The Progressive THINKERS: [SDCPJ] New Report: Drones Over the Homeland

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

[SDCPJ] New Report: Drones Over the Homeland

The Center for International Policy announces the release of a policy report examining the mission creep of the homeland security drone program. Drones Over the Homeland (HTML | PDF) is an investigative report on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) program that deploys military-grade Predator drones. It reveals the key role of the Defense Department in expanding the presence of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) at home.

Drones over the Homeland examines, and dismantles, the various claims by DHS and CBP that homeland security drones, or UAVs, are effective instruments of border control, serve as "force multipliers," are strategically focused and are cost-efficient. The report shows a homeland UAV program that is startlingly ineffective and beginning to venture into national security, local law enforcement and overseas drug-interdiction operations.

Report author Tom Barry, the director of CIP's TransBorder Project, highlights the problems of accountability, sole-source contracting, cost-inefficiency, lack of transparency and absence of congressional oversight of DHS drones in this extensive report -- the result of more than two years of research.

"The drone program," Barry says, "illustrates the overall strategic disorientation in homeland security and border security programs. Barry notes that DHS lacks even standard definitions of homeland security and border security -- an institutional failure that has encouraged the drone program's mission creep. According to this groundbreaking study, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) boasts its Predator drones have established the "leading deployment of unmanned systems in national airspace" and are providing "rapid contingency supports" for federal, state and local missions.

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Download the report as a PDF or read it online.