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Officials Claim Drone Incursion Led to Shutdown of El Paso Airport

nytimes.com

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Re: Officials Claim Drone Incursion Led to Shutdown of El Paso Airport

#371

Post by trenning »

morpheuskafka wrote: post #363
guerrilla wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally don't think that's the whole story. They're likely going to act against the cartels to take out cross-border drone capabilities and are preparing for S-A retaliation as well.

A cartel using a SAM against a US civilian aircraft would massively solidify public opinion against them just like 9/11 or the Iran hostage crisis. The US has been trying to extent the "foreign terrorist" label and casus belli to drug activities forever to justify military operations (ex. the "arrest" of Maduro was for drugs, not oil/Cuba/political stuff). That would be a massive self-own on the cartels part. (And if…

My understanding over the US/MX cartel relations is performing an invasion and “act of war” would solidify asylum status claims by Mexican residents and throw a wrench into the whole immigration scheme every administration plays.

But then again this time seems different, laws aren’t followed or upheld. Human rights are a fleeting staple.

Re: Officials Claim Drone Incursion Led to Shutdown of El Paso Airport

#372

Post by pjc50 »

delaminator wrote: post #323
datsci_est_2015 wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This admin is focused on the message of stopping the inflow of drugs to the US. There are probably some true believers, and there are probably some reactionary accelerationists. There’s also significant evidence of amateurism, misinformation, and incompetence. All of that coming together, I see this action coming out of meeting where - one party was convinced that this would solve the fentanyl epidemic - one party wa…

> reactionary they want to overthrow the Jacobites > accelerationists how's that going to work ?

Reactionary accelerationists want a local war of some sort so they can grab war powers and then roll back all the US's post-WW2 social progress (and most of the New Deal too).

Re: Officials Claim Drone Incursion Led to Shutdown of El Paso Airport

#373

Post by [deleted] »

malfist wrote: post #356
niij wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She's on the Cartel payroll. Of course she would say that. You can't be a simple mayor without cartel involvement in Mexico.

> She's on the Cartel payroll > You can't be a simple mayor without cartel involvement in Mexico. I don't know what world you're living in, but this is absolutely not the case. Mexico is not a failed state, don't get all your news from places trying to scare you.

[deleted]

Re: Officials Claim Drone Incursion Led to Shutdown of El Paso Airport

#374

Post by Spooky23 »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #357
ajross wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And I was merely commenting on the likely veracity of the quote you posted. No shooting happening here.

HackerNews will be shut down for 10 days as we deploy counter-messenger technology.

Good news, the messenger has been neutered. You may continue messaging.

Re: Officials Claim Drone Incursion Led to Shutdown of El Paso Airport

#375

Post by ndiddy »

sva_ wrote: post #200

> Airline sources told Reuters the grounding of flights was believed to be tied to the Pentagon's use of counterdrone technology to address Mexican drug cartels' use of drones of the U.S.-Mexico border. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-halts-all-flights-texass...

Looks like they shot the drone down with a laser:

> UPDATE (CNN): Source briefed by FAA tells me that military activity behind the El Paso flight ban included unmanned aircraft operations and laser countermeasure testing in airspace directly adjacent to civilian routes into El Paso International. Airspace restriction just lifted.

https://x.com/petemuntean/status/2021586247827828812

Re: Officials Claim Drone Incursion Led to Shutdown of El Paso Airport

#376

Post by guerrilla »

morpheuskafka wrote: post #363
guerrilla wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally don't think that's the whole story. They're likely going to act against the cartels to take out cross-border drone capabilities and are preparing for S-A retaliation as well.

A cartel using a SAM against a US civilian aircraft would massively solidify public opinion against them just like 9/11 or the Iran hostage crisis. The US has been trying to extent the "foreign terrorist" label and casus belli to drug activities forever to justify military operations (ex. the "arrest" of Maduro was for drugs, not oil/Cuba/political stuff). That would be a massive self-own on the cartels part. (And if…

> A cartel using a SAM against a US civilian aircraft would massively solidify public opinion against them

In what world is public opinion not universally against the cartels? It's hard to take you seriously after that.

Re: Officials Claim Drone Incursion Led to Shutdown of El Paso Airport

#377

Post by mikeyouse »

morpheuskafka wrote: post #364
datsci_est_2015 wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This admin is focused on the message of stopping the inflow of drugs to the US. There are probably some true believers, and there are probably some reactionary accelerationists. There’s also significant evidence of amateurism, misinformation, and incompetence. All of that coming together, I see this action coming out of meeting where - one party was convinced that this would solve the fentanyl epidemic - one party wa…

> one party was busy making “bets” on Kalshi This would arguably be much more severe -- and quite likely already happening -- than the whole "congress trading stocks" thing because most of those (besides the sports ones) tie very directly to government actions in a way that the economy or a large company in generally doesn't as predictably.

It's definitely already happening and should lead to a congressional inquiry if we had a functioning congress: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2gn93292do

Re: Officials Claim Drone Incursion Led to Shutdown of El Paso Airport

#378

Post by pjc50 »

trenning wrote: post #371
morpheuskafka wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A cartel using a SAM against a US civilian aircraft would massively solidify public opinion against them just like 9/11 or the Iran hostage crisis. The US has been trying to extent the "foreign terrorist" label and casus belli to drug activities forever to justify military operations (ex. the "arrest" of Maduro was for drugs, not oil/Cuba/political stuff). That would be a massive self-own on the cartels part. (And if…

My understanding over the US/MX cartel relations is performing an invasion and “act of war” would solidify asylum status claims by Mexican residents and throw a wrench into the whole immigration scheme every administration plays. But then again this time seems different, laws aren’t followed or upheld. Human rights are a fleeting staple.

Starting a war with Mexico would be a pretext for interning everyone of "Mexican" ethnicity, citizen or otherwise, as was done to Japanese nationals.

Re: Officials Claim Drone Incursion Led to Shutdown of El Paso Airport

#379

Post by superb_dev »

fabian2k wrote: post #65

There is a circular restriction around the airport and a trapezoid one next to the city ( https://elpasomatters.org/2026/02/11/unexplained-faa-order-s... ). What are the plausible explanations here? I can't think of anything except military action against Mexico (or the cartels inside Mexico). But even that doesn't fit well. A suspected terror attack could explain the airspace around the airport, but not the weird tr…

Another interesting note, the trapezoidal TFR is still in place

Re: Officials Claim Drone Incursion Led to Shutdown of El Paso Airport

#380

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

p-e-w wrote: post #226
nessbot wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Murdering buses of people doesn't bring the full force of the US military on them. The difference is the risk not the depravity.

This is the answer. The cartels would have to be insane to poke that particular bear. They would get crushed like a bug. IIRC they murdered a single US undercover officer in the 90s and the retaliation was so bad that they themselves handed over the perpetrators.

> They would get crushed like a bug.

Much as I despise them, I'm not so sure that would be the case. I seem to remember folks saying the same about the Taliban, and the cartels have a lot more money and high-tech kit, than the Taliban.

Asymmetric warfare is a tough gig, on all sides.

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