Fargo will no longer be famous just for its wood chippers. I was surprised to learn this morning that a Predator drone was in use in the US not just to survey borders but also by civil authorities against American citizens in a situation reminiscent of Ruby Ridge and Waco.
"A $154 million dollar MQ-9 Predator B drone was brought in from Grand Forks Air Force Base" where authorities wanted to know what was going on at the Brosart farm in North Dakota after a Nelson County sheriff checking up on six cows that had apparently strayed onto the ranch was confronted by two armed Brosart siblings.
I knew that their use overseas had been globalized by the Obama administration after the groundwork was laid for their use by predecessors going back to the nineties in Serbia and expanded in covert actions from the Philippines to Somalia, Yemen, Libya and Afghanistan.
The Predator drone monitored the situation on the ground at the Brossart family farm for nearly 16 hours in a standoff according to the Dailymail.co.uk. The officers watched thermal images from surveillance vans to wait until everyone on the farm had put down their weapons and the entire collection of State Highway Patrol, regional SWAT team, bomb squad, deputy sheriffs and ambulance stormed the farm and made the arrests.
AFter a thorough searching of the farm they found two shotguns, two rifles, a samurai sword and assorted bows as was reported by the Los Angeles Times. The whole family wasn’t arrested but five of them were with the daughter Abby, Brother Alex, the two armed brothers Thomas and Jacob and their father Rodney Brossart.
the Air National Guard base in Fargo, North Dakota is not the only US base deploying predators.
Reapers or Predators are also being flown from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona, Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, March Air Reserve Base in California, Springfield Air National Guard Base in Ohio, Cannon Air Force Base and Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, Ellington Airport in Houston, Texas, the Air National Guard base in Fargo, North Dakota, Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota, and Hancock Field Air National Guard Base in Syracuse, New York. Recently, it was announced that Reapers, flown by Hancock’s pilots, would begin taking off on training missions from the Army’s Fort Drum, also in New York State.