So many drones over #Gaza city it sounds like everyone is out mowing their lawns in the dark
— Richard Engel (@RichardEngel) November 16, 2012
The other day Richard compared the sound of drones flying over Gaza to the sound of lawnmowers. It occured to me that while I have a second-hand familiarity with many of the sounds of war (maybe first-hand in the case of fighter jet flyovers), I don't think I've heard the sound of constant drone surveillance -not even in movies.
Now the BBC has published a series of audio samples of the sounds of war which not only enlightens us to the fact that "In Arabic they're known as 'Zananna,' literally 'whining child,'" but way down, second from the bottom is a recording of a U.S. predator drone from 2002. (I'm going to take a wild guess that Israeli and U.S. drones don't sound all that dissimilar.) In between the squawks of a military radio, sure enough it does kind of sound like a lawnmower.
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Richard Engel is pure awesome. He is everywhere, often in these risky situations. Incredible.
Uhm, Mike, do you even listen to the news or read a newspaper, or do you just drop by places like this to @!$%# all over everything?
Remember this little ditty? (shortened so as not to infringe on copyright):
...The whole world is festering / With unhappy souls / The French hate the Germans, / The Germans hate the Poles
Italians hate Yugoslavs / South Africans hate the Dutch / And I don't like anybody very much!
[Chad Mitchell Trio, "They're Rioting in Africa."]
So, let's see some serious coverage of Tibet and its Buddhist monks setting themselves on fire. Also, the eastern Congo/Rwanda where slaughters are going on every day. Also, ... well you get the message.
To mangle the words of that great Southern California philosopher/poet, Richard Nelson:
You know you can't save everyone / You've just got to save yourself.
Come home America!
Starting with: "They're rioting in Africa, la la la la,
there's strife in Iran..."
"There are hurricanes in Florida, and Texas needs rain."
and ending with
"What nature doesn't do to us, will be done by our fellow man."
I remember this as being done by the Kingston Trio. Isn't it called "The Merry Minuet"?
Rachel — thou who used to quote VOA pronunciation guides (remember — in the Air America days?) how is it you have fallen prey to the linguistic disease that has overtaken Americans, that of dismissing the first "c", which is hard, in a pair of "c"s, as if there were only one — the soft one?
<ahem!> http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/accede
ac·cede
intransitive verb \ak-ˈsēd, ik-\
Just between the two of us, I think this disease sprang from the fear of saying "suck", and thereupon choosing to say "sussess" as opposed to "success" and especially "sussinct" in place of "succinct".
Just a theory . . .
Love you, doll
Oh, and by the way, I suggest that the thing the GOP hates about Susan Rice is that she is not a sitting Senator (unlike John Kerry). They want to block any candidate that does not free up a Senate seat — especiall one Scott Brown could contend for.
Think about it!
Well, then somebody better get to Chis Matthews, he's talkin-up Kerry pretty hard on his show. Not that anybody watches who matters in the decision, but he's off the narrative.
Proud. You jump on Rachael for her pronunciation and then proceed to mis-spell. Get a real life.
Misspell what? "Especiall"? That's not a misspelling, that's a typo. Sorry about that. And I correct her pronunciation because I love her. She's better than that. She's the best there is out there. By the way, you misspelled Rachel — are you aware of that?
Rachel is the Hebrew name רָחֵל , "a ewe", where Michael is a phrase, actually a question, "who (is) like God?", spelled מִיכָאֵל in Hebrew — five letters to her three, pronounced "mi kh' el"— three words. Hence the presence of the "ae". In Hebrew the "a" and the "e" are pronounced separately. Siehst du?
The names that end in "-ael" or "iel", including Raphael ("God heals" or "God please heal"), Uriel ("God is my light"), Ariel ("the lion of God), Gabriel ("mighty man or hero of God"), Peniel ("the face of God"), and dozens of others, are phrases that end in "El", i.e., "God".
"Rachel" isn't one of those — it's just a simple triliteral root, that happens to end in lamedh (the letter L).
Rachel, dear, do you remember shaking my hand when you spoke at the soccer field at Southern Maine Technical College in the summer of 2004 or 2005? You were still on Air America in Portland in those days.
My, how you've grown. You are the leader of the Progressive commentary world now. And I hope you don't spurn the crush an old man has on you.
just watching Rachel on Wednesday nite tearing down John McCain's comments on Susan Rice, does everybody realize, people died and Ms Rice spoke on 5 Sunday shows with information that were tampered with by the White House plus this information was B.S., it was the information the President wanted you to hear because he was in campaign mode, oh wait, when isn't he in campaign mode.
The unclassified information was supplied directly by the CIA. It was carefully written to avoid giving the perpetrators any clues about what the CIA & FBI were investigating. Your statement is incorrect.
