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This is ugly. Means they cold be swooping down overhead since I'm damn close to the border!
Unmanned drone prowls over the lonely prairie
As the Predator patrols near Manitoba, U.S. politicians say it's a needed security measure. But Canadian experts say it's a PR exercise
PATRICK WHITE
February 18, 2009
WINNIPEG -- Famed for prowling the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq, a remote-control Predator aircraft took flight over the wheat fields of South Dakota yesterday, the first in a network of surveillance drones that could soon patrol the American border with Canada from Maine to Washington state.
While security-conscious politicians applauded the start of Predator flight operations along the largely unmonitored northern border, some border experts regard it as a mere public-relations exercise.
"I think this has far more to do with the theatre of security than with dealing seriously about issues surrounding the northern border," said border security expert Ben Muller, a political science professor at Simon Fraser University.
For now, the South Dakota drone will be confined to a 370-kilometre stretch along the Manitoba border to test how it holds up to Prairie winters. By 2010, however, U.S. border officials hope to see the $10.5-million unmanned aircraft monitoring both sides of the B.C. border during the Winter Olympics.
"If the RCMP or Canadian government believes they can make use of the aircraft for support during the Olympics, we will be more than willing to provide it," said Juan Munoz-Torres, spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Already the agency has established five bases to act as launch sites for the drones in Bellingham, Wash., Great Falls, Mont., Grand Forks, N.D., Detroit and Plattsburgh, N.Y.
The plan, called the Northern Border Air Wing, is a holdover from the 9/11 Commission Report, which recommended that the United States shore up security along borders with Mexico and Canada.
"It seems a palliative measure," said Michael Kergin, chairman of the Canadian International Council working group on border issues and a former ambassador to the United States, "but it does provide them with some assurances."
Five Predator drones currently patrol the Mexican border, and border officials give the aircraft partial credit for stopping more than 4,000 illegal immigrants and 8,000 kilograms of marijuana from crossing the southern boundary.
With a range of 5,900 kilometres and a maximum speed of more than 450 km/h, a single Predator will be capable of scouring a vast portion of the 9,000-km Canada-U.S. border. Sensors fastened to the plane's belly will take both infrared and HD video of anything within a 40-km radius.
Flight restrictions prevent the drone from flying any closer than 16 km to the Canadian border. That still leaves a roughly 24-km swath of Canadian borderland open to U.S. government eyes.
"There is no reason for Canadians to be concerned about this," Mr. Munoz-Torres said. "This is a military weapon adopted for civilian purposes."
But that relationship to bomb-ready military hardware is too close for some, who say the Predator challenges the border's distinction as the longest undefended border in the world.
"Post-9/11, there has been a significant militarization of the border," Dr. Muller said. "This certainly fits in with that."
More than a public-safety measure, the drone buzzing 20,000 feet over the prairies represents the clout of certain American political constituencies, Dr. Muller says.
"There has been a lot political pressure suggesting that these technological solutions will fix the security problem," he said. "They have this idea that if it's watched, we're all safer, but I'm very skeptical. They are the same people rolling out over and over again these examples that supposedly prove Canada is a terrorist hotbed."
Senators Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota have applied much of that political pressure.
Both have been instrumental in attracting federal funding for the Northern Border Air Wing by highlighting drug-trafficking and terrorism problems along the northern border.
"It is vital to America's security that we protect our borders, particularly the northern border," said Mr. Conrad upon the drone's arrival in Grand Forks. "The Grand Forks Air Branch plays an essential role in helping shut the door on terrorists who want to sneak across remote border points to strike on U.S. soil."
Their efforts to draw political attention to northern border security issues may eventually result in 20 unmanned air vehicles, or UAVs, being housed at the Grand Forks base.
And plans are under way to create an unmanned aircraft program at the University of North Dakota.
For the most part, the RCMP is on board with the U.S plan to secure the border using drones. Some officers even attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Grand Forks on Sunday.
The plan fits a larger North American strategy to scrutinize the border without bogging down crossing times.
"It's a technology that's not intrusive and is relatively user-friendly," Mr. Kergin said. "I would argue that it's a useful tool."
*****
Privacy concerns
For Cliff Graydon, reports that an unmanned U.S. surveillance plane would soon be watching his 3,000-acre farm came out of the blue.
"Before yesterday, I knew nothing about it," he said.
And as the MLA for a riding that covers much of Manitoba's border with South Dakota, he has serious reservations about a drone that will peer as far as 30 kilometres across the border using infrared sensors and high-definition video.
"Privacy is the biggest concern," he said. "Many of my constituents already have fences up for privacy on the ground. Now they'll have someone up in the sky watching them. How would you like someone staring in your window all day?"
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials said the Predator drone, which began patrolling the border today, can remain aloft for up to 18 hours.
Mr. Graydon said some constituents have asked him why they should be the first in Canada to come under the drone's surveillance.
