Nato to spend nearly $4 billion on US drones
Al Akhbar | February 15, 2012
NATO will spend US$3.9 billion on five US-built drones over 20 years in an effort to fill the gap exposed in the Libyan air war, an official said on Wednesday.
Allies will pay at least $1 billion to acquire the Global Hawk drones from Northrop Grumman, a price that includes ground support stations, image analysis technology, and training for operators.
Operating the drones, which will be based at the NATO base in Sigonella, Sicily, will cost the alliance another $2.5 billion over the next two decades, the official told AFP on the condition of anonymity.
“Libya showed the importance of having such a capability,” the official said.
While European air forces carried out the bulk of bombing missions in Libya last year, they relied heavily on drones provided by the United States to identify and hit targets during the campaign.
NATO defense ministers finally agreed on the Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) after two decades of wrangling over its funding.
The drones are being purchased by 13 NATO nations: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Norway, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and the United States.
The aircraft will then be available to all 28 allies who will contribute to the cost of operating them. France and Britain will mostly contribute by providing their own surveillance aircraft to the program.
US drones have consistently been criticized by international rights groups, who have said their use violates international law.
The London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism has tracked the increased use of drones by the Obama administration in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and other countries.
The legality of using drones has never been tested in a US court.
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February 15, 2012 - Posted by aletho | Civil Liberties, Militarism, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | Libya, NATO, Northrop Grumman
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UAE tortured, killed journalist for opposing Israel normalization
The Cradle | October 31, 2026
UAE security officers detained, tortured, and killed Emirati poet and news editor Habib al-Sayegh in August 2019, shortly after he published a column opposing UAE normalization with Israel, according to a newly published book.
“Princes and Thieves,” a book by investigative journalist Matthew Cole published on 25 October, alleges that UAE security officers raided Sayegh’s Abu Dhabi home shortly after the publication of the column, hooded him in front of his wife and took him to a detention facility where he was tortured to death.
His interrogators reportedly pulled out several of his teeth with pliers and beat him repeatedly with a sharp metal object.
On 11 August 2019, Sayegh criticized the UAE’s plan to normalize relations with Israel as part of the Abraham Accords in his weekly column for Khaleej newspaper. The column was titled “Israel Is Our Real Enemy and A Dangerous Project.”
Sayegh described Israel as “a real and natural enemy” while questioning “who authorized the normalizers to speak on behalf of everyone?”
Nine days after the column was published, Emirati state media announced his death, without stating a cause. … continue
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