Pentagon Releases Scary New Rules for War Reporting - http://clapway.com/2015/08/10/pentagon-releases-scary-new-rules-for-war-reporting123/

A 1,176 page document released by the Pentagon reviewing its policy on war reporting effectively legalizes the killing of journalists by American military forces. Reading the Law of War Manual’s Orwellian protocol, one thinks more of 1984 than the First Amendment.

“Unprivileged Belligerents”

The manual states that journalists can be labeled “unprivileged belligerents”, a broad category that includes ISIS and al-Qaeda militants. Others were unsure of the phrase’s actual meaning. Georgetown University journalism professor Chris Chambers told RT News that he didn’t know what it meant, “because the Geneva Convention, other tenets of international law, and even United States law – federal courts have spoken on this – doesn’t have this thing on ‘unprivileged belligerents’.”

Perhaps the phrase’s history should tell us something.

Replaced “unlawful enemy combatant” in Department of Defense doctrine

As Telesur pointed out, the Bush-era term “unlawful enemy combatant” was used to justify the treatment given to prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, as the Geneva Convention’s definition of “prisoners of war” gave prisoners more legal protections. “Unprivileged” prisoners – whether civilian journalists or armed insurgents – are not guaranteed the rights that a normal prisoner of war is entitled to.

Journalists React to the Document Released By the Pentagon

Viewing it as an assault on the press, some prominent journalists have responded to the rules with vitriol. The New York Times condemned the rules in an angry editorial today: “For the Pentagon to conflate espionage with journalism feeds into the propaganda of authoritarian governments.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists spoke out against it on a similar basis, drawing a parallel to the way national security reasons are cited by regimes like Russia and China to legitimize jailing reporters.

Frank Smyth, the committee’s senior advisor for journalist security wrote, “By giving approval for the military to detain journalists on vague national security grounds, the manual is sending a disturbing message to dictatorships and democracies alike.”

Aside from the information mentioned above, the legal guide also covers the conditions for censoring war journalists and the permitted methods of killing enemy combatants. For those interested, the entire Law of War Manual is here.

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Pentagon Releases Scary New Rules for War Reporting

Can we move to Mars without this? - http://clapway.com/2015/06/25/darpa-wants-to-terraform-mars-with-genetically-engineered-organisms-335/

The U.S. Government wants to create a Martian colony, so it is creating genetically engineered organisms to terraform Mars.

COLONIZING MARS

Many have eyed Mars as a potential alien world on which a human settlement could be established. But, although Mars is considered the most Earth-like planet in the solar system, the conditions on Mars are less than ideal for human life. The planet barely has an atmosphere, which means there isn’t much natural protection against solar radiation. The large majority of the atmosphere is carbon dioxide. So the lack of breathable air is a major issue. And this world is miserably cold. The average temperature on Mars is less than fifty degrees (Fahrenheit) below zero.

NASA and a few private space companies are exploring solutions like specialized habitats to deal with the harsh Martian environment. But the Department of Defense’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) wants to take a different approach. It wants to terraform Mars into an Earth-like planet.

CREATING ANOTHER EARTH

New software developed by DARPA reportedly makes it easier for the agency to genetically engineer all types of organisms. And scientists want to create organisms that can be used to terraform Mars.

While speaking at the recent Synthetic Biology: Engineering, Evolution & Design (SEED) conference in Boston, MA, DARPA’s deputy director of its Biological Technologies Office, Alicia Jackson, explained that DARPA’s technology provides the ability “to go into space not just to visit, but to stay.”

These manufactured organisms would be sent to Mars to alter its ecosystem by spawning algae, bacteria, and even plants to warm and thicken the planet’s atmosphere, thus creating a more Earth-like world for human settlers.

REPAIRING EARTH’S ENVIRONMENT

Terraforming Mars is a goal for DARPA down the road. But, for now, the agency sees many uses for its genetically engineered organisms here on Earth. Jackson provided the example of sending organisms to a natural or man-made disaster area to assist in repairing environmental damage.

DARPA hopes that, after using Earth as a proving ground, its engineered organisms will be ready to begin preparing alien worlds for human colonization.

