Wired's Danger Room found the whole situation kind of bewildering, so they went to their military sources to find out exactly what happened:

The military initially developed the Remotely Operated Video Enhanced Receiver, or ROVER, in 2002. The idea was let troops on the ground download footage from Predator drones and AC-130 gunships as it was being taken...those early units were "fielded so fast that it was done with an unencrypted signal. It could be both intercepted (e.g. hacked into) and jammed," e-mails an Air Force officer with knowledge of the program. In a presentation last month before a conference of the Army Aviation Association of America, a military official noted that the current ROVER terminal "receives only unencrypted L, C, S, Ku [satellite] bands."

So the military fielded a rough, poorly secured video system on drones and AC-130s. We already knew that! The story's been reported, and late night comedians will have a good rest of the week. But there's a lovely twist:

Since then, nearly every airplane in the American fleet - from F-16 and F/A-18 fighters to A-10 attack planes to Harrier jump jets to B-1B bombers has been outfitted with equipment that lets them transmit to ROVERs. Thousands of ROVER terminals have been distributed to troops in Afghanistan and Iraq...

These insurgents didn't hack into a single type of drone; they found a cheap, dead-simple way to hack into the military's primary airborne surveillance system.

Is the ability to eavesdrop on live video streams from airplanes a significant strategic risk? It's debatable. But did this hack make a couple of dudes in a basement in Basrah feel like Angelina Jolie in (noted Western pornographic infidel film) Hackers? Hell yes it did. [Danger Room]

The software, as far as I can tell, is a simple data-leeching utility. With a satellite dish and a few parameters (Packet IDs and transponder codes, which you can evidently scan for) you can tap into downstream data feeds, and essentially recording whatever data is transmitted to (specific) other users on a satellite network. How the insurgents got the proper parameters for predator drone, I have no idea—but apparently it's not that hard. Says a senior defense official:

There did appear to be a vulnerability. There's been no harm done to troops or missions compromised as a result of it, but there's an issue that we can take care of and we're doing so.

If twelve-year-olds can encrypt their torrent downloads, I think it's a reasonably fair expectation for the US military to be able to encrypt mission-critical data transmissions, the insecurity of which could kill people. (Or, alternatively, the security of which ensures that that we can kill people. Someone's got to die, right? Right? Right.)

Also worrying: reports that the new Battleship iPhone app has, due to a small programming error, destroyed most of the Navy's pacific fleet.

At the time of posting, SkyGrabber's website is down. [WSJ]

To be able to instantly detect contraband like this would be a gamechanger in Iraq, where the (effectively) free transit of roadside bombs and IEDs is a constant threat, so the Iraqi government is willing to pay a premium for devices that promise as much—they've already bought 1,500 of the detectors, which are almost definitely just electric whisks with antennae, at a price of $16,500 to $60,000 each. Despite the steep price and fierce user loyalty, though, US government officials say the devices don't work at all:

Dale Murray, head of the National Explosive Engineering Sciences Security Center at Sandia Labs, which does testing for the Department of Defense, said the center had "tested several devices in this category, and none have ever performed better than random chance."

The device as even earned its own rhetorical "show us" bounty from the Capital "S" Skeptical James Randi Educational Foundation, which flags the ADE 651's manufacturer's claims that the device works with spooky-sounding "electrostatic magnetic ion attraction." This is by far the highest honor in pseudoscience.

ATSC, the company that manufactures the device out of the UK, wouldn't even talk to the New York Times, cementing an already obvious conclusion: This is a case of a bogus company taking advantage of credulous, vulnerable consumers by selling a device that seems like it works by virtue of being many users' only means of bomb detection, meaning that they'll never notice when it doesn't work—it's just one more shady car passing through a checkpoint; who knows if the massive bombing later that afternoon had anything to do with it!?—and will always notice when it "does," even if it's a function of pure chance.

You may have failed miserable at designing a universal contraband detector, ATSC, but hey, at least your scam is well engineered. [NYT]

We know we have the capability, but we've never had the opportunity to use it before.

Those are the words of Corporal Phillip Cheng, who—together with Staff Sergeant Jerry Rhoades and Specialist James Pegg—controlled the robot to engage the enemy, fire ze missiles, and "neutralized both targets." This probably means that professional pilots are going to be out of the game, with plain soldiers having full control over infantry's aerial support. That's pretty cool.

And with "cool" I mean "we are fucked" the same way that "neutralized" means "killed." [Multinational Force via Wired]

Better yet there's even an escape pod accessed by a ship-wide secret passageway, and a place to install your collection of surface-air missiles. I'm certain I've seen both of those in Bond movies.

