U.S. launches unmanned aerial drones to monitor Manitoba, Canada border

[Better Believe It]

U.S. launches unmanned aerial drones to monitor Manitoba border
CBS News
February 16, 2009

The first unmanned surveillance aircraft started patrolling the Manitoba portion of Canada's border with the U.S. after a launch ceremony was held on Monday.

Based at a military facility in Grand Forks, N.D., the $10-million Predator B drone aircraft are equipped with sensors capable of detecting a moving person from 10 kilometres away.

The aircraft is able to fly at an altitude of 6,000 metres and can remain in the air for 18 hours.


"They will try to find the weakest link, and the weakest link is clearly the long border between the U.S. and Canada," North Dakota Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan said. "It's very hard to patrol every square mile."

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2009/02/16/drones-border.html



The Predator B drone, the first unmanned aircraft system to patrol the northern U.S. border, left, is followed by a chase plane as it lands at the Grand Forks air force base in December 2008.

[liberal N proud]

1. You have to keep an eye on those Canadians

:sarcasm:

[Oregone]

9. And their Kamikaze geese

[KansDem]

2. I didn't know we had a problem with Manitoba.

But then, I don't watch the news much...

[havocmom]

3. Anybody we do have a problem with could find the US-Canadian Border an easy portal

Miles and miles of miles and miles with very little in the way of witnesses. Not a bad idea to keep an eye on the place.

[Oregone]

8. Exactly, since Canada lets anyone in...

They greet terrorists with free health care, affordable housing, and a job. We need to make sure those people can't infiltrate the south.

[havocmom]

12. Canada cannot possibily watch everything along all its costs and small landing strips

Since bad guys tend to use more private means of transport (boats and small planes are pretty damned good for avoiding observation) one might be a tad foolish to assume they can be rounded up at transportation hubs in big cities.

[Oregone]

14. Ah, but the US can, right?

Because otherwise, its all pretty much a crap shoot and a waste of time intensifying on the Canadian border...

BTW, Ive lived in rural coastal areas in the US...there isn't much that can be done, to be honest.

You might want to check my comment regarding the CBC report, which suggested this "security" is all being done under the guise of muddling up the trade routes (to implement protectionism without process). Its basically just a theory, but so far, the security measures are stifling traffic at the crossings, and more measures are planned. Sometimes there are ulterior motives and it doesn't have a damn thing to do with security.

Hey, why aren't those drones patrolling the US coastlines?

[havocmom]

16. we do have a few more people to run such projects

And yes, our coastlines are very vulnerable in many places. We don't do the REAL homeland security, we do that which siphons $$ into a few fat cat hands

[arcadian]

10. Oh please.

There are countless other ways to get into the U.S undetected. You really don't have to go out to the unpopulated prairie and cross an unguarded border to do so.

[havocmom]

11. And yet, some bad guys do come via Canada

If the FBI had listened more to some field agents, and put out BOLAs for a few chaps sooner, one of the really bad guys involved with real live terrorists would have been apprehended in my sparsely populated county, not far from the Canadian border. Cannot tell you how pissed the sheriff was when he got a BOLA for a man he saw in a car he stopped not too long before a bad thing happened.


Oh please yourself. Lots of us in this very remote place have seen a lear jet type craft flying fast and VERY low on a north to south course several times. So low pilot had to go up to avoid the buttes and knobs in our rolling prairie landscape.

There are some weird things going on here in Baja Canada, but I guess if you haven't personally seen it, nothing exists?

[Oregone]

15. Yeah, and there are already bad guys in the US...

Hell, there is a woman who cut off her babies' appendages with scissors and guys that stock their basements with pipe bombs and assault weapons. Do you realize how many girls are molested by the time they reach adulthood? Aren't we all sick and tired of being afraid of everyone else? Isn't there enough domestic problems to make your head spin? Hell, its more likely you'll be hurt driving to work than killed by the very "bad guys" that hate you, who are slipping in from Canada. Maybe all this fear shit was just used to motivate and manipulate the populace by a grade-A asshole, and since he is gone, isn't it time to close the door on that bullshit? Between you and me, I am far, far, far more concerned about my daughter being molested and hurt by some piece of trash than Al Queada bombing her (its infinitely more likely). Sadly, I don't see the US government flying drones over trailer parks or increasing the domestic police force substantially (as well as early prevention). Instead, fear is helping public money slip away into the military industrial complex, and from there, in to some rich man's private coffers. There is a total lack of perspective guiding where our fear and money is being spent.

And the only reasonable objection to my point of view is Cheney's bullshit mushroom cloud argument (which can similarly be made about extraterrestrials and unpleasant deities).

[havocmom]

17. agree... up to the point where YOU get to decide defination of "reasonable objection"

Your way or the highway? :rofl:
That is how bush tackles discussion. I know you are better than that.

[Oregone]

18. Fine, then mushroom could it is.

[Cleita]

6. There must be oil there. Other than that, Manitoba is a pretty benign

and underpopulated Canadian province. :shrug:

[daleo]

4. Some U.S. border officials must have seen the CBC show "Little Mosque on the Prairie"

n/t

[zagging]

5. Finally! Damned Manitobans.

[Oregone]

7. CBC report last night suggested this was all about trade

They insinuated that the new security measures and practices (this included) that will be deployed on the northern border were focused primarily on clogging the import/export outlets and implementing protectionism without changing economic policy. It was an interesting report, if nothing else, and started out with the drones.

[cliffordu]

13. And since the border patrol is operating up to 100 miles deep into the

US, these things can spy on the percentage of Americans that live within that 100 mile buffer.....

Big bruddah, man....

[Jim__]

19. Why are these drones unarmed?

:sarcasm: