Unmanned spy planes to police Britain - report
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
London, Aug 6, IRNA
UK-Surveillance
The British government is drawing up plans to use unmanned spy aircraft, currently deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, to counter terrorism and aid police operations in the UK, it was reported Wednesday.
The Ministry of Defense (MoD) was said to be carrying out research and development to enable the drones, equipped with sophisticated monitoring equipment to secretly track suspects without their knowledge, to be deployed within three years.
According to the Independent newspaper, the controversial plans have been backed by the parliamentary Defense Committee but have attracted criticism from civil liberties campaigners concerned about the implications of covert surveillance of civilians.
"The question is not so much about the technology but what one does with it," said Gareth Crossman, director of policy at the civil rights watchdog Liberty.
"If they are used to simply hover to gain random information then that would obviously be a matter of worry and a civil liberty issue," Crossman was quoted saying.
In a report on Tuesday, the Defense Committee confirmed that the MoD was 'closely involved with the development of procedures and regulations which allow UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) to operate in national and Nato airspace'.
It also asked the ministry to be kept informed about public consultations on proposals to extend the existing limited airspace used by UAVs over Salisbury Plain, a 780 sq km area used for military training.
The Independent said that there was already a commercial consortium led by Britain biggest defense manufacturers, BAE Systems, working on providing safety measures necessary for the planes to fly over the UK within three years.
Full consideration should be given to meeting air safety requirements that would open the way for UAVs to be used in disaster relief, crowd control, anti-terror surveillance, maritime searches, police, fire and intelligence services, the Defense Committee said.
If the government gives the scheme the go-ahead, the UK is expected to be among the first countries to use UAVs to monitor its own citizens.
The Israeli military is already known to operate drones over Palestinian cities such as Gaza and Ramallah, while the US Customs and Border Protection agency flies them over the Mexican border to detect illegal migrants along specified routes.
Last summer, Merseyside police in northwest England became the first force in the UK to test the use of microdrones, measuring just 60 cms between the tips of its eight rotor blades.
Microdrones were originally designed for military reconnaissance but plans were said to help police use what has been dubbed as 'flying saucer spy cameras' tackle anti-social behavior.
Britain is estimated to already have more than 4.2 million CCTV cameras in what has become the most monitored country in the world.
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