The world-changing “weaponized malware” computer worm called Stuxnet is very real. It seems to have been launched in mid-2009, done terrific damage to Iran’s nuclear program in 2010 and then spread to computers all over the world.

No one likes the thought of being watched by the very drones that spy on suspected insurgents on Middle Eastern battlefields. Well, U.S. police departments are already gearing up to deploy UAV in American cities.

Greater cooperation with industry became possible after a deal reached a year ago between the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security, allowing NSA to provide cyber expertise to other government agencies and certain private companies.

The data stored in Bluffdale will naturally go far beyond the world’s billions of public web pages. The NSA is more interested in the so-called invisible web, also known as the deep web or deepnet—data beyond the reach of the public. This includes password-protected data, US and foreign government communications, and noncommercial file-sharing between trusted peers.

. . . the man seemed to be only interested in buying weapons. Illegal weapons, for Somali terrorists. Lakhani, always eager to make a deal, said he can help him out. What he didn't know, is that the supposed rich business man was an FBI informant, and that he had just walked into an elaborate government sting.

But US lethal drone strikes in countries like Pakistan have brought up serious questions about the legal and political implications of using these systems. Fault Lines looks at how these new weapons of choice are allowing the US to stretch the international laws of war and what it could mean when more and more autonomy is developed for these lethal machines.

Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporter Dana Priest
. . . investigates the sprawling terrorism-industrial complex that has grown up in the wake of 9/11.