Ow! I said I was here as a *tourist* you cloth-eared electronic pillock!

Yes please, just beat out the flames on the sleeves for me. Thanks.

< removes battery from mobile >

not that I've got anything to hide officer..

If that drone in the picture is really a drone, then who is that brave soul pictured serving in the The War Against Terror (TWAT) signaling to?

In the accompanying picture, just who is the US ground crew directing his hand signal at .. ???

terminator-esque weapon, feed my paranoia some more why dont you?

thanks.

um i would guess the pilot sat behind a computer screen watching him via a camera mounted in the front. it kind of helps to be able to see where the drone is going when taking off and landing

The pilot. He's just not in the aircraft.

Of course, all that could be just for show, to make you think there _was_ a human pilot....

The US is just fuelling this endless cycle, by pi**ing everybody off. They'll have no friends left soon. How long before SkyNet?

Good point; yelling "Don't tase me, bro!" didn't even work with human beings. God knows what he hopes to achieve against a mechanical death machine.

In other news, World doesn't think Terrorism is a real enemy, but is too busy watching XFactor to overthrow government.

So much for cutting edge tech.

That photo prooves this is just one more of those "dwarfs in machines" scamms.

Like the magical coca cola vending machines of the 1830's where "A fully automated thinking machine" handed out the beverage of choice.

Looks like someone in the Pentagon is going to loose his job when they realise that, alongside fuel, the thing needs burgers and frys to fly

seems to show a brave member of the military trying to stop the killbot. What happened next? Was there a shootout? Did the drone deploy deadly damaging devices? Need more pics to tell!

The guy in camo is signalling to the soft pink squidgy thing sat in a nice safe bunker somewhere, looking through the fancy (and expensive) optics aboard the UAV.

Just cos these things can fly themselves around the world, don't mean they can park worth a damn! (Mind you, look what James Bond did to that Beemer they gave him that time...)

On a lighter note, don't forget that the facial recognition systems in use in the majority of British shopping centres (to alert the rent-a-lpods to "undesirables") still boast about a 60-70% "guaranteed" accuracy rate - so as well as missing 30-40% of Bad Guys, that means it also 'hits' 30-40% of Non-Bad Guys... not too bad if it's just some mall rat with his nice uniform come to escort you from the premises cos The Computer told him you're really a hoody-wearing PFY[1], but not so good if it's Hal 2008 dropping a few million bucks-worth of laser-guided missile onto your location cos you were late paying BT[2]...

[1]Always assuming you're *not* a hoody-wearing PFY, obviously :-)

[2]Or complained about the BT/Phorm Alliance... wait, what's that noise overhea.........

I'm 01789111855 not 0178911185........ beeeeeeeeep

Doesn't that photo remind you of the brave guy in the Tienamen Square photo? Kudos to the Reg photographer brave enough to get out there with him to get the shot.

Oooer, they made hellfires some kind of cheap disposable weapon fired in rapid succession now or something?

"....The move is sure to be greeted with fear among tinfoil-clad bunker residents...." I'm sure Dick Destiny will soon have a piece telling us it's an invasion of privacy or the like to listen in to jihadi phone calls, they're all just innocent dupes being led astray by the nasty Predators drones, etc, etc.....

As it has been pointed out that the guy is obviously waving at a dwarf hidden in the Predator doesn't this suggest a 'Top Gun' type cinematic treatment featuring, say, Tom Cruise? They wouldn't even have to build up the pilot's seat so that he could see out of the cockpit!

You read it here first folks - these grim Reapers will be used to...

- 'remove' cars parked on double yellow lines or overstaying their meter,

- 'prosecute' people dropping toxic litter such as a sausage roll, and

- to 'educate' parents who dare to want to put their kids in the best schools...

But don't worry, it'll all be captured on CCTV for us to watch on Sky TV.

Hilton because she wants to be caught being 'chastised' on TV

It reminds me of a scene in Austin Powers where someone gets run over by a steam roller very very slowly...

...to enforce the car-pool lanes. "SOLO DRIVER DETECTED IN CARPOOL LANE...DEPLOYING STERILIZATION WARHEAD..."

The airman is obviously letting the pilot know about the $5 foot-long Subway sandwhich special.

Given that the Russkies allegedly used triangulation on mobile phone signals to bump off a Chechen warlord way back when Chechnya was something that interested the press, why the hell has it taken so long to add a phone tracking capability to Yank drones?

Screw the diamond lane.

Wonders if he is the same mike powers in SF

Hmm , that reminded me , must remove battery from Sat phone and wrap unit in copper foil so plane cannot passively bounce signal of its aerials for target practice !

"Northrop Grumman was pleased to announce last week that it had won a $54.9m contract from the US Air Force to fit the so-called Airborne Signals Intelligence Payload (ASIP) aboard the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper aerial wardroids. "

Sounds like they got a pretty good deal on their cellphone contract, there.

This thing sniffs terrorist mobile calls, not regular ones. If you don't have a terrorist phone, which sets the T bit on its outbound voice-data packets, you've nothing to worry about.