations; print, mail, and card plastics production; customer conversions; procurement; real estate; and enterprise security and compliance for the global enterprise operating in 34 countries.
He previously served as executive vice president and chief information officer for The Home Depot, where he was responsible for leading the company's technology transformation. Mr. DeRodes also served as chief executive officer for Delta Technology, Inc. and chief information officer for Delta Air Lines. In these roles, he was responsible for $1.2 billion in servicing revenue and all aspects of global technology and communications for the airline's operations.
Prior to Delta, Mr. DeRodes was chief technology officer for Citibank N.Y. Global Card Products Group, where he was responsible for the development and implementation of a global cards technology platform. In addition, he has led IT solutions and service delivery for other innovative companies such as The Sabre Group, a subsidiary of AMR Corporation and for United States Automobile Association (USAA).
Mr. DeRodes has been a senior advisor to the Center for CIO Leadership, the Department of Homeland Security, and to the Secretary of Defense. He sits on the board of directors for publically-held NCR and privately-held Veracode. Mr. DeRodes was named one of 25 top technology officers by Information Week 2006 and was awarded 2005 Information Services executive of the year by the Lattanze Center at Loyola College Maryland.
A native of Wooster, Ohio, DeRodes earned a bachelor's of science degree in business administration from St. Louis University and a master's of business administration degree from the University of Texas in Austin.

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C. Thomas McMillen, Chairman and CEO, Homeland Security Capital Corporation; Vice Chairman, Fortress International Group, Inc.; Chairman and Co-CEO, Secure America Acquisition Corp., former three-term Congressman from Maryland
"From the finance sector to our military, from energy companies to our intelligence agencies, our nation relies upon a vast, interdependent web of information technology systems. Every day this infrastructure is under cyber-siege. The tools we have deployed now to defend against these attacks simply cannot defeat the sophisticated enemies we now face—organized crime, corporate spies, foreign intelligence services. According to the General Accountability Office, cyber-crime costs the U.S. economy at least $117 billion each year. These attacks may be virtual, but the barbarians are not at the gates, they are inside our systems.
That is about to change. INTEGRITY Security offers American government and business the ability to effectively protect their information and operations against even the most determined attacks. For the last three years the experts at the NSA, the best in the world, worked hard to break the INTEGRITY System. They had the source code, they had all the information possible, and, yet, they couldn't defeat INTEGRITY. We need INTEGRITY protecting all our vital government and corporate information and information systems."
Tom McMillen has served as the company's Chairman & CEO since August 2005. He serves as Vice Chairman of Fortress International Group Inc., formerly Fortress America Acquisition Corporation, a company that designs, builds and maintains mission-critical facilities and trades on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol FIGI. McMillen also serves as Chairman & Co-CEO of Secure America Acquisition Corporation, a special purpose acquisition corporation focused on the Homeland Security and trades on the America Stock Exchange under the ticket symbol HLD.
Previously, McMillen co-founded and served as CEO of Global Secure Corp., a homeland security company providing integrated products and services for critical-incident responders. He was appointed by President Clinton to Co-Chair the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports from 1993 to 1997. From 1987 through 1993, McMillen served three consecutive terms in the United States House of Representatives from the 4th Congressional District.
McMillen graduated from the University of Maryland with a BS in Chemistry. He earned a BA and MA from University College, Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar.