Wrong. It was given to Ms Rice by the CIA, not the WH or President. Do you reaize or care why? Do you realize or care that there were under cover operative in harms way if the facts of what we knew came out at that time? Do you pay attention to any real news or just political stuff? It's been on every TV netork.
Ddoris is merely reiterating what John McCain and John McClaughlin, and any number of GOP pundits have said. But, didn't the Republican Congress end up outing the classified material anyway, not unlike what Cheney did to Plame? It seems that their wagging tongues are the real problem. Haven't they been advised that "loose lips sink ships"?
Susan Rice gave the information the White House provided her, maybe that should say the White House lied, maybe even the President, cause we all know the terrorists don't exist anymore
Hey! anyone. Three guesses what the first D stands for.
The WH did NOT give Ms Rice the info. The CIA did with a very good reason.
As my previous reply to your earlier comment said, the information came from the CIA and was carefully crafted to avoid giving the perpetrators clues as to what the FBI and CIA were doing.
What? You think predator drones are as loud as lawnmowers and yet are able to observe Al Qaeda and drug smugglers without being detected?
Maybe the drones Engels is hearing are cheap or maybe they are loud for psyops reasons.
Brilliant psychological thinking. If Bibi intended to make Hamas popular again in Gaza, he is doing an outstanding job.
Nice work Bibi.
Predator drones have a propeller about the same size and shape as a lawn mower blade. That is because direct-drive internal combustion is more efficient than turbine.
Shrouded-turbo-fan is a quieter and more powerful engine configuration but has much less range.
Recently a teenage friend from Gaza visited me on her first trip away from her home on the Strip. The very first morning we were outside relaxing on the deck when the invasive sound of a worker operating an industrial sized weed blower in the neighbor's yard permeated our space. Suddenly her eyes dulled, she looked at me and said "drone."
mondoweiss.net/2012/10/living-under-drones-report-reveals-devastating-impact-of-us-policy-in-pakistan.html
Thank you, Richard Engel!
I have a question - Why doesn't Gaza ask to be annexed to Egypt, either as part of the country or as a protectorate?
It seems that doing that would solve many problems, both for Gaza and for the peace process discussions that are often stymied by the fact that Palestinian territory is split on two sides of Israeli territory. It seems that it would also lessen the Iranian influence in Gaza, if Gaza suddenly had a real stake in the outcome of Egyptian political process.
80% of Gazans are Palestinian refugees who were ethnically cleansed by the Zionists from the area that is now called Israel. These Palestinians don't want to belong to Egypt. They wait for Israel to finally acknowledge their right of return to their homeland.
"As an occupying power that exercises effective control over Gaza, Israel has legal obligations to the residents of the occupied territory under the Fourth Geneva Convention, including the general duty to protect civilians under its control, and the specific duty to allow adequate access to food and medical supplies." (imeu.net/news/article0019152.shtml)
So, Israel is responsible for Gaza and therefore must be held accountable for violating these duties of protection! Why do you want to let Israel off the hook?
1) "Israeli territory" is Palestinian territory.
2) Solution to the conflict: One democratic state with equal rights for all!
Gaza WAS part of Egypt until the 1967 war that Egypt and Jordan started, and lost.
That's not true!
"On 22 September 1948, towards the end of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the All-Palestine government was proclaimed in the Egyptian occupied Gaza City by the Arab League. [...] After the cessation of hostilities, the Israel-Egypt Armistice Agreement of 24 February 1949 established the separation line between Egyptian and Israeli forces, and established what became the present boundary between the Gaza Strip and Israel. Both sides declared that the boundary was not an international border. The southern border with Egypt continued to be the international border which had been drawn in 1906 between the Ottoman Empire and the British Empire. The population of the Gaza Strip had been greatly augmented by an influx of Palestinian refugees who fled from Israel before and during the fighting. Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip or Egypt were issued All-Palestine passports. Egypt did not offer the Palestinians citizenship. From the end of 1949, the refugees received aid directly from UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East). During the Sinai campaign of November 1956, the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula were occupied by Israeli troops. International pressure led Israel to withdraw. The government was accused of being little more than a façade for Egyptian control, with negligible independent funding or influence. It subsequently moved to Cairo and was dissolved in 1959, by decree of Egyptian President, Gamal Abdul Nasser. After the dissolution of the All-Palestine Government in 1959, under the excuse of pan-Arabism, Egypt continued to occupy the Gaza Strip until 1967. Egypt never annexed the Gaza Strip, but instead treated it as a controlled territory and administered it through a military governor."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_Strip
I can't recommend reading "Kill Decision" by Daniel Suarez enough. It's the next phase of drone development and I wouldn't be surprised if it's already underway. Scary stuff.