Is this right ? The Bush Administration had stopped the Drones . .

[CaptnKirk]

that had been flying over Afganistan under Clinton, searching for Bin Laden - to strike him
because they didn't want to fund them - up until and after the 911 attacks. Pretty incomptent move in retrospect wasn't it.

 

[tnitsuj]

The armed Predator program has been a huge success...the forerunner of the upcoming UCAV vehicles which will allow the US to truly dominate the battlespace with zero risk to US pilots. I am hoping the UCAV program is seriously ramped up as the technology and utility has clearly been demonstrated in combat no less.

 

[rudder]

You mean Clinton did not want to deal with Bin Laden and left it to the Bush administration? Pretty incomptent move in retrospect wasn't it.

 

[tnitsuj]

Originally posted by: rudder
You mean Clinton did not want to deal with Bin Laden and left it to the Bush administration? Pretty incomptent move in retrospect wasn't it.

Clinton tried to assasinate Bin Laden at least twice that we know of. If he had known what we know now, he probably would have done more..but hindsight is useless. The armed predators weren't ready until Bush had been in office for about six months or so. This was a new capability. Previously predators had actually seen Bin Laden but were unable to do anything about it.

 

[CADsortaGUY]

Originally posted by: CaptnKirk
that had been flying over Afganistan under Clinton, searching for Bin Laden - to strike him
because they didn't want to fund them - up until and after the 911 attacks. Pretty incomptent move in retrospect wasn't it.

You convienently left out the rest of the sentence you pulled the "funding" statement from - let me quote it

...paralyzing internal debate over finances, arming the drones with deadly missiles and concern over who would take the blame if something went wrong.

Yeah, I guess Bush just didn't want to pay for them

CkG

 

[tnitsuj]

Originally posted by: CADkindaGUY

Originally posted by: CaptnKirk
that had been flying over Afganistan under Clinton, searching for Bin Laden - to strike him
because they didn't want to fund them - up until and after the 911 attacks. Pretty incomptent move in retrospect wasn't it.

You convienently left out the rest of the sentence you pulled the "funding" statement from - let me quote it

...paralyzing internal debate over finances, arming the drones with deadly missiles and concern over who would take the blame if something went wrong.

Yeah, I guess Bush just didn't want to pay for them

CkG

Thier was a huge pissing contest between the CIA and the DOD when the concept of arming the drones came up. no one wanted to pay for the R&D, and deployment, and no one REALLY didn't want to have to be the one to take the heat when someone screwed up and blew up a truck full of goat herders with thier robot. Some executive directives and a new national security imperetive IE 9/11 had to come into play before the infighting was put aside.

You can't really blame the administration for nor prioritizing a hugely complicated new technology with tricky legal and technical implications with the information they had available.

Once again, hindsight is BS.

 

[CaptnKirk]

Missed the point again eh, chumps ? We've been flying them for years.
Some of their data hass been conveinently ommited, for cleanliness. (To BushBaby)
It comes down to a funding issue by a cheapskate Administration.
It had been turned off 7 months before.

Predator Drone

 

[rudder]

Originally posted by: CaptnKirk
Missed the point again eh, chumps ? We've been flying them for years.
Some of their data hass been conveinently ommited, for cleanliness. (To BushBaby)
It comes down to a funding issue by a cheapskate Administration.
It had been turned off 7 months before.

Predator Drone

Propeller-driven Predators first flew for the military in July 1995 over Bosnia, but early versions couldn't transmit high-quality live video. The Air Force gradually improved camera resolution and first successfully fired a Hellfire missile from a Predator on February 16, 2001.


How effective would you think those drones would be if the people on the ground knew they had powerful missiles attached? The powers at be wisely reduced the flights until the weapons delivery technology was perfected. Sprry you missed the point as well chump.

 

[CaptnKirk]

Some one that I know very well trained closely with these machines, I know what they are and what they do.
He's in Irqai now. Things go forward, some know, some think they know.

EDIT - Added missing R in Iraq, Rev a, Edition 1, Version 1.01

 

[dabuddha]

Originally posted by: CaptnKirk
Some one that I know very well trained closely with these machines, I know what they are and what they do.
He's in Iqai now. Things go forward, some know, some think they know.

wtf is Iqai?

 

[Alistar7]

The drones were one component of a broader plan that Clarke, a career government employee, had devised in the final days of the Clinton administration to go after al-Qaida after the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole (news - web sites). Clinton officials decided just before Christmas 2000 to forward the plan to the incoming Bush administration rather than implement it during Clinton's final days, the officials said.

Propeller-driven Predators first flew for the military in July 1995 over Bosnia, but early versions couldn't transmit high-quality live video. The Air Force gradually improved camera resolution and first successfully fired a Hellfire missile from a Predator on Feb. 16, 2001.

Officials said the delay was due in part to arming the Predator with enough lethal force and resolving the debate over which agency was legally and practically best equipped to carry out an attack.

Another official said the CIA was opposed in the interim to running too many unarmed Predator flights for fear that would lead Afghan and al-Qaida leaders to be on the lookout for the drones and to flee sites before bombs or missiles could be launched.

"The agency wanted to keep it under wraps and catch them by surprise once they were armed," the official explained.

That official noted that during one of the unarmed 2000 Predator flights, MiG jets were scrambled by Afghanistan's then-ruling Taliban government and they tried unsuccessfully to shoot down one of the drones. Another time, al-Qaida operatives spotted a drone and pointed to it, officials said.



It has been pointed out, Clinton made a few efforts to kill BL, he also tried extraditing him here leaglly before any of that. SA blocked the move. An ignorant comment like the one I see above causes me to not give the post any logical consideration....

 

[sandorski]

Originally posted by: CaptnKirk
Some one that I know very well trained closely with these machines, I know what they are and what they do.
He's in Irqai now. Things go forward, some know, some think they know.

EDIT - Added missing R in Iraq, Rev a, Edition 1, Version 1.01

ROFL, not to harp on your spelling, but you added the "r", but messed up the rest.