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Criminals Used a Fleet of Drones To Disrupt an FBI Hostage Operation (fortune.com)
Criminals have discovered another use for drones -- to distract and spy on law enforcement. From a report: They recently tried to thwart an FBI hostage rescue, Joe Mazel, chief of the FBI's operational technology law unit, said this week, according to a report by news site Defense One. Mazel, speaking at the AUVSI Xponential drone conference in Denver, said that criminals launched a swarm of drones at an FBI rescue team during an unspecified hostage situation near a large U.S. city, confusing law enforcement. The criminals flew the drones at high speed over the heads of FBI agents to drive them away while also shooting video that they then uploaded to YouTube as a way to alert other nearby criminal members about law enforcement's location.
I know, right? I don't recall seeing any "Law Enforcement Attacked by Drones During Hostage Situation" headlines in any of my news sources. I call BS.
'The incident remains âoelaw enforcement-sensitive,â Mazel said Wednesday, declining to say just where or when it took place. But it shows how criminal groups are using small drones for increasingly elaborate crimes.'
Just trust us that this took place.
This, from the same organization that keeps claiming that encryption on cell phones should be open to the FBI and that this doesn't present any risk to normal users' security.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
One can only hope that they would be that stupid. Drones can't carry much of any payload, a few pounds at most. Which makes for a pretty wimpy IED strapped to an extremely expensive piece of electronics. For example, you can buy a $1,000 drone and strap maybe a one or two pounds of explosives to it (a hand grenade worth maybe) and maybe kill a few people, or you can buy a junker car for $500 and load it with hundreds of pounds of explosives and kill dozens.
Who says that happened?
The FBI?
Got any independent corroboration?
After reading TFS (I know, I know) that was my first thought as well.
The plausible likelihood that something like that could happen at all (remember, multiple drones means multiple operators coordinating) in the first place is well into the serious-doubt range, and then in addition, that something so outrageously outlandish to most people that it could be a scene from a bad Austin Powers sequel, and this does *not* hit the news!?
I suspect government psy-ops until proven otherwise. Since Hoover the FBI has not exactly been known for trustworthiness and it's only been getting worse, especially of late with the extreme partisan politicization of the main federal domestic law enforcement agency.
If I'd joined the FBI (or any other government agency, department, etc) for all the right reasons and kept my nose clean and done the best job I could, I'd be righteously pissed at upper leadership and would do what I could to expose them and clean up the Bureau (or other government agency, etc) so that there was some honor & pride to be in the organization you're serving instead of the current shame. At least, if you have family, think about the world you want your kids and your grandkids to grow up in.
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
For example, you can buy a $1,000 drone and strap maybe a one or two pounds of explosives to it (a hand grenade worth maybe) and maybe kill a few people
Two things:
1. You can build an equally capable drone for far less than $1,000. You don't need a fancy 4k camera and you don't need a lot of the hardware and software intended to make them appealing for home users, plus you don't need to make them look pretty. You could build your "hand-grande drone" for $250 easy; less if you're making a bunch of them.
2. While people tend to think of quadrocopters when discussing drones, fixed-winged models can carry a lot more payload. If you're looking to build a suicide-drone, that's your best option. You can order an RC plane kit for under $200 which would be capable of carrying 10+ lbs of explosives. Slap a camera, a controller, and a 3g modem on it and you've got a cheap heavy lift drone capable of attacking targets many miles away.
Also, reguardles of the method used, don't forget the advantage provided by air-burst capability. 2 pounds of explosives and shrapnel at ground level in a crowd might blow off some legs and kill one or two people; the same load detonated above the heads of a large crowd could kill dozens.