Plus you'd have the pleasure of owning a ship with the dubious cachet of once belonging to Middle-Eastern dictator, Saddam Hussein himself. The Iraqi government's the vendor, but if you're in the market for it, you'd better have no sense of style: apparently the interior decor is as crazy as the moustachioed-one himself was. [Photo: Luxist. DangerRoom]

Just in case you're blanking out, here's some more information, courtesy of the LA Times and the Bush Administration's now not-so-secret Special Ops missions in Pakistan:

As part of an escalating offensive against extremist targets in Pakistan, the United States is deploying Predator aircraft equipped with sophisticated new surveillance systems that were instrumental in crippling the insurgency in Iraq, according to U.S. military and intelligence officials.

Super drones? See through walls? Something even crazier than that? You decide.

Winner gets a visit from men in dark suits and a trip to the Caribbean! [CNN, Bruce Schneier, LA Times]

UPDATE: Lots of legitimate leads (aka not guesses of anti-terrorist iPhone apps) in the comments. The "gadget" may really be a whole combination of technologies and techniques as opposed to some awesome James Bond weapon. Lame!

The MQ-9—operated by the 46th Expeditionary Reconnaissance and Attack Squadron—destroyed the RC car using a laser-guided 500-pound GBU-12 bomb in southeast Iraq. The commander of the squadron, Lt. Col. Micah Morgan, said that they "searched for, found, fixed, targeted and destroyed a [threat] with just one aircraft."

With an entire wing of UAVs in the US Air Force, we won't be surprised to see full-scale unmanned and robotic battles in the near future. The question is: if nobody is going to die—except probably civilians on the ground—what's the bloody point of real war? Why not just organize a videogame league and get over with it? [Aviation Week]

There are a few Wings currently manned by Predator UAVs, which can indeed carry Hellfire missiles, but unlike the Reaper, their main mission is reconnaissance. Quite the contrary, the Reaper is the first true hunter-killer UAV, and its 66-foot wingspan and the ability to carry up to 1.5 tons of laser-guided bombs and other ordnances makes the Predator look like a fluttering sparrow.

And over Iraq, the Reaper can do the targeting-pod recon and close-air support that manned jets most commonly find themselves tasked with at a fraction of the cost (Reapers cost $18 million each, compared to three times that much for an F-16). Not to mention without the operational expenses or potential danger to the pilots, who can be in Las Vegas munching Taco Bell with their families. [Strategy Page via /.]

UPDATE: The photo of the Humvee has been removed because of the request of an army major citing a violation of "Operational Security restrictions." While we have doubts about the officialness of his request—especially since it was followed by the too-frequently-heard accusation that running this sort of image was a tactic of "our enemy"—we do not wish to be detained at Guantanamo Bay for questioning, so we have complied.

The first episode opens with tons of booms and fire—Michael Bay-esque even—with Humvees streaking across the shimmering dessert strafing enemy tanks with 50-cal. machine guns and calling in support from Cobra helicopter gunships. Then you realize it's all just a training mission, and that the tedious desert hours that follow are the real meat of this show.

On the tech side, these Marines are struggling. Yes, there is in fact a Blue Force tracker console in the lead Lieutenant's truck, showing satellite maps of the battlefield and tracking friendlies and enemy units via GPS. But at the same time he's showing it off, other drivers are bargaining for salvaged hoses and gaskets for their busted Humvees, and grabbing smuggled batteries brought in by an embedded reporter from Rolling Stone for their NVGs. "It's like Gilligan's Island—they're giving us rocks and coconuts to make radios with," says one. Yes, recon Marines are legendary for getting things done quick and dirty, but when low-rank Marines are spending $500 or more of their own money for parts for their own trucks—damn. That may come as no surprise to anyone who has been or knows someone who has been deployed, but for us sitting here watching HBO in our living rooms, it's something we can't be reminded of enough.

Generation Kill was created by David Simon and Ed Burns (based on the book of the same name), the minds behind the just plain fucking brilliant The Wire. To Iraq they bring their same absolutely no bullshit treatment they gave to the Baltimore streets, with no clean-cut, by-the-book plots, practically no background music, and no warm and fuzzy morals or bleeding heart polemics. Just the straight stuff, which unfortunately includes Marines ordering titanium armor for their Humvees' turrets off of eBay and hoping they'll get FedExed to the Kuwaiti desert. With all the far-out DARPA concepts you see online every day, it's important for everyone to remember that despite a lot of leaps forward, here in the 21st century, the shit is still the shit.

