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posted by martyb on Monday September 20 2021, @10:42AM   Printer-friendly

The Scientist and the A.I.-Assisted, Remote-Control Killing Machine

If Israel was going to kill a top Iranian official [Mohsen Fakhrizadeh[*]], an act that had the potential to start a war, it needed the assent and protection of the United States. That meant acting before Mr. Biden could take office. In Mr. Netanyahu's best-case scenario, the assassination would derail any chance of resurrecting the nuclear agreement even if Mr. Biden won.

[...] A killer robot profoundly changes the calculus for the Mossad. The organization has a longstanding rule that if there is no rescue, there is no operation, meaning a foolproof plan to get the operatives out safely is essential. Having no agents in the field tips the equation in favor of the operation.

[...] [The] machine gun, the robot, its components and accessories together weigh about a ton. So the equipment was broken down into its smallest possible parts and smuggled into the country piece by piece, in various ways, routes and times, then secretly reassembled in Iran.

The robot was built to fit in the bed of a Zamyad pickup, a common model in Iran. Cameras pointing in multiple directions were mounted on the truck to give the command room a full picture not just of the target and his security detail, but of the surrounding environment. Finally, the truck was packed with explosives so it could be blown to bits after the kill, destroying all evidence. There were further complications in firing the weapon. A machine gun mounted on a truck, even a parked one, will shake after each shot's recoil, changing the trajectory of subsequent bullets.

[...] The time it took for the camera images to reach the sniper and for the sniper's response to reach the machine gun, not including his reaction time, was estimated to be 1.6 seconds, enough of a lag for the best-aimed shot to go astray. The A.I. was programmed to compensate for the delay, the shake and the car's speed.

[...] The entire operation took less than a minute. Fifteen bullets were fired. Iranian investigators noted that not one of them hit [Mohsen Fakhrizadeh's wife] Ms. Ghasemi, seated inches away, accuracy that they attributed to the use of facial recognition software.

[*] Mohsen Fakhrizadeh died 27 November 2020.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 21 2021, @03:28AM (12 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 21 2021, @03:28AM (#1179913)

    You are mistaken or lying. If mistaken, try reading actual history and not far-right / christian-zionist propaganda.

    Jews literally forced Palestinians from their homes at gunpoint in a series of 70 massacres in 1948. Going into a village and lining up and murdering small children until the adults agreed to surrender was SOP for the european-jewish invaders. All totaled, the jews destroyed 530 villages and murdered 15,000 Palestinians in 1948. About 80 percent of the Palestinian population were made refugees by this ethnic cleansing. And, 78% of Palestinian land was stolen, at this time as well.

  • (Score: 1, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday September 21 2021, @04:08AM (10 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday September 21 2021, @04:08AM (#1179931) Homepage Journal

    Uhhhmmmmm, maybe you should take your own advice. Read history yourself. I was not referring to 1948, unless the Six Day War has been re-written into 1948.

    To be very clear, I've not excused or justified anything that David ben Gurion and his friends did in the 40s or 50s. Perhaps in some other post, I might address what I think of Balfour, and the mass exodus of Jews to Israel. But my post above had absofuckinlutely nothing to do with that decade.

    --
    Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
    • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 21 2021, @05:20AM (5 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 21 2021, @05:20AM (#1179949)

      To claim my first post that you responded to is incorrect is to deny that European settler Jews drove Palestinians from their homes at gunpiont. Your claims of different periods in history, in your response to my second post, is irrelevant. Nearly half of the indigenous Palestinian population in what is now Israel were driven from their homes by armed European Jewish settlers-- this fact supports my original assertion that, "...Palestinians living in refugee camps, since being driven from their homes by armed European jews..."

      In the Nazi concentration camps, there were Jews who collaborated with the Nazis against their own people. But, to claim, e.g., "that it was Jews responsible for Auschwitz" is absurd. It was far-right fascist white christian nazis that were responsible for rounding up and exterminating jews. Your claim that it was Arabs responsible for Palestinian refugees is wrong in a similar vein. Jewish settlers drove the Palestinians from their homes with terrible violence. Nothing that comes after changes that fact.

      https://time.com/5710303/nazi-collaborator-trials/ [time.com]

      And, the Jew on Palestinian violence continues to this day. In the most recent massacre of Palestinians by European Jewish settlers, last month, hundreds of Palestinian children were murdered by the jewish settlers.

      • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday September 21 2021, @05:49AM (4 children)

        by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday September 21 2021, @05:49AM (#1179953) Homepage Journal

        Your claims of different periods in history, in your response to my second post, is irrelevant.

        So, all living descendants of Timur and his armies should answer for their actions.

        History matters.

        --
        Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 21 2021, @06:24AM (3 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 21 2021, @06:24AM (#1179965)

          Tamerlane, Runaway, you ignorant moron! Can't you get your Wikipedia version of history straight? The Armies of Missouri are coming for you, the Angels of Death, the Mormons, Runaway. Can you hear them, yet? They make a hellacious joyous noise to the Heavenly Fornicator!

          • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday September 21 2021, @06:35AM (2 children)

            by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday September 21 2021, @06:35AM (#1179967) Homepage Journal

            Yes, Timur the Lame. That's the guy. Are you prepared to hunt down all living descendants of him and his armies, and make them answer for the pyramids of skulls built all across Asia, Arabia, and parts of Europe and Africa?

            --
            Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 21 2021, @06:59AM (1 child)

              by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 21 2021, @06:59AM (#1179974)

              We know where you live, Runaway. Want to take the DNA test, so we know what parts of you to burn at the stake?

              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 21 2021, @07:19AM

                by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 21 2021, @07:19AM (#1179983)

                We? You and your sock puppets?

    • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday September 21 2021, @07:44AM (3 children)

      by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Tuesday September 21 2021, @07:44AM (#1179991) Homepage
      By not mentioning it you were presenting a distorted history where 1948 never happened, which is disingenuous at best.
      --
      Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
      • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday September 21 2021, @08:01AM (2 children)

        by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday September 21 2021, @08:01AM (#1179995) Homepage Journal

        So, in order to discuss the 2016 election, I must refere to all US presidential elections prior to 2016? It would be disingenuous at best if I failed to do so? I disagree. My original statement stands on it's own.

        When the Arab world decided to put an end to Israel, it was the Arab world that ordered those Palestinians to leave their homes, then abandoned the Palestinians.

        Events prior to, after, or peripheral to that one event aren't negated simply because I didn't mention any of them.

        --
        Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
        • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday September 21 2021, @12:24PM (1 child)

          by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Tuesday September 21 2021, @12:24PM (#1180037) Homepage
          > When the Arab world decided to put an end to Israel

          So back in the days of this guy's writings, then? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayyid_Qutb
          --
          Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
          • (Score: 2) by Pav on Tuesday September 21 2021, @02:03PM

            by Pav (114) on Tuesday September 21 2021, @02:03PM (#1180064)

            That's like saying the USA wants to genocide jews because KKK. Qutb couldn't even get his own muslim countrymen in Egypt to overthrow democracy and impose a theocracy after his small band of crazies managed to successfully assassinate the Egyptian president. Even during their recent color revolution Egyptians just demanded better from their democracy instead of imposing theocracy (not that they got more accountability, but whatever)...

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 21 2021, @04:57AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 21 2021, @04:57AM (#1179946)

    "Nearly 80% made refugees" was either really bad math (by me) or a typo (it is late, it is really f'ing hot, can't sleep). It was 850,000 of 2M population made refugees. Should have said nearly half.