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General Eugene E. Habiger, USAF, Ret.; Former Commander in Chief, US Strategic Command; Former Director of Security and Emergency Operations, US Department of Energy; Former President and CEO San Antonio Water System
"Cyber security has historically been a battle between an offensive capability (hack) that has generally been ahead of the defense (deny). This fact of life was made painfully aware to me while serving as Commander-In -Chief of US Strategic Command and as Security Czar for the Secretary of Energy. Today, that traditional paradigm has literally been turned upside down with the unprecedented EAL 6+ High Robustness certification by the National Security Agency for Integrity Solutions' partitioned real-time operating systems. Cyber warfare has truly emerged around the world as an operational weapon of mass disruption and Integrity's innovative technological tools have clearly put the defense of our government and commercial systems on a level of security virtually unknown up this point."
General Eugene E. Habiger, USAF, Ret. has more than 35 years of experience in national security and nuclear operations. In his previous assignment as the Commander in Chief of United States Strategic Command, he was responsible for all U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy strategic nuclear forces supporting the national security strategy of strategic deterrence. In this position, he established an unprecedented military-to-military relationship with his Russian counterparts, which resulted in extraordinary confidence building and openness. This initiative was the centerpiece of a 60 Minutes II segment in February 2000 and a CNN special in October 2000.
General Habiger is a Distinguished Fellow and Policy Adviser with the University of Georgia's Center for International Trade and Security where he assists with the Center's international programs aimed at preventing weapons proliferation and reducing nuclear dangers.
Prior to joining the Center, General Habiger was the President/CEO of the San Antonio Water System, where he was responsible for the general operations of the System along with the strategic long-range business and water resources planning for the ninth largest city in the United States. He also worked as the Department of Energy's Director of Security and Emergency Operations. As the Department's "Security Czar", he was charged by the Secretary with changing the security culture at the Energy Department and establishing a program to reenergize and restore confidence in the Department's Security Program.
He is a command pilot with more than 5,000 flying hours, primarily in bomber aircraft. During the Vietnam War, he flew 150 combat missions.
He is also the Chairman of the Board of the Armed Services YMCA, serves on the Fisher House Foundation of San Antonio and is a Senior Fellow with the Gorbechev Foundation.

All Drone Politics Is Local

From:  David Swanson

COMMENT - The anti-drone action is spreading.  This is from the Swanson coalition, of which Drone Free Zone is a part.  Get ready to Occupy Drone Contractors! 

By David Swanson

What Localities and States Can Do About Drones

Charlottesville, Va., passed a resolution that urged the state of Virginia to adopt a two-year moratorium on drones (which it did), urged both Virginia and the U.S. Congress to prohibit information obtained from the domestic use of drones from being introduced into court, and to preclude the domestic use of drones equipped with "anti-personnel devices, meaning any projectile, chemical, electrical, directed-energy (visible or invisible), or other device designed to harm, incapacitate, or otherwise negatively impact a human being," and pledged that Charlottesville would "abstain from similar uses with city-owned, leased, or borrowed drones."

St. Bonifacius, Minn., passed a resolution with the same language as Charlottesville plus a ban on anyone operating a drone "within the airspace of the city," making a first offense a misdemeanor and a repeat offense a felony.

Evanston, Ill., passed a resolution establishing a two-year moratorium on the use of drones in the city with exceptions for hobby and model aircraft and for non-military research, and making the same recommendations to the state and Congress as Charlottesville and St. Bonifacius.

Northampton, Mass., passed a resolution urging the U.S. government to end its practice of extrajudicial killing with drones, affirming that within the city limits "the navigable airspace for drone aircraft shall not be expanded below the long-established airspace for manned aircraft" and that "landowners subject to state laws and local ordinances have exclusive control of the immediate reaches of the airspace and that no drone aircraft shall have the 'public right of transit' through this private  property," and urging the state and Congress and the FAA "to  respect legal precedent and constitutional guarantees of privacy, property rights, and local sovereignty in all matters pertaining to drone aircraft and navigable airspace."

See full text of all resolutions at warisacrime.org/resolutions

Other cities, towns, and counties should be able to pass similar resolutions. Of course, stronger and more comprehensive resolutions are best. But most people who learned about the four resolutions above just leaned that these four cities had "banned drones" or "passed an anti-drone resolution." The details are less important in terms of building national momentum against objectionable uses of drones.  By including both surveillance and weaponized drones, as all four cities have done, a resolution campaign can find broader support.  By including just one issue, a resolution might meet fewer objections.  Asking a city just to make recommendations to a state and the nation might also meet less resistance than asking the city to take actions itself.  Less can be more.