Here is the XM982 Excalibur precision-guided artillery projectile. Soldiers are able to program map grid coordinates into an Excalibur round and use GPS to guide it to target with pinpoint accuracy.
The Objective Gunner Protection Kit (OGPK) is a motorized, rotating turret mounted on top of Humvees and MRAP vehicles. According to the Army it offers protection from IED fragmentation and small-arms fire, includes transparent armor, a sling for the gunner, and super handy rear-view mirrors.
The HMMWV Egress Assistance Trainer (that's better known as "Humvee") is a mockup of a Hummer's cabin, and can be spun around to simulate an upended vehicle. Soldiers use this invention to practice disembarking from damaged or overturned vehicles before they're deployed. [CNET]

The device still requires about 5% of the diesel fuel needed to power traditional generators, but that means that fewer fuel runs are necessary. And, as as Army biotech scientist Dr. James Valdes pointed out , "Those convoys that carry fuel are also known as targets." It also means that fewer garbage trucks and their drivers are put in harm's way. Not quite Bact to the Future style garbage-fueled fusion power, but it is a step in the right direction.[CNET via Danger Room]

The two ships, the MV Hounslow and MT Ann, were rounded up back in February by the UAE police and coastguard after Reliance Globalcom, the parent company of Flag Telecoms, whose snapped cables they were, provided satellite pictures of shipping in the area of the cables at the time they were severed.

The Korean ship was allowed to go over the weekend, having paid a rather large fine (thought to be around $60,000) to Flag Telecom, whose customers suffered two weeks of disruption to their internet services. Meanwhile, two crew members of the Iraqi boat have been arrested, and their boat looks nowhere closer to being released. [The Economic Times via National Terror Alert—thanks Mike Wahlman]

When he went through the calendar, he found that his wife and the man had spent several nights together playing Wii bowling. Tony has since separated and filed for divorce.

You gotta feel for the poor guy. He spends all this time serving our country only to come home and see a cartoon character who looks "strikingly similar to [his] wife's [alleged lover]". I can only guess what the original phrase was, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't "Mario Party expert." [Gamepro]

Sure, it's a little different than playing Crackdown, but it makes sense that soldiers would use controllers they're familiar with rather than having to relearn a new system. So there you have it, next time your mom tells you you're wasting your life with video games just tell her you're training to go to Iraq. That'd be totally worth it, right? –Adam Frucci

TechnaBob [via CrunchGear]

Interview/Article by Jonah Brucker-Cohen

When examining the impact of technology on our daily lives, the abundance of digital experiences that involve learning new hardware devices, patrolling hostile gaming environments, and dealing with the physical after effects of extended computer use are becoming commonplace. Examining most of these digital circumstances and the media that supports them is Reno, Nevada based artist Joseph DeLappe. From his public interventions in networked games such as demonstrating against the US's ongoing conflict in Iraq with "Dead In Iraq" to investigating the aesthetic effects of extended mouse usage with the "Artist Mouse" project, DeLappe's work explores both the political conflicts between mass produced pop cultural objects and the devices that manipulate and control them. Gizmodo caught up with DeLappe to discuss his work and approach to creating projects that challenge not only our perception of how we use electronic products but why we engage with them in the first place.

Interview and images after the jump...

Name: Joseph Delappe
Age: 43
Education: MFA Pictorial Arts, CADRE Institute, San Jose State University.
Affiliation: Chair/Associate Professor, Department of Art, University of Nevada, Reno.
Exhibitions: "ex_XX:: post position" CADRE Anniversary Exhibition to coincide with ISEA '06, Works/San Jose, San Jose, California, 2006, "Simply 7", Stremmel Galleries, Reno, Nevada, 2006, Stuttgarter/Filmwinter, Festival of Expanded Media", Stuttgart, Germany (received the Wand 5 Award), 2004, "East of Fallon, Highway 50, Nevada", Media Art Gallery, Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV, 2003, "Art Sheffield 03 - City Wide Contemporary Art Event", Persistence Works, Sheffield, England, 2003, "Office Space 2 - Manager's Games", d3ms collaborative, installation, Tel Aviv, Israel, 2003.
URL:http://www.delappe.net

GIZMODO: In your project, "Dead in Iraq", you enter the networked PC game "America's Army" (AA) with the character name "Dead-in-Iraq" and manually type in the name, age, service branch, and date of death of every service person who has died in Iraq since the beginning of the conflict. Despite getting killed by actual players in the networked game, once "reborn" you continue to type the names until you are done. Since AA was initially created by the military as a recruiting device, how has this reality affected the reception of your project? Do you encounter much resistance by both troops who play the game and/or civilian supporters of the military effort in Iraq?

