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Secret Service Investigating Small Drone On White House Grounds

An anonymous reader sends word that the Secret Service is investigating a "device," described as a small drone, found on the grounds of the White House. "A small drone was found on the White House grounds overnight, two law enforcement sources told ABC News, but White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the situation 'does not pose any sort of ongoing threat.' The Secret Service is investigating the device, Earnest said. Police, fire and other emergency vehicles swarmed around the White House in the pre-dawn hours, with several clustered near the southeast entrance to the mansion. The White House was dark and the entire perimeter was on lockdown until around 5 a.m., when pass holders who work in the complex were allowed inside."

25 of 146 comments (clear)

  1. What's the problem? by Slashjones · · Score: 3, Insightful

    They don't seem to have any issues spying on the rest of us and ignoring our privacy. What's the harm in a drone?

    1. Re:What's the problem? by soccerisgod · · Score: 3, Funny

      Bug bomb activating, Thodin!

      --
      If a train station is a place where a train stops, what's a workstation?
    2. Re:What's the problem? by Peter+Simpson · · Score: 3, Funny

      They don't seem to have any issues spying on the rest of us and ignoring our privacy. What's the harm in a drone?

      I'm gonna go out on a limb here, and guess that he's not going to be getting that back...

    3. Re:What's the problem? by circletimessquare · · Score: 5, Funny

      explosives?

      chemicals my friend

      wouldn't take much of the right kind. nice aerosolizer already provided by the craft

      biologic if you're exotic

      nuclear just plain stupider

      but for maximum shits and giggles and no loss of life, i'd load a degaussing coil on a drone and fly it through a target office. do a little tap over all the workstations to get the hard drives

      oh shit, am i on some list now?

      --
      intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
    4. Re:What's the problem? by ColdWetDog · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You're on the 'I flunked physics last week list'.

      A degaussing coil big enough to fry hard drives on drone?

      That's one impressive drone there....

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    5. Re:What's the problem? by gweihir · · Score: 2

      Nonsense. This is some kid that lost control of their toy. Any halfway professional attempt of testing things would not have lost the drone and nothing would have been found.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    6. Re:What's the problem? by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Perhaps a curious professional decided to sound out the White House defense perimeter, and ran afoul of the top secret drone death ray. If you're planning to fly a drone near or into a site as well guarded as the White House for some specific purpose, this is exactly what you'd do: try with an inexpensive and harmless drone first, masquerading as a hobbyist.

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
    7. Re:What's the problem? by ZeroWaiteState · · Score: 2

      I can't imagine where someone would have gotten the idea to put explosives on a flying drone. It would take a very sick mind to design such a thing, to say nothing of unleashing it on civilians outside a combat zone. The very notion is vicious and cowardly---we are seeing the new face of evil in our modern era. Is there no end to what violent extremists will do?

  2. Quadcopter by Dan+East · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Probably one of those $15 nano quadcopters. You could get lot of bang for your buck flying something so trivial onto the White House lawn, if you were wanting to cause some commotion.

    --
    Better known as 318230.
    1. Re:Quadcopter by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That's (among the) downsides of our obsession with risk-minimization, overwhelming force, and technological supremacy. Whether it's using $40k hellfires to destroy rust-eaten technicals in hellholistan or calling out the bomb squad every time somebody tosses a paper airplane over the white house fence, we really need to maintain that economic superiority if we want to survive the sheer attrition.

    2. Re:Quadcopter by Thyamine · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Exactly my thought. Until they show it's a 'serious' drone, this is most likely some college prank or some idiot that thought it would be funny to see what happens. _Maybe_ it's someone trying to see if they can detect/find something like that, but most likely it's just someone who is going to find out it's very expensive to make the Secret Service run around early in the morning.

      --
      I will shred my adversaries. Pull their eyes out just enough to turn them towards their mewing, mutilated faces. Illyria
    3. Re:Quadcopter by LWATCDR · · Score: 2

      Making Chemical weapons requires that knowledge and skills of a 1916 Chemist.
      Now if you want to make a Nerve agent you are up to about 1943.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    4. Re:Quadcopter by gweihir · · Score: 2

      Making a _deliverable_ chemical weapon requires far far more. Chlorine gas is not something that is effective in small quantities. And for nerve agents, there is not only the delivery problem, but also the slight issue that you do not want to kill yourself making/storing/handling it and it still requires a significant quantity.

      Really, you have lost your rationality. Stop spreading fear!

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    5. Re:Quadcopter by LWATCDR · · Score: 2

      Ahhh... No
      From the Wikipedia
      "In five coordinated attacks, the perpetrators released sarin on several lines of the Tokyo subway, killing 12 people, severely injuring 50 and causing temporary vision problems for nearly 1,000 others."
      And yes that was without an effective dispersal system.
      Yes sparky, terrorists have created chemical weapons and used them to kill and injure a lot of people.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
  3. Well, what did you expect? by muecksteiner · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Given the quality of the drone toys you can buy in pretty much any electronics store these days, the only thing that surprises me is that this sort of thing has not happened much earlier. And I don't even mean actual attacks that cause harm: that no-one has flown a regular autonomous cam drone over the White House lawn yet during a press conference, with "Allahu akbar" written on it with a sharpie, in spidery teenage handwriting, is actually fairly surprising. And the message wouldn't even have to be Muslim: something like "Death to Goldman Sachs" would probably be more in the spirit of the Occupy crowd, who probably feel fairly betrayed by Obama. And who would be more likely to do something non-destructive (but noticeable) like this in the first place.

  4. Will this scale? by WD · · Score: 3, Interesting

    What will folks do when drones get to be insect sized?

    1. Re:Will this scale? by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 3, Funny

      carry lots of e-raid spray?

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
  5. Jackpot! by ebonum · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There is only question now. Which federal agency will respond first with: "We can't guarantee your safety without a budget increase of N billion USD."

    1. Re:Jackpot! by sir-gold · · Score: 2

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...

      http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/mid...

      "During the anti-Soviet jihad Bin Laden and his fighters received American and Saudi funding. Some analysts believe Bin Laden himself had security training from the CIA. "

    2. Re:Jackpot! by DutchUncle · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That's not "false flag", that's "backfired shortsighted policy".

  6. At least it wasn't a 3D printed drone! by trout007 · · Score: 2

    That would have been trouble.

    --
    I love Jesus, except for his foreign policy.
    1. Re:At least it wasn't a 3D printed drone! by ArcadeMan · · Score: 2

      Once the feds realize that drones need an atmosphere to fly, we're all doomed.

  7. They also are investigating other things... by Lumpy · · Score: 4, Funny

    They also found some very high tech surveillance drones made from some high tech composites made to look like common folded notebook paper. It seems that these high tech spy planes also use a printed circuitry that looks like words on the surface.

    The secret service is still researching these severe breaches of security. While they let a crazy guy run across the lawn and enter the white house in broad day light.

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  8. Re:See... by operagost · · Score: 5, Funny

    A new executive Bureau of Drones, Quadcopters, and Very Large Kites will be created to require federal drone licenses for everything that flies. Because interstate commerce.

    --

    Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
  9. Ban...? by CohibaVancouver · · Score: 4, Informative

    Between stories like this one, 'peeping Toms' and people flying them into aircraft flight paths you can bet that drones are rapidly moving to the top of the list of things for the governments to ban...

    Or to put it another way, this is why we can't have nice things.