Localities have a role in national policy. City councilors and members of boards of supervisors take an oath to support the Constitution of the United States. Cities and towns routinely send petitions to Congress for all kinds of requests. This is allowed under Clause 3, Rule XII, Section 819, of the Rules of the House of Representatives. This clause is routinely used to accept petitions from cities, and memorials from states. The same is established in the Jefferson Manual, the rulebook for the House originally written by Thomas Jefferson for the Senate. In 1967, a court in California ruled (Farley v. Healey, 67 Cal.2d 325) that "one of the purposes of local government is to represent its citizens before the Congress, the Legislature, and administrative agencies in matters over which the local government has no power. Even in matters of foreign policy it is not uncommon for local legislative bodies to make their positions known." Abolitionists passed local resolutions against U.S. policies on slavery. The anti-apartheid movement did the same, as did the nuclear freeze movement, the movement against the PATRIOT Act, the movement in favor of the Kyoto Protocol, etc. No locality is an island. If we become environmentally sustainable, others will ruin our climate. If we ban assault weapons, they'll arrive at our borders. And if the skies of the United States are filled with drones, it will become ever more difficult for any city or state to keep them out.

How to pass a local resolution: Every city or county is different, but some rules of thumb are applicable. To the extent possible, build understanding of the issues.  Invite speakers, screen films, hold conferences.  To the extent possible, educate and win over elected officials.  Make the case that localities have a responsibility to speak on national issues to represent the interests of local people.  Make the case that the time to act is before the problem expands out of control. Most states are considering drone legislation, so refer to that activity in your state. Make clear that you are aware of countless benevolent and harmless uses of drones but that you are prioritizing Constitutional rights and want exceptions made for uses that do not endanger self-governance rather than drones being made the norm and restrictions the exception. The Congressional Research Service says drones are incompatible with the Fourth Amendment. The U.N. Special Rapporteur says drones are making war the norm.  If possible, propose the weakest resolution you can, and ask the local government to put it on the agenda for consideration; then propose the strongest possible resolution you dare.  You may end up with a compromise, as happened in Charlottesville. Work the local media and public. Pack the meeting(s). Take advantage of every opportunity for the public to speak. Unlike at the state or national levels, you are unlikely to face any organized opposition. Make your most persuasive case, and make a great show of public support. Equate a "No" vote with support for cameras in everyone's windows and armed drones over picnics. Equate a "Yes" vote with prevention of racial profiling, activist profiling, and the targeting of all sorts of groups that can be recruited into your campaign.

STATES: See full text of all resolutions at warisacrime.org/resolutions

Oregon has passed a law banning weaponized drones in all cases and banning drone use by law enforcement unless they have a warrant, they have probable cause without a warrant, or for search and rescue, or for an emergency, or for studying a crime scene, or for training (and the Fourth Amendment be damned).

Virginia has passed a law banning local and state (but not federal or National Guard) government drone use for two years unless various color-coded alerts are activated or there is a search or rescue operation or for training exercises or for drone-training schools, and strictly banning (for two years) any state or local weaponized drones.

Florida has passed a law banning law enforcement agencies from using drones to gather information unless they think they have some sort of reason to do so (and the Fourth Amendment be damned).

Idaho has passed a law banning drone surveillance "absent reasonable, articulable suspicion of criminal conduct" except in pursuit of marijuana in which case no such suspicion is needed (and the Fourth Amendment be damned).

Illinois has passed a law banning drones except for law enforcement agencies that have a warrant or when the Secretary of Homeland Security shouts "terrorism!" or they are reasonably suspicious it's needed or are searching for a missing person or are photographing a crime scene or traffic crash scene (and the Fourth Amendment be damned).

Tennessee has passed a law banning law enforcement drones unless the Sec. of Homeland Security shouts "terrorism!" or there's a warrant or there's suspicion without a warrant (and the Fourth Amendment be damned).

Texas has passed a law banning the capturing of images with drones except for ... too many exceptions to list.

