23.03.2007 ~ 'Congratulations, we just got away with murder, gents'

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wtfF0nzie: @PieterVos Ah yes, I was picking up toast when I read that :)

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 12:07:58

Iraq April 2006. Night-time. Seven marines and a navy medic. A snatch and kill operation. An empty house. A police officer next door. A wall, a hole, a shovel, an AK and an orbiting UAV. A substitution. A murder.

Pioneer uav being launched The eight troops, having not found their intended target (a suspected insurgent by the name of Saleh Gowad) simply went next door and snatched disabled Iraqi police officer Hashim Ibrahim Awad. They dragged the flexicuffed Awad a half mile to a small crater where he was left with a stolen shovel and an AK-47. From there the marines staged a mock engagement under the eyes of a FLIR camera on an orbiting Israeli made Pioneer un-manned aerial vehicle, killing Awad in what, for all intents and purposes, looked like a legitimate firefight between a marine squad and a bomb planting Iraqi insurgent.

An investigation. Aerial footage. A powerpoint presentation. A job well done.

Following a complaint by Awad's family to their sheikh, a routine investigation was ordered. The pioneer's footage of the incident was presented to investigators as a M$ powerpoint presentation (there's something really depressing about that...). The pioneer UAV footage corroborated the marines' report of an engagement with a bomb planting insurgent. Case closed...

A confession

An interview with the navy medic yielded the true chain of events. Investigators were shocked to hear the marines who had kidnapped Awad simply worked with the strenghts, weaknesses and expectations of the orbiting UAV in order to get away with murder. In one case, the UAV recorded what appeared to be four marines in a prone position overwatching their intended target. In reality, Awad was crouched with the marines overlooking the crater in which he would perish, as a fourth marine masquerading as the 'bomber' dug around the crater for the eyes of the passing UAV.

Another example occurred when the pioneer unexpectedly returned to the scene. Awad was being led to the crater by a single marine when the low and loud surveillance plane circled overhead. The marine simply wrapped himself around the Iraqi giving the infra red signature of a single individual. Six of the seven marines would take part in Awad's murder.

A moral?

As the case has yet to conclude it's a little early for this staple of children's tv. UAVs have been used successfully by US military forces since the first Gulf war (an amusing example involved Iraqi defenders on Faylaka Island off the coast of Kuwait City signalling their surrender to the USS WISCONSIN's UAV using white bedsheets!), albeit in a target spotting or light reconnaissance role against point targets.

Now cast in a police role, UAVs are forced to play against their strenghts and are being utilised in routine area surveillance/patrol roles, a difficult task for their relatively low resolution cameras. Couple this with growing use of deception tactics (by both sides) and we have another example of technology not being the proverbial silver bullet it often presents itself.

Tags: 07, ffs, military, police.

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