"They are asking if we are a hot spot for drug smuggling, guns or terrorism. Not that I'm aware of, but maybe we are not getting the whole story."
The agency said it deployed the northern drone along the Manitoba border because of the vast, remote regions along the boundary that go largely unmonitored.
"I don't want to minimize the need for security in any country," Mr. Graydon said. "But this raises a lot of concerns."
Patrick White
*****
U.S. UNIT WATCHING CANADA AS IT WATCHES MEXICO
The deployment of an unmanned drone over Manitoba's border is a just one part of a much larger U.S. strategy to watch the Canadian border more closely.
In the wake of 9/11, U.S. politicians lobbied for the formation of an entirely new unit of Customs and Border Protection whose sole purpose would be to keep tabs on the Canadian border from the air.
In 2004, the Northern Border Air Wing was born.
"We wanted to establish the same type of air operations we already had along the southwest border to the northern border," U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Juan Munoz-Torres said.
With five main bases and three sub-bases stretching from Houlton, Me., to Bellingham, Wash., the unit today watches over all 9,000 kilometres of Canadian border on a regular basis.
The Predator drone joins a fleet that will eventually include two Blackhawk helicopters, four Cessnas and roughly 50 pilots.
Some critics wonder if the buildup will simply invite cross-border criminals to be craftier.
"Generally speaking, when border security is intensified, the problem doesn't go away," border security expert Ben Muller said. "They will use other strategies to get across."
In addition to regular border surveillance, the unit responds to natural disasters.
"With both sides of the border around North Dakota known for flooding," Mr. Munoz-Torres said, "we will make good use of this during emergencies."
Patrick White
*****
Eyes in the sky
The United States has installed a Predator drone spy plane base near the Canadian border to tighten up security.
HOW THE NEW PATROL WORKS
1. MQ-9 Reaper Predator B
A Predator drone observes suspicious behaviour at the border from a distance where it cannot be heard
2. It shines an invisible laser beam onto suspects and pinpoints their exact location.
3. Helicopter pilot sees laser with night vision goggles and swoops in for the arrest
MQ-9 REAPER PREDATOR B
Length: 11 metres
Wingspan: 20.1 metres
Weight: 1.68 tonnes (empty)
Flight radius: 3,022 km
Ceiling: 15,240 m
Cost: $17.5-m per plane
Grand Forks: The first of five U.S. Customs and Border Protection Unmanned Aircraft Operations Centers
BASES
Established bases
Bellingham
Great Falls
Detroit
Plattsburgh
Secondary bases
Spokane
Toronto
Ottawa
Houlton
Unmanned drone prowls over the lonely prairie
As the Predator patrols near Manitoba, U.S. politicians say it's a needed security measure. But Canadian experts say it's a PR exercise
PATRICK WHITE
February 18, 2009
WINNIPEG -- Famed for prowling the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq, a remote-control Predator aircraft took flight over the wheat fields of South Dakota yesterday, the first in a network of surveillance drones that could soon patrol the American border with Canada from Maine to Washington state.
While security-conscious politicians applauded the start of Predator flight operations along the largely unmonitored northern border, some border experts regard it as a mere public-relations exercise.
"I think this has far more to do with the theatre of security than with dealing seriously about issues surrounding the northern border," said border security expert Ben Muller, a political science professor at Simon Fraser University.
For now, the South Dakota drone will be confined to a 370-kilometre stretch along the Manitoba border to test how it holds up to Prairie winters. By 2010, however, U.S. border officials hope to see the $10.5-million unmanned aircraft monitoring both sides of the B.C. border during the Winter Olympics.
"If the RCMP or Canadian government believes they can make use of the aircraft for support during the Olympics, we will be more than willing to provide it," said Juan Munoz-Torres, spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Already the agency has established five bases to act as launch sites for the drones in Bellingham, Wash., Great Falls, Mont., Grand Forks, N.D., Detroit and Plattsburgh, N.Y.
The plan, called the Northern Border Air Wing, is a holdover from the 9/11 Commission Report, which recommended that the United States shore up security along borders with Mexico and Canada.
"It seems a palliative measure," said Michael Kergin, chairman of the Canadian International Council working group on border issues and a former ambassador to the United States, "but it does provide them with some assurances."
Five Predator drones currently patrol the Mexican border, and border officials give the aircraft partial credit for stopping more than 4,000 illegal immigrants and 8,000 kilograms of marijuana from crossing the southern boundary.
With a range of 5,900 kilometres and a maximum speed of more than 450 km/h, a single Predator will be capable of scouring a vast portion of the 9,000-km Canada-U.S. border. Sensors fastened to the plane's belly will take both infrared and HD video of anything within a 40-km radius.
Flight restrictions prevent the drone from flying any closer than 16 km to the Canadian border. That still leaves a roughly 24-km swath of Canadian borderland open to U.S. government eyes.
"There is no reason for Canadians to be concerned about this," Mr. Munoz-Torres said. "This is a military weapon adopted for civilian purposes."