Congressman Grayson passed an amendment to a DHS funding bill banning DHS from using weaponized drones, a step that must be repeated each year for this and other agencies unless a full national or international ban is put in place.

Iran to teach drone-hunting to school students

From:  The Guardian

COMMENT - Now, are they going to provide tutorials online and will they include contractor hunting on the curriculum?  

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards paramilitary units plan to teach drone-hunting to school students, an Iranian newspaper reported Monday.
The report by pro-reform Etemad daily quoted Gen. Ali Fazli, acting commander of the Guard's Basij militia, as saying the new program will be taught as part of a "Defensive Readiness" lesson in high schools from late September.
He did not elaborate but the plan suggests students would be taught how to track and bring down drone aircraft by hacking their computer systems.
Iranian hardliners have long sought a larger role for the military in the country's education system. Students at both junior and senior high schools currently take courses focusing on "civil defense."
Iran captured a U.S. RQ-170 Sentinel drone in 2011 after it entered Iranian airspace. Since then, Tehran says it has seized more U.S. drones, including a Boeing-designed ScanEagle.

5 Myths Used to Justify Death By Drone and America's Assassination Policy

From:  AlterNet 

By Robert Greenwald

Obama's drone war relies on propaganda to keep the American public from understanding the inhumanity of high-tech drone killings.

America’s never-ending war on terrorism is almost always depicted in the mainstream media as a military and intelligence agency fight on a global battlefield. But it is also a propaganda war where the public is fed inaccuracies from Washington, especially when it comes to overseas killings by U.S. military drones.

Here are five myths perpetuated by the military and its weapons makers that seek to make Americans feel good about drones and the White House’s policy of targeted assassinations.

 Myth #1: They Target High Level Terrorists

Only two percent of drone strikes have killed “high value targets,” former counter-terror advisor to David Patreus, David Kilcullen, notoriously remarked in a New York Times column early in the Obama presidency, where he said that 50 civilians were killed for every “high-value target” assassinated. That means that 98 percent of drone-caused deaths have been a mix of low-level militants, civilians, or another dubious Pentagon classification called “unknown militants.”   MORE

Anti-war leaders condemn U.S. drone strikes on Yemen

From:  Before Its News 

COMMENT - It is good to see at least one drone corporation being identified as a purveyor of death.

Minneapolis, MN – Meredith Aby of the Twin Cities-based Anti-War Committee condemned the escalating wave of U.S. drone strikes in Yemen, stating, “There have been eight drone attacks in the past two weeks in Yemen which have killed more than 30 people. The U.S. is waging an undeclared war in Yemen and increasing the anger at the U.S. for its use of drones on civilians. It is particularly insulting to our sisters and brothers in the Muslim world that this escalation of drone strikes has corresponded with the end of Ramadan and the celebration of Eid. The president claims these drone strikes make us safer, when in fact they do the opposite. The people of Yemen see these attacks for what they are – acts of imperialism.”

Joe Iosbaker, of the Anti-War Committee-Chicago, said of the drone strikes, “In May, President Obama told us that the U.S. use of drone warfare would be declining, but clearly that’s not happening. There is no real change in the Obama doctrine of drone war. According to the U.S., we can strike into any country at any time. This is the unlawful behavior of an imperialist country.”

Iosbaker and Aby are helping to organize the Midwest Action Against Drones (MAAD) scheduled for Sept. 29 – 30, under the slogans 'End Drone Warfare Abroad and Spying at Home', 'No Killer Drone for Boeing', 'No New Wars on Iran and Syria', and 'Money for Jobs, Healthcare, and Education – Not for War'.

On Sept. 28, at 3:00 p.m. protesters will gather in Chicago’s Millennium Park for a rally and march to Boeing Headquarters. On Sept. 29, from 9:30 a.m. until 3:00 p.m., there will be a conference featuring workshops and activists and organizers from across the Midwest region.

Source: http://www.fightbacknews.org/2013/8/10/anti-war-leaders-condemn-us-drone-strikes-yemen