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Thread: Amazing

  1. #1
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    Amazing

    Extracted as part of a longer article in this morning's WSJ:

    By Katy Stech Ferek

    Biography
    @KatyStech
    katy.stech@wsj.com

    July 6, 2019 5:30 am ET

    WASHINGTON—Citing national security, lawmakers are looking to ban military purchases of Chinese-made drones—which could boost prospects for U.S. makers struggling to compete.

    The National Defense Authorization Act passed by the Senate last week would bar Chinese drones for military use as U.S. officials grow worried that the country’s reliance on Chinese drones may be putting critical U.S. infrastructure at risk. They are concerned the drones may be sending information back to the Chinese government or hackers elsewhere to use for cyberattacks or other offenses.

    The House version of the bill, expected to get a vote this month, would ban foreign drones.

    “Chinese-made drones pose a huge national-security risk,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D., Conn.), who pushed for the Senate provision. “We must do everything we can to reverse course, and put local manufacturing jobs and national security first.”

    In addition to multimillion-dollar drones capable of flying long distances and carrying out sophisticated tasks, the U.S. military also relies on smaller, more agile drones for surveillance, training and other uses.

    The Pentagon last year banned purchases of commercial, off-the-shelf drones until it can determine how to mitigate security risks, including when drones are used for surveillance of military installations and critical infrastructure. Military units can ask for exemptions. A Defense Department representative didn’t respond to a request asking how many have been granted.

    Joint Base Andrews in Maryland said in a June 26 posting to a federal contracting website that it plans to buy several dozen drones made by China’s SZ DJI Technology Co. to patrol the base. Andrews officials didn’t respond to a request for comment.

    In a 2017 memo, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security warned that it believes DJI is “selectively targeting government and privately owned entities within these sectors to expand its ability to collect and exploit sensitive U.S. data.”
    Go figure
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill
    "Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." ---John W. Gardner
    “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ---C. S. Lewis

  2. #2
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    Sounds like a reasonable apprehension to me. If we sold military equipment to China or another military rival, I would hope we would have secret components in it to spy on them and/or be disabled at our command. Being willingly reliant on your rivals is stupid, if it can be avoided. This one can be avoided.

    We are slowly becoming less the stupid country and bending over to China and others which have taken advantage of us for decades.
    ...............
    “You can vote your way into socialism, but you have to shoot your way out.” — Too fundamental to have an attribution


  3. #3
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    A Forbes article is reporting that China & Iran have joined together to oppose the U.S. on the cyber front.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoff.../#5d9a0ed442eb
    ...............
    “You can vote your way into socialism, but you have to shoot your way out.” — Too fundamental to have an attribution


  4. #4
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    What prompted my "Amazing" comment was the surprise this registered on me---how dumb can we be?

    In the 70's I was working for a large Architectural/Engineering company and we were bound by what was known as the "Buy America" Act and this was a broad ban on incorporating anything into a Federally funded project that wasn't produced in the US. In the event, that we felt compelled to not comply we had to submit the reason(s) to the contracting office asking for an exception--and they were not given out lightly.

    I knew the law had been changed but I didn't realize that it was replaced by stupidity---and this in my mind is stupid. Who, with even a minutes thought would not suspect these devices would or could "call home" is unconscious.
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill
    "Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." ---John W. Gardner
    “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ---C. S. Lewis

  5. #5
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    ^^^
    Glad you cleared that up.
    ...............
    “You can vote your way into socialism, but you have to shoot your way out.” — Too fundamental to have an attribution


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