[Nettime-bold] Coming Soon: Flying Fascism on Your Doorstep

From: http://www.almartinraw.com/column48.html

Coming Soon: Flying Fascism on Your Doorstep

by Al Martin

February 20, 2002

New high-tech surveillance equipment revealed at the Redstone Arsenal's

Weekly Arms Bazaar promises a dismal future for freedom-loving people of

the world.

The Friendly Colonel has filed the latest report from the most recent arms

show at the Redstone Arsenal, which has been shut down and is essentially

used for storage. Housed in this facility are several thousands of the new

modified urban control Humvees, equipped with 14.5 mm cannons as well as

many aerials and satellite dishes. Some are camouflage in color, but most

of them are dark matte gray. They looked like they were painted with a

sealer coat of paint (primer paint), before the final coat is painted on

depending on the theater of operation in which they will be used.

Of greater significance was the introduction of the new DCHD (Domestic

Control Hover Drones), which were displayed and offered for sale. They're

about a meter in diameter and probably weigh about twenty kilograms each.

It looks like a life ring (life preserver) with a motor in the middle of

it.

The Chinese and Russian arms dealers were interested in them, and evidently

the British Government has been one of this device's primary buyers.

Evidently we're not selling them to a lot of foreign countries at this

time, but still building inventories for ourselves. Each of these DCHDs

costs $178,000 a copy.

He met with an Iranian colonel who is some sort of an engineer, who was

trying to explain to him what these things can do. The Friendly Colonel

admitted that he didn't even know such technology even existed.

Here are some specs. They can hover to a maximum ceiling of 500 feet,

although they're really meant to hover about 50 feet off the ground. They

not only hover, but they can go forward and back. Their maximum speed is 50

miles an hour, and they can stay aloft for up to three hours at a time.

There are counter-rotating rotors in the middle of the device with what

appears to be an engine on top. All of the internal components appear to be

made of some sort of super-advanced composite, like boron-graphite

composite material that is very, very light, but is also very strong. The

propellers are also made of this same material, and they weigh practically

nothing.

There are two counter-rotating propellers, two propellers that rotate

counter-synchronously, the way the Russians used to build turbo-prop

airplanes like the TU-95s. The reason they do it that way is because it

gives a much higher speed, lift and stability.

They're controlled electronically -- either through satellites or through

what they call Fixed or Mobile Relay Command Centers, built right into the

Humvee. They showed how the two worked together.

The Friendly Colonel reports that inside this Humvee, which can control a

certain quad of these things, it looked like the inside of a spaceship. The

components and views screens, which appear to be holographic, and the

technology are simply amazing -- "It's like nothing you ever saw."

The surveillance drones come in different color schemes -- a very dark

black matte for night use or a two-tone matte white and sky blue top -- so

it's hard to see them during the day.

They started one of these hover drones up, and he said it virtually makes

no sound at all. Even if you're ten feet away, you couldn't hear the thing.

That's how quiet they are.

They are fitted with what is purported to be one of the most-advanced

micro-cameras ever invented by the US Government. Through satellites, their

transmission capability is virtually limitless. Satellites can access its

transmissions and give it directions, signals, codes, and tell it what to

do.

They can be pre-programmed for certain flight paths, but the computer has

the ability to think, so that if it acquires a target, it can deviate from

a flight path. It also has sensors so it can get out of the way and not run

into a tree or the side of a building. It also has infrared cameras and

high-resolution night cameras with multiple neutral density filters.

They also have see-through capability -- with a thermal imaging sensor

camera, which can actually see inside of buildings and see through walls.

The device is meant to be used as a domestic control drone. It not only has

cameras, but the most sensitive audio receivers that have ever been made.

It can pick up a human conversation from five hundred feet away -- one

human conversation. Not only can they photograph and relay still shots and

real time video and transmit video, but they also have a "non-lethal"

weapons capability, some sort of stun gun based on energy discharge

technology. They're powered by what's known as a fusion power cell, which

looks like a square pack of film. The power is produced through some sort

of chemical reaction.

These drones can stop and detain people. Since they have a microphone, they

can hover right in your face, while you're looking into the camera. It also

has a transmitter, which can play pre-recorded messages, or someone can

actually talk to you even though they're a thousand miles away.

During the demonstration, they hovered the thing around the room and then

it came down in front of this Air Force captain's face, and it said,

"Citizen, kindly present your national identification card."

Then a little telescoping plate comes out of it, and you're supposed to

hold your national identification card in front of this plate. They

wouldn't reveal all of its abilities of the drone because some of it was

still classified. The manufacturer is the same company, located in Indiana,

which makes other equipment for the NSA.

Let's think about where this device could be used. How about South Central

Los Angeles street corners? Using these devices, only Government-Authorized

crack dealers would be able to sell their product. Crack dealers, not

approved by the Government, could then be sanctioned -- or removed.

The exhibit hall had high-definition presentation screens around the room,

which showed how these things could be used. It showed them moving down a

darkened street at night, and then it showed what the cameras were seeing,

pictures of the people and how they looked through an infra red camera and

an ultra violet camera and how different images looked through different

camera receptors. It looked like it was right out of Star Trek.

(Author's Note: Usually we wouldn't publish this information, which could

be construed as conspiratorial in nature. However, since it came from a

reliable source, actually present on site, we decided it was important for

Al Martin Raw readers to know the facts.)

There was actually a computer generated voice simulator, which announced,

"Base price starts at just $178,543 for the Class IV model." Then it

proceeded to announce the prices for all the options and add-ons, which

could bring the total price up to $350,000.

And who would be most interested in buying these items? As the Friendly

Colonel pointed out, as usual, there were a lot of Russian and Chinese arms

dealers there -- but you never really know their ultimate clients. And

there were some military officers (they had staff patches) who appeared to

be from the Office of Homeland Security, although they don't have military

designation insignia yet.

These surveillance drones could be used in Small Town America -- to cruise

down the streets to seek out those who are potential threats to the

security of the State - those who are "disloyal," those who are

"different," and those who have already been deemed to be suspicious by

Neighborhood Watch Groups, following the new protocols and reported to the

newly created Civilian Defense Force.

At any rate, it was a very slick and very well done presentation. They had

the giant Australian prawns, lightly fried in a light batter and served

with an oriental plum sauce. The Friendly Colonel says they were just out

of this world -- and there was an open bar, of course. He said there's

nothing like having taxpayer-funded prime rib and shrimp.

Coming soon to your neighborhood -- sci-fi fascism. People already

understand that this advanced technology exists, and the government has not

denied that they are using miniaturized fusion power cells. The reason

they're not making a big deal out of it is because people would say, "let's

replace the oil industry with fusion power." And that is something that

even I understand could not be done -- without massive economic

dislocation, of course.