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DARPA Wants to Terraform Mars with Genetically Engineered Organisms

Keeping an eye on space is looking like a good idea. - http://clapway.com/2015/06/24/the-pentagon-is-preparing-for-space-wars-234/

The U.S. military is looking to the future of combat, which, of course, will entail space wars.

SPACE-WAR CENTER

The impending need to deal with real-life star wars has the Pentagon rushing to open its space wars center.

Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work discussed the operations center on Tuesday, June 23 at the GEOINT intelligence conference in Washington, DC. The center will receive data from U.S. satellites, both military and government. By tracking all these satellites, the hope is to be better prepared for collaborative efforts in determining the best response to attacks on any satellite.

The military already tracks its satellites at the Joint Space Operations Center at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. But the new space wars center will compliment its efforts.

Pentagon and U.S. intelligence officials are reportedly finalizing the details of this ops center that Work says will be operational within six months.

SPOTTING THREATS ON THE GROUND

The space wars center will obviously focus on threats to its space-based assets. But it will also use data from the satellite nexus to spot threats on the ground. Providing an example, Work stated, “If, all of a sudden, a lot of cars show up in a parking lot of an adversary’s missile plant, we want to know about it and we want to know about it quickly.” He continued, “If, suddenly, small boats are swarming in the Gulf or pirates are starting to congregate off Aden, we want to know.”

A TACTICAL POSITION IN SPACE

With the developments in technology, and with more countries having an increased presence in space, Work suggests that space must “be considered a contested operational domain in ways that we haven’t had to think about in the past.”

The new ops center is just one element in the United States’ objective to ramp up its preparations for space wars. Existing budgets include tens of millions of dollars for communications satellites, space-based reconnaissance tools, and funding for “space situational awareness.”

The Air Force’s mysterious X-37b spaceplane has launched on four separate missions, each containing secret payloads. Many suspect that this spaceplane has been deploying secret spy satellites or even space-based weapons.

It’s all speculation for now. But the military is focused on gaining a military advantage, and they see space as the way to gain it.

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The Pentagon is Preparing for Space Wars

Find out how you can get your own Star Wars-like hoverbike. - http://clapway.com/2015/06/23/the-u-s-army-is-developing-a-star-wars-like-hoverbike-245/

The military is currently developing a hoverbike reminiscent of the speeder bikes ridden by scout troopers in Star Wars.

KICKSTARTER BEGINNINGS

UK-based engineering firm Malloy Aeronautics launched a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter in 2014 to raise money for the manufacturing of 1/3 scale remote-controlled drones, which originally served as the Hoverbike’s proof-of-concept. These little prototypes provide the public with a reasonable demonstration of the flight capabilities of the planned full-scale model. But they are also pretty cool drones on their own, with the ability to reach a speed of 45 m.p.h.

The campaign raised more than $100,000 dollars, enabling Malloy to move forward with the development of the full-sized Hoverbike.

Aside from the fact that it’s a freaking hoverbike, what makes this transportation method so special?

According to Malloy Aeronautics, compared to a helicopter, the Hoverbike is cheaper, more rugged, easier to use, and it “represents a whole new way to fly.”

MILITARY INTEREST

It didn’t take long for the military to develop an interest in the Hoverbike.

Malloy describes, “This project started out as a hobby, but quickly grew into a commercial enterprise, with interest from people and groups such as universities, farmers, search and rescue, private and military, with notable visits from the US Army. . .and Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works.”

The U.S. Army Research Laboratory signed a contract with Malloy Aeronautics to develop Hoverbikes, or, as the Department of Defense likes to call them, Tactical Reconnaissance Vehicles, for the U.S. military. The military sees a vehicle like this as having valuable reconnaissance applications, as is demonstrated by the Imperial military’s reconnaissance troops in Star Wars.

TAKING FLIGHT

A working, full-scale, manned Hoverbike is just around the corner.

“We are in the final construction stages of the latest manned prototype of the Hoverbike and in a few months we will start flight testing,” says Malloy. “After the successful completion of test flights, we will build a final engineering prototype for submission to aviation certification authorities.” The military is waiting for its Tactical Reconnaissance Vehicles. But if you want your own Hoverbike, the current estimated price tag is $51,000.

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The U.S. Army Is Developing a Star Wars-Like Hoverbike