© Paul Koring/The Globe and Mail
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol has used these unmanned aircraft to monitor the 49th parallel since 2009
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol has used these unmanned aircraft to monitor the 49th parallel since 2009
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.
Comment: Since terrorism is the fabricated lie spread by the US war-mongers in order to advance their tactics of invading other countries and confiscating their natural resources (of which Canada has in abundance still) it is only natural to conclude that the Predators (interesting name, no?) are there to invade Canadian privacy, no matter what the "reassurances" are from the US side of the fence.