Alarming news that Israel has finally installed automated kill zones around Gaza with the "See-Shoot" Sentry-Tech system. They can now exterminate stone-throwing children and a whole range of civilians along with with stray dogs, livestock, pigeons, and the army doesn't have to break into a sweat or even watch.
Some of this technology has been tried in Iraq. Yet another revelation of the nightmare Blair, Bush and their acolytes in government and the media got us into. So the Iraqi people have been guinea-pigs for the arms industry? How many of us knew about that?
Terrorists who strap explosives to themselves and blow up innocent civilians are to be condemned, but the billion-dollar sci-fi technology employed by an entire state is in another realm entirely.
From Kibush:
Sarit Michaeli, a spokeswoman for the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, said she is concerned about the deployment of such a system, regardless of whether it is operated in automatic or semi-automatic mode.
“There have been many cases in which people with no hostile or terrorist intentions were shot approaching the perimeter fence,” she said.
“Some attempted to enter Israel to find work, others suffered from disabilities, and still others were children who may have wandered into the forbidden areas. From a human rights perspective, the technology here is not as important as the need to evaluate each potential threat on a case by case basis.”
Meanwhile the entire population of Gaza — 1.5 million human beings — is under siege by Israel. Some 750,000 people are now out of food and medical supplies.
Delegations from the European Parliament have been trying to visit the area. More info here.
Ever since Hamas won parliamentary elections in January 2006, Gaza has been subjected to an increasingly severe blockade that bars most essential supplies. Gaza’s economy has collapsed as a result, triggering sharp increases in unemployment, poverty, and childhood malnutrition.
How is this fostering peace?
The first British human rights activist has been arrested. Andrew Muncie is being held near Tel Aviv airport.
AP: Israel spurns UN plea to ease Gaza blockade
Charlie Pottins on the abducted Gaza fishermen.
[STOP PRESS: ITN reported this the other night as a new development but no-one else has picked it up so we could still be in the limbo period waiting for it to happen, which I hope it never does.]
13 comments:
Good post Madam Miaow!
Yeah, this is utterly shocking. I saw a item about this on C4 news the other night. My first reaction was WTF!
And words fail in what's happening in Gaza.
Thanks, Harpy. I thought it was on ITN news. I've been searching for a reference to the item but it seems to have disappeared.
This is so dangerous on so many levels that my brain is having a hard time taking it all in. How anyone could think this is an effective method in weeding out the "badies" is beyond my comprehension.
I suppose it's an effective way of terrorising the population, Mrs M.
scary story, but I can find any reference to such a system being deployed recently
the links go back to June 2007
if it is being deployed for real please let me know.
ops, that should be: can't find any reference
Yeah, it was ITN news (sorry, not C4). Is there no refs at all then?
Hi guys,
Yes, weird. There was an item on ITN news either last night or the night before but I can't find anything on their site.
Not that I can see, don't watch C4 or ITN so can't say.
I am NOT saying that it isn't possible, just that the 'news' is rather old.
From the ITN report the other night, Mod, and the older dates on the net items, I was under the impression that the development being reported was its final implementation. So I'm confused by the resounding silence elsewhere.
But, yes, you're right. The core news is old.
One thing I hadn't known, though, is Iraq being used for field tests, although perhaps it would have been more surprising it it hadn't.
Boys and Toys?
blokes in the military all around the world want to play with new equipment and if it means blowing up people, well I doubt they or their bosses are too troubled
that's the reality of the brutalization of war and conflict, otherwise some decent people come out as monsters, be it the Six Counties, the Falkland Isles or the Middle East
which is one of many reasons, why Israel should leave the West Bank
and I hope that B'Tselem hands out more cameras, the behaviour of the WB settlers is appalling, I wish more were arrested.
Yeah, amen to that, Mod.
yes of course they are being deployed. see modernityblog above to save me repeating myself. where soldiers have expensive toys to play around with, you can guarantee they will be, one way or another...
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