The Drone Papers

Post by anigbrowl » Thu, Oct 15, 2015, 11:33 PM UTC

smokeyj wrote: post #144

anigbrowl wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obama talks about military issues all the time. He talked about them today, explaining why he's decided not to withdraw troops from Afghanistan for the time being (meaning during his tenure). To expect him to talk about the issues you care most about to the exclusion of all others is simply childish. It's the rule of law. Get rid of due process, and evil is everywhere, or nowhere at all. The US is, by law, engaged in…

> there are other actors with geopolitical interests of their own who would cheerfully move in to fill the resulting vacuum So the argument for perpetual and unwinnable warfare is - if we don't someone else will? You think that's worth the live's of US service members and the inevitable collateral damage inflicted in war zones? I feel like I'm missing part of the picture. Personally, a better way of combating radical…

Post by sangnoir » Thu, Oct 15, 2015, 11:40 PM UTC

anigbrowl wrote: post #158

sangnoir wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is insane. By your logic: "I'm inclined to at least consider the possibility that the Russians are polluting American's precious bodily fluids because it suits their own interests..."

Leaking supposedly confidential information to the press is hardly a novel technique in espionage, or in any social context for that matter, eg feeding a juicy tale to the village gossip to embarrass a rival. Machiavelli made a systematic study of such techniques centuries ago. What do you find so insane about it?

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Oct 15, 2015, 11:47 PM UTC

rhino369 wrote: post #134

DominikR wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it obvious that the attack on the hospital wasn't purposeful? This article by associated press indicates that they attacked the hospital on purpose. http://bigstory.ap.org/urn:publicid:ap.org:5e20fcd92aee49e69... > Obama is trying to kill people to make the world better... I have no words for this. How a person can even entertain such thoughts is beyond me.

>Why is it obvious that the attack on the hospital wasn't purposeful? Because there is no motive. From the story you quote "It's unclear whether commanders who unleashed the AC-130 gunship on the hospital — killing at least 22 patients and hospital staff — were aware that the site was a hospital or knew about the allegations of possible enemy activity." What is more likely. The US suddenly decided to murder a bunch o…

Post by PavlovsCat » Thu, Oct 15, 2015, 11:55 PM UTC

darkerside wrote: post #67

pkinsky wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Nuremberg trials established that 'just obeying orders' is no excuse, that acting as the tool of another does not absolve a person. That doesn't mean the person giving the orders isn't at least as guilty as the person who carries them out.

That's right, but it does mean there is a totally valid distinction between "authorizing" killings, and carrying them out yourself. The top level comment is blurring lines that shouldn't need to be blurred.

Post by viraptor » Thu, Oct 15, 2015, 11:58 PM UTC

runjake wrote: post #112

venomsnake wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First result on search https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vivek.imei... Imei changing is trivial. But you are still on the same number. Now - to change numbers on the fly requires telco assistance. And some very very interesting toys.

This only changes the apparent IMEI at the OS level to mask oneself from apps that pry. The hardware is still using the same old IMEI as far as the phone company and SIGINT is concerned. This is not readily, or trivially, changeable.