In the world of weaponry, they are the sexiest things around. Others countries are desperate to have them. Almost anyone who writes about them becomes a groupie. Reporters exploring their onrushing future swoon at their potentially wondrous techno-talents. They are, of course, the pilotless drones, our grimly named Predators and Reapers.

As CIA Director, Leon Panetta called them "the only game in town." As Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates pushed hard to up their numbers and increase their funding drastically. The U.S. Air Force is already training more personnel to become drone "pilots" than to pilot actual planes. You don't need it in skywriting to know that, as icons of American-style war, they are clearly in our future -- and they're even heading for the homeland as police departments clamor for them.

They are relatively cheap. When they "hunt," no one dies (at least on our side). They are capable of roaming the world. Someday, they will land on the decks of aircraft carriers or, tiny as hummingbirds, drop onto a windowsill, maybe even yours, or in their hundreds, the size of bees, swarm to targets and, if all goes well, coordinate their actions using the artificial intelligence version of "hive minds."

"The drone," writes Jim Lobe of Inter Press Service, "has increasingly become the [Obama] administration's 'weapon of choice' in its efforts to subdue al-Qaeda and its affiliates." In hundreds of attacks over the last years in the Pakistani tribal borderlands, they have killed thousands, including al-Qaeda figures, Taliban militants, and civilians. They have played a significant and growing role in the skies over Afghanistan. They are now loosing their missiles ever more often over Yemen, sometimes over Libya, and less often over Somalia. Their bases are spreading. No one in Congress will be able to resist them. They are defining the new world of war for the twenty-first century -- and many of the humans who theoretically command and control them can hardly keep up.

Palestinian Authority accuses Congress of holding back aid to punish Mahmoud Abbas' bid for UN statehood.

The Palestinian Authority has accused the US of "collective punishment", after the US Congress blocked $200m (£128m) in aid in response to President Mahmoud Abbas' bid for UN statehood.

The decision to freeze the payments was reportedly made by three congressional committees on 18 August, before Abbas' planned bid for statehood recognition at the UN the following month.

The funds, intended for food aid, health care, and infrastructure projects, were supposed to have been transferred within the US financial year, which ends today. The Obama administration is reportedly negotiating with congressional leaders to unlock the aid.

Lyon's deputy police chief suspected of compensating informants with batches of confiscated drugs and working with criminals

The French police force has been shaken by what could become its biggest corruption scandal in decades after Lyon's deputy police chief, nicknamed "Supercop" for his fight against drugs, was arrested on suspicion of colluding with international drugs barons.

Michel Neyret, 55, the bouffant-haired and charismatic Lyon detective, was arrested at home along with his wife and is being held in custody.

He is suspected of having compensated informants with batches of confiscated drugs; police claim that Nyret then worked with the criminals to resell the products. He is being questioned about corruption, international drugs trafficking and money-laundering.

Neyret, however, is regarded as a hero for his success in cutting drug crime and stopping jewellery heists in the Lyon area. He had appeared regularly in the media to talk about Lyon's success in busting crime; he was also a script adviser on a recent feature film about Lyon gang crime.

The president of the United States murdered two American citizens this morning. He had some nameless functionary -- who was sitting comfortably and safely at a computer console somewhere on a well-guarded, probably secret military base -- push a button. A missile was then fired from a robot drone buzzing maleovently in the sky over Yemen. The missile then murdered two American citizens who -- let it be carefully noted -- had not even been charged with a crime, much less tried and convicted in a court of law of any offense.

The New York Times story on the murders relates a number of accusations against the chief target of the attack, Anwar al-Awlaki. Assertions are made, mostly by anonymous officials, that al-Awlaki was "operationally" involved in terrorist plots, although not a shred of evidence for this "operational" involvement has been offered. (Another American, Samir Khan, was also reported to have been killed in the drone hit. It goes without saying that Khan had also not been charged with any crime nor was there any evidence that he ever took part in a terrorist operation.)

It is true that the two American citizens murdered by the president did engage in a great deal of fiery rhetoric urging violent uprising against the American state. This might not be very nice -- but it does happen to be protected speech under the Constitution of the United States. Of course, that quaint document from the horse-and-buggy era has long since ceased to apply, even fitfully and imperfectly, to the operations of the United States government.

On the 22nd of September, Ark and I were on the road to Marseille where he was scheduled on the 23rd to give a seminar at Luminy for a select group of French scientists. The expenses for our trip were covered by the French University system. Thus, it was particularly ironic to receive a phone call from my children telling me that convocations from the Police Judiciaire in Toulouse had just been delivered by the local police (most of whom know us and can't figure out what is up with those people in Toulouse - but they do their jobs). Needless to say, this was disturbing. But, our trip wasn't entirely spoiled because we had a good time meeting with Ark's colleagues and telling them about the witch-hunt over dinner.