JD: The reception of this project has been varied. In the game, I am generally pilloried by other players. Comments such as "stfu dead in iraq", "nobody cares", "shut up" etc. are commonplace. Occasionally I am team killed and often find myself kicked from particular servers. This is, of course, to be expected - as an act of online remembrance and civil disobedience, the work truly raises the general ire of those participating in this game environment. What has been fascinating and unanticipated by me is the level of dialogue that has ensued on the various blogs and comment spaces associated with online news stories regarding the project. On the blogs, the reactions are roughly 50-50 with righteous gamers furious that I would impose myself into any game space for any reason other than to play the game ("we are trying to escape", etc). The project is often dismissed as chat spam. Others are more thoughtful in their consideration of the work - considering this taxpayer-funded recruiting/marketing game as an appropriate space for such an act of memorial and protest. I have received emails and engaged in online dialog with veterans, soldiers, and, in one instance, the relative of a soldier who had been killed in the war. I have received hate emails, been flamed mercilessly - balanced by respectful dialogue and input from those questioning or supporting my efforts.

"Heart Mouse" (DeLappe, 1997)

GIZMODO: Your "Heart Mouse" took two ordinary Macintosh mice and created a hybrid device in the shape of a heart. How does this morphing of physical shape effect the use of the device and why did you choose a "heart" shape as a final configuration?

JD: The "Heart Mouse" was one of the first pieces made for the "Mouse Series". The piece is related to my first mouse project, the "Vagina Mouse". I started working with Apple mice soon after completing a significant installation project, "Masturbatory Interactant" which explored computer interaction, male sexual obsession through a frustrating automated mechanical/digital process. The "Vagina Mouse" was a simple, yet direct, culmination of the concepts involved in the aforementioned installation piece. The "Heart Mouse" was, perhaps, a softer expression of similar ideas. During this era Apple equipment was made with a surface oddly similar to human skin - complete with texture that was roughly equivalent to pores. The "Vagina Mouse" and the "Heart Mouse" both work to bring the hidden essence of industrial design and ergonomics to the surface. I eventually gave the "Heart Mouse" a good friend for a wedding present - he and his bride had met online in a chat room.

"Mouse Surveillance System" (DeLappe, 2001)

GIZMODO: With "Mouse Surveillance System" you took an Apple Pro Mouse and affixed a video camera on a custom built mount in order to record all of the user's mouse movements in real time. The movements and sounds from its everyday use are captured, cataloged, and presented as a video installation. Why did you choose the mouse for this piece and what was the most surprising thing you discovered about how people use this ubiquitous input device?

JD: I created the "Mouse Surveillance System" as a way to track my mouse movements during game play (the work complements "The Artist's Mouse"). The limited lateral motion of the mouse back and forth across the mouse pad is complemented by lifting and dropping of the mouse - creating dramatic imagery that was unexpected. I used this device to create a short video, with sound that is projected, in the installation, upon a floating screen in the shape of a mouse pad. The mouse-mounted camera creates a video image that is at once fluid and constrained. My intention was to create a context for the consideration of obsessive mouse activity. Gaming is crucial to this installation as to much of my other work exploring mouse movement. The extreme motion of the mouse during game play offers an opportunity a video study of obsessive mouse activity.

"The Artist's Mouse" (DeLappe, 1999)

GIZMODO: Similar to the "Mouse Surveillance System", "The Artist's Mouse" affixed a pencil to a regular mouse and replaced a mouse pad with a sheet of paper so that every movement could be marked, drawn, and catalogued in real-time. How did this prosthetic attachment effect the way people used their mice? What were you trying to say about the daily dependence / addiction we have to our computer mice?

JD: "The Artist's Mouse" and "Mouse Surveillance System" have not been used by anyone save for myself. This is in part due to my skepticism regarding "interactive art", but more so as these devices are, quite literally, my art making tools. "The Artist's Mouse" was also initially inspired by my [other] installation work, "Masturbatory Interactant" (1996-7). The work involved a laser barcode reader, a pen-like device that randomly scanned bar codes covering the surface of three rotating drums on a kinetic sculpture. Over time, the continuous motion of the drums and the spring-loaded, mechanized arm holding the scanner to the surface of the drums deteriorated the integrity of the barcodes - a repetitive, mechanical action that slowly worked to scrape away at the printed barcodes. The resultant marks looked a bit like drawings made by a seismograph. These marks eventually inspired the creation of "The Artist's Mouse".

