About

A U.S. Air Force MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle assigned to the California Air National Guard’s 163rd Reconnaissance Wing undergoes a postflight inspection at the Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville, California in January 2012. Image by REUTERS/U.S. Air Force/Tech. Sgt. Effrain Lopez/Handout The predator drone, with its distinctive oblong head and inverted V-shaped tail, has become a sort of mascot for the U.S. global war on terror. » Subscribe in iTunes » Subscribe using RSS But that wasn’t always the case. Lt. Col. T. Mark McCurley spent more than a decade flying drones and commanding a squad of drone pilots. In this week’s episode of NewsHour’s Shortwave podcast, he describes the program in its early days as “a dumping ground for bad pilots.” He also tells us how that perception has radically changed over the last decade. We also hear from Naureen Shah of Amnesty International. She says too many innocent people are killed with drones and the U.S. military isn’t transparent enough with it targets. P.J. Tobia reports on the history and controversy of this weapon. The post The inside story of predator drones appeared first on PBS NewsHour.