Monday morning of this week, I received two books in the mail from a professor of psychology in Montenegro (educated in the U.S.) which had been rudely torn open, and stapled shut. The next day, a package from Germany, sent to me, but for my daughter, containing a set of coloring markers, had similarly been ripped open and barely re-closed. The following day, a letter from my insurance company arrived having been slit open, and then taped shut at the top. Today, a package sent from a friend containing sheep's butter had been opened...

Is it legal for the federal government to kill a U.S. citizen overseas, someone who has never been charged or convicted of a crime? Civil liberties groups are condemning the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, but many legal scholars say it is justified.

No U.S. court has ever weighed in on the question, because judges consider these sorts of issues exclusively matters for the president.

Unmanned aircraft fly the skies south of the 49th parallel in an effort to bolster border security

The unmanned planes look north toward the long, lightly defended and admittedly porous Canada-U.S. border - the best route many Americans believe for jihadists seeking to attack the United States to sneak across.

Like their missile-carrying military cousins prowling Pakistan's skies targeting al-Qaeda suspects, the unarmed Predator aircraft that have patrolled the 49th parallel since 2009 are high-tech, sophisticated and little understood. And they are part of the same diffuse and determined effort the Unites States is making to secure its borders and defend itself.

"We're here to protect the nation from bad people doing bad things," says John Priddy, U.S. National Air Security Operations director for the Customs and Border Protection's Office of Air and Marine. He heads the Predator operation guarding American's northern airspace.

The United States is looking at building fences along the border with Canada to help keep out terrorists and other criminals, according to a draft report by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency

The report proposes the use of "fencing and other barriers" on the 49th parallel to manage "trouble spots where passage of cross-border violators is difficult to control."

But a spokesperson for U.S Customs and Border Protection said the government is not considering the fence option "at this time" and instead is looking at the environmental effects of putting more manpower, technology and infrastructure along the border.

The border service is also pondering options including a beefed-up technological presence through increased use of radar, sensors, cameras, drones and vehicle scanners. In addition, it might continue to improve or expand customs facilities at ports of entry.

Sanaa, Yemen - Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born radical cleric linked to al-Qaida who led an organization labeled as one of the most serious threats to U.S. security, was killed by an airstrike in Yemen Friday, according to the country's defense ministry and U.S. officials.

Two U.S. officials told Reuters that it was a CIA drone strike that killed al-Awlaki. A source in Yemen told NBC News' Richard Engel that three missed drone attacks targeted al-Awlaki in the past month.

"The terrorist ... has been killed along with some of his companions," the Yemen defense ministry said in a statement sent by text message to journalists earlier Friday, Reuters reported.

The Yemen Defense Ministry also announced Friday that another American in al-Qaida, Samir Khan, was killed with al-Awlaki.

A Yemeni security official told Reuters that al-Awlaki, who is of Yemeni descent, was hit in a Friday morning air raid in the northern al-Jawf province that borders oil giant Saudi Arabia.

He said four others killed with him were suspected al-Qaida members.

NBC News reported that U.S. officials had confirmed that an unmanned American drone had launched the airstrike. A U.S. drone aircraft targeted but missed him in May.

Back in 2008, while at Harvard Law School, Cass Sunstein co-wrote a paper titled "Conspiracy Theories: Causes and Cures" proposing that the U.S. Government employ teams of covert agents and "independent" advocates to "cognitively infiltrate" online groups and websites, as well as other activist groups that have "anti-government conspiracy theories" and his primary target is the 9/11 Truth Movement. Cass Sunstein now works for the Obama Administration. This brings us back to today. The founder of the Love Police Charlie Veitch has released a new video where he says he no longer believes 9/11 was an inside job.

In this new video, made just 11 days after Charlie attended an event his girlfriend helped organize, that brought Richard Gage from AE911Truth to Cambridge University, we see and hear Charlie say after 5 years he has changed his mind and he doesn't think 9/11 was an inside job. He thinks the Government was caught with "their pants around their ankles" just like the official conspiracy theory. Along with the video Charlie included a brief description:

My anarchism and libertarian mindset has strengthened.

So I've spent 5 years listening to the conspiratorial view - then I got the opportunity to grill the historical/accidental view of 9/11 proponents.

Where I stand now is that America's defenses got caught with their pants around their ankles. I do not think there was high level evil complicity in the events of that day. Yes, I have changed my mind.

To change one's mind when presented with evidence that contradicts one's mind, is to be scientific, logical and rational. The CIA fucked up. No-one got fired. Condi Rice lied to the commission. Bush and Cheney would not testify under oath. No-one wants to take the blame for the incompetence that killed over 3,000 people.

So to be clear Charlie is filming his own TV show and he suddenly decides after 5 years that 9/11 was just as the government said it was all along. Does anyone else smell bullshit?! Another truth seeker and radio host MistrBrit has confirmed by calling Charlie directly, that this is not a joke or a test of some sort.