The computer mouse, the basic interface technology, became the focus of my creative investigations into interactivity, offering the chance to work on small, discrete objects that could be artistically transformed in a matter of days as opposed to the aforementioned project which took two years to complete. One of the first pieces I made as part of the series was "The Artist's Mouse", incorporating an aluminum appendage and compass arm as an enhancement for my Apple Desktop mouse. This invention called for activity. A nascent interest in computer gaming for soon became intertwined with this new invention. The use of this device to attach traditional artist materials to my mouse was first utilized for game oriented works such as "Playing Unreal", 1998. For this work, I replaced my mouse pad with drawing paper, roughly 10" squares, upon which I recorded, through frenetic, abstract marks, my progress in the game. The rapid mouse movements inherent to first person shooter (FPS) game play were ideally suited to create works that were wholly unexpected, elegant and curiously aesthetic. I utilized "The Artist's Mouse" to create a number of gaming related projects including "Playing Chess", using a black sumi-ink and brush, and "Work/Play" to record all of my computer activity over a period of three months, creating three circular drawings of graphite on 22" square paper.

I view each drawing as a recording of an abstracted process - physical records of the virtual mapped through a performative action. The time spent engaged in computer game play often defined not only the actual realization of the artwork itself but the physical dimensions of the marks, structure and composition - all related directly to the level of play, winning, losing, living, dying. These works represent an examination of interactivity through a kind of reversal of process - transient game play transformed into permanence, in a kind of forced feedback loop. These past few months I have returned to using "The Artist's Mouse" after a hiatus of several years. All the original mouse drawings were destroyed in a catastrophic flood of my basement studio this past New Year's Eve here in Reno, Nevada. As a way of reclaiming these works and the process used in their creation, I have started a new series of mouse drawings and updated "The Artist's Mouse" into "The Artist's Mouse.3" using a new, Apple Pro Mouse.

"Joystick Ball" (DeLappe, 2002)

GIZMODO:"Joystick Ball" is a tangled up collection of joysticks from past to present, signifying an undeniable similarity between consumer gaming input devices. What was your intention with this piece and what types of future input devices do you envision for home console hardware?

JD: If one carefully considers the nature of interface peripherals: computer mice, joysticks, game controllers- these are all truly devices of abstraction. [They] have no real utilitarian use outside of their required context connected to a computer. Consider the word "peripheral", these are literally secondary devices for "interaction" with machines. These are clumsy attempts towards allowing humans to achieve access to technologically mediated experiences. The joysticks incorporated into a sculptural ball, with the cabling flowing away from the construction is on the one hand a purely formal, sculptural expression but at the same time a fully loaded conceptual object. I think of the work as a re-organizing project - a way of creating an organic, almost living object. This work and others using game consoles and mice are ongoing explorations of human machine interface technologies. In a way, I am trying to explore interactivity by simply focusing on these devices - turning them into artworks is a way to further amplify their essential uselessness.


"War Movie" (DeLappe, 2005)

GIZMODO: What projects are you currently working on? How are they similar or different than your past projects?

JD: Prior to the destruction of my studio space, I had been working on a major new project that incorporated live, networked video, highly realistic miniature dioramas as kinetic sculptures, all to be incorporated into a work entitled "War Movie". This piece involves the creation of realistic, miniature dioramas that will function as tiny movie sets. I am turning my small basement studio into a miniature movie studio where I will be creating an ongoing, live edited "War Movie" that will be transmitted in real-time, full-motion video onto the internet. The dioramas are inspired, and at times directly copied from infamous photographs from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The dioramas will be kinetic - some on slowly spinning platforms, others undulating. The dioramas will each be recorded by one of four cameras variously positioned. Each of these cameras is connected to a custom made digital switching/editing circuit board that randomly selects one of the four cameras before switching to another camera view. The resulting live edited image from the kinetic dioramas will simulate a documentary style image that will constantly be fed to the Internet using Axis Video Server technology. The intent is to mimic the style and substance of war documentary footage utilizing a synthesis of analog sets and special effects with digital recording and transmission technologies.

I had been working on this piece for just under two years to begin transmission this past February when the entire project was destroyed in the flood. I am currently in the process of re-thinking the project [since] almost nothing was salvageable from the project. I do intend to go forward and start this project anew starting this fall with the possibility of incorporating live projection using HD cameras and projector of the video signal in a given installation space in concert with the networked video transmission of the imagery. I am also continuing to revisit my mouse drawings and will continue to record all of my mouse activity into a growing series of new works. I also intend to keep working on the growing "Mouse Mandala" - I anticipate moving into a new university sponsored studio space this coming fall - this large space should allow for this work to be completed. I anticipate that this work will eventually be at minimum 25' in diameter. I will also be continuing with the "Dead-In-Iraq" project until the end of the war.

Real-Life Ray Gun: Say When? [DefenseTech]

Inside the "Baghdad Bomb Squad" [DefenseTech]