Al-Qaeda working to defeat US drones since 2010 – report



Published time: September 04, 2013 04:13

An X-47B pilot-less drone combat aircraft (Reuters / Rich-Joseph Facun)

For the past three years, Al-Qaeda has sought to hire engineers and other experts to help the terrorist organization fend off US drone strikes that have increasingly hobbled the militant network, according to documents leaked by Edward Snowden.

Drone warfare throughout Yemen and Pakistan has pushed remaining
Al-Qaeda leaders into secluded areas of the Middle East. From
there, they have attempted to shoot down, hijack, or otherwise
incapacitate drones with help from operatives with backgrounds in
science or mechanics.  

The revelations are included in a top-secret report titled
“Threats to Unmanned Aerial Vehicles,” disclosed to The
Washington Post by former National Security agency contractor
Edward Snowden and first published on Tuesday. The document
chronicles a summary of intelligence assessments collected by
American spy agencies since 2006. 

In July 2010, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), a US spy
agency, discovered digital communication from top Al-Qaeda
leaders revealing that the terrorist network assembled a
strategy guide” that explained how “to anticipate and
defeat
” drones to militants around the world. 

The manual made it clear that radical Islamists had invested in
technology that would have scrambled a drone’s GPS signal and
infrared tags, thereby eliminating the aircraft’s capability to
accurately hit a target. US officials acknowledged the
technology’s satellite vulnerability as early as 2011, when a
declassified document warned of “increasingly capable
adversaries
.” 

Militants have also employed small radio-controlled hobby planes
and observation balloons in an effort to decipher drones’ flight
paths, according to The Post. 

DIA analysts wrote that Al-Qaeda operatives in Pakistan were
determining the practical application of technologies being
developed for battlefield applications
” while “cell
leadership is tracking the progress of each project and can
redirect components from one project to another
.” 

A 2010 report from the CIA described how Al-Qaeda recruiters no
longer preferred “ordinary fighters,” instead opting for
specialist staff” who were familiar with missile
technology. In March of this year the English-language magazine
Azan, which is sympathetic to Al-Qaeda, included seeking
technological advice. 

Any opinions, thoughts, idea and practical implementations to
defeat this drone technology must be communicated to us as early
as possible because these would aid greatly…against the
crusader-zionist enemy
,” the text read, as quoted by The
Post. 

Nothing in the new disclosure indicates that Al-Qaeda has
successfully brought down a drone, but the organization’s
attempts to develop laser detectors — and potentially cloud a
drone’s location or vision capabilities — have alarmed US
analysts. In 2009, Iraqi insurgents proved their ability to hack
a drone’s video feed and monitor its flight path.

The DIA noted in 2011 that an “Al-Qaeda-affiliated research
and development cell currently lacks the technical knowledge to
successfully integrate and deploy counter-drone strike
systems
.” However, if engineers could suddenly “overcome
these substantial design challenges, we believe such a system
probably would be highly disruptive for US operations in
Afghanistan and Pakistan
.” 

The drone program has become one of the benchmarks of the US
counter-terror policy. Each unmanned aircraft is equipped with a
camera that allows the pilot – from a military base in the United
States – to spend weeks monitoring a region where a target is
thought to be hiding. 

When an Al-Qaeda fugitive has been positively identified, often
while driving in a vehicle, a US commander approves the strike,
allowing the pilot to remotely shoot a missile from the drone and
incinerate the target. 

This method has proved successful at hunting suspected terrorists
hiding in locations unreachable to US troops, but is thought to
have killed thousands of civilians throughout the Middle
East. 

While officials refuse to acknowledge specific numbers or events,
the attacks have contributed to deep anti-American sentiment,
particularly in Pakistan, where USA Today estimated that strikes
have eliminated approximately 2,505 to 3,584 terror suspects and
407 to 928 civilians. 

Cognizant of the growing unease, intelligence agencies have
suggested that “drone strike” never be used to describe an
attack from an unmanned aircraft, saying it is “a loaded
term
.” 

Drones connote mindless automatons with no capability for
independent thought or action
,” the report stated. “Strike
connotes a first attack, which leaves the victim unable to
respond. Other phrases employed to evoke an emotional response
include ‘Kill List,’ ‘Hit Squads,’ ‘Robot Warfare,’ or ‘Aerial
Assassins
.’”

Republished from: RT