{"id":37394,"date":"2013-12-09T12:00:34","date_gmt":"2013-12-09T12:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=37394"},"modified":"2015-05-05T22:20:14","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T21:20:14","slug":"un-launches-its-own-spy-drone-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2013\/12\/un-launches-its-own-spy-drone-program\/","title":{"rendered":"UN Launches Its Own Spy Drone Program"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Image:<\/a>

Image: UN\/YouTube<\/p><\/div>\n

The United Nations has turned to spy drones for the first time in its history in an effort to increase pressure in militias in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, marking both a major technological advancement in the organization\u2019s peacekeeping arsenal as well as a shift in how it views the use of unmanned aerial vehicles.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuch high-technology systems allow a better knowledge of what is happening on the ground, which allows a force to better do its job,\u201d\u00a0Herv\u00e9 Ladsous, Under Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations, told journalists<\/a> upon his arrival in Goma this week.<\/p>\n

The first two drones were launched on Tuesday from the eastern city of Goma and officials expect another drone to be deployed by the end of the month with more to be delivered in the spring.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith this kind of equipment, we should be able to combine information gathered in flight with information gathered on the ground by people,\u201d said<\/a> Santos Cruz, Force Commander General Santos of MONUSCO, the UN\u2019s stabilization mission in Congo.<\/p>\n

For now, the deployment, which was authorized by the Security Council earlier this year<\/a>, is limited to Congolese air space and the drones are strictly for surveillance purposes so that the UN can better track population fluxes, the movement of armed groups\u00a0and areas of the country that are typically difficult to monitor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey sorely need dedicated ISR [Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance] capabilities,\u201d said Micah Zenko, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. \u201cThe hold up isn\u2019t opposition to drones, per se, but more typical funding issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the UN has routinely criticized the U.S. and British governments for their drone activities, albeit mostly for strikes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most prolific user of targeted killings today is the United States, which primarily uses drones for attacks,\u201d wrote<\/a> Philip Alston, special investigator\u00a0to the UN Human Rights Council, in 2009. \u201cSome 40 states already possess drone technology, and some already have, or are seeking, the capacity to fire missiles from them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps self-aware of its own forthcoming drone turn, the organization struck a softer tone in two major reports on drones it published in October,\u00a0where it called for greater transparency from the United States by releasing data.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe single greatest obstacle to an evaluation of the civilian impact of drone strikes is lack of transparency, which makes it extremely difficult to assess claims of precision targeting objectively,\u201d wrote\u00a0UN special rapporteur Ben Emmerson in one of the two reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It may be easy for the UN to be transparent about the Congo, but as drone operations expand \u2014 as they always seem to do<\/a> \u2014 to other situations and other agencies, how much will we know?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is another validator of the new \u2018normal\u2019 of this technology and its use,\u201d said Peter Singer, director of the Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence at the Brookings Institution.\u00a0\u201dSome 87 countries are using military robotics of some sort, so why should we be stunned that the organization they are members of and supply its forces would use them too?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDrones are a technology that are here to stay,\u201d said Singer. \u201cThere are so many \u2018debates\u2019 now where the people call themselves \u2018pro\u2019 or \u2018anti\u2019 drone, which is like being pro or anti computers, quaint but irrelevant. Its all about how you use the technology, not the widget itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Z6uag2TSdoU#t=12<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 wired.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The United Nations has turned to spy drones for the first time in its history in an effort to increase pressure in militias in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, marking both a major technological advancement in the organization\u2019s peacekeeping arsenal as well as a shift in how it views the use of unmanned aerial vehicles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-united-nations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37394\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}