English Channel Will Soon Be Buzzing... With UAVs

In a move eerily reminiscent of a certain Orwellian novel, European countries are planning to use fleets of UAVs with powerful cameras to patrol Europe's borders to thwart people-smuggling, illegal immigration and terrorism.

A British-built "spy in the sky" UAV is already in service with the US Immigration Department, patrolling the Mexican border where millions of illegal workers cross into the US every year.

Reported to cost $1.9 billion dollars, a fleet of the small planes will fly at more than 2,500 feet over the English Channel, reports The Independent on Sunday newspaper.

The plan is to use high tech cameras and anti-terrorism devices for surveillance purposes over borders.

The UAVs are already being used by the Belgian government to catch tankers illegally dumping oil in the North Sea. Several ships' captains have already been prosecuted, reports the Independent.

The European Commission now wants to use the UAVs, which can have a 19 and half foot wing-span and weigh as little as 430 pounds,  to patrol the Mediterranean coasts and the Balkans where illegal immigrants try to enter the EU. The Russian government is also close to flying drones over its borders.

Alongside the new UAVs, officials in Brussels have launched more than a dozen research projects to develop new technologies for counter-terrorism, policing and border security.

They include body scanners that can see through clothing and detect explosive vests, guns or chemical weapons; portable devices that can "see" through walls and detect people moving inside buildings; and tiny radio tags that would be fitted on people inside buildings under surveillance.

But the plans are not without scrutiny.

Ben Hayes, the author of the report, said "Everyone agrees with more money for the police and security services to combat terrorism, but the danger is that EU policy is increasingly skewed towards a particular brand of 'security', based on military, police and corporate interests."

The report by the London-based civil rights group Statewatch and the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam claims that Brussels and the European defense companies are in a hurry to catch up with spending in the US, where President Bush has pledged to spend $1 billion a year on "homeland security".

FMI: www.fas.org/irp/program/collect/gnat-750.htm