But that relationship to bomb-ready military hardware is too close for some, who say the Predator challenges the border's distinction as the longest undefended border in the world.
"Post-9/11, there has been a significant militarization of the border," Dr. Muller said. "This certainly fits in with that."
More than a public-safety measure, the drone buzzing 20,000 feet over the prairies represents the clout of certain American political constituencies, Dr. Muller says.
"There has been a lot political pressure suggesting that these technological solutions will fix the security problem," he said. "They have this idea that if it's watched, we're all safer, but I'm very skeptical. They are the same people rolling out over and over again these examples that supposedly prove Canada is a terrorist hotbed."
Senators Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota have applied much of that political pressure.
Both have been instrumental in attracting federal funding for the Northern Border Air Wing by highlighting drug-trafficking and terrorism problems along the northern border.
"It is vital to America's security that we protect our borders, particularly the northern border," said Mr. Conrad upon the drone's arrival in Grand Forks. "The Grand Forks Air Branch plays an essential role in helping shut the door on terrorists who want to sneak across remote border points to strike on U.S. soil."
Their efforts to draw political attention to northern border security issues may eventually result in 20 unmanned air vehicles, or UAVs, being housed at the Grand Forks base.
And plans are under way to create an unmanned aircraft program at the University of North Dakota.
For the most part, the RCMP is on board with the U.S plan to secure the border using drones. Some officers even attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Grand Forks on Sunday.
The plan fits a larger North American strategy to scrutinize the border without bogging down crossing times.
"It's a technology that's not intrusive and is relatively user-friendly," Mr. Kergin said. "I would argue that it's a useful tool."
*****
Privacy concerns
For Cliff Graydon, reports that an unmanned U.S. surveillance plane would soon be watching his 3,000-acre farm came out of the blue.
"Before yesterday, I knew nothing about it," he said.
And as the MLA for a riding that covers much of Manitoba's border with South Dakota, he has serious reservations about a drone that will peer as far as 30 kilometres across the border using infrared sensors and high-definition video.
"Privacy is the biggest concern," he said. "Many of my constituents already have fences up for privacy on the ground. Now they'll have someone up in the sky watching them. How would you like someone staring in your window all day?"
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials said the Predator drone, which began patrolling the border today, can remain aloft for up to 18 hours.
Mr. Graydon said some constituents have asked him why they should be the first in Canada to come under the drone's surveillance.
"They are asking if we are a hot spot for drug smuggling, guns or terrorism. Not that I'm aware of, but maybe we are not getting the whole story."
The agency said it deployed the northern drone along the Manitoba border because of the vast, remote regions along the boundary that go largely unmonitored.
"I don't want to minimize the need for security in any country," Mr. Graydon said. "But this raises a lot of concerns."
Patrick White
*****
U.S. UNIT WATCHING CANADA AS IT WATCHES MEXICO
The deployment of an unmanned drone over Manitoba's border is a just one part of a much larger U.S. strategy to watch the Canadian border more closely.
In the wake of 9/11, U.S. politicians lobbied for the formation of an entirely new unit of Customs and Border Protection whose sole purpose would be to keep tabs on the Canadian border from the air.
In 2004, the Northern Border Air Wing was born.
"We wanted to establish the same type of air operations we already had along the southwest border to the northern border," U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Juan Munoz-Torres said.
With five main bases and three sub-bases stretching from Houlton, Me., to Bellingham, Wash., the unit today watches over all 9,000 kilometres of Canadian border on a regular basis.
The Predator drone joins a fleet that will eventually include two Blackhawk helicopters, four Cessnas and roughly 50 pilots.
Some critics wonder if the buildup will simply invite cross-border criminals to be craftier.
"Generally speaking, when border security is intensified, the problem doesn't go away," border security expert Ben Muller said. "They will use other strategies to get across."
In addition to regular border surveillance, the unit responds to natural disasters.
"With both sides of the border around North Dakota known for flooding," Mr. Munoz-Torres said, "we will make good use of this during emergencies."
Patrick White
*****
Eyes in the sky
The United States has installed a Predator drone spy plane base near the Canadian border to tighten up security.
HOW THE NEW PATROL WORKS
1. MQ-9 Reaper Predator B
A Predator drone observes suspicious behaviour at the border from a distance where it cannot be heard
2. It shines an invisible laser beam onto suspects and pinpoints their exact location.
3. Helicopter pilot sees laser with night vision goggles and swoops in for the arrest
MQ-9 REAPER PREDATOR B
Length: 11 metres
Wingspan: 20.1 metres
Weight: 1.68 tonnes (empty)
Flight radius: 3,022 km
Ceiling: 15,240 m
Cost: $17.5-m per plane
Grand Forks: The first of five U.S. Customs and Border Protection Unmanned Aircraft Operations Centers
BASES
Established bases
Bellingham
Great Falls
Detroit
Plattsburgh
Secondary bases
Spokane
Toronto
Ottawa
Houlton
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