From AFP:

The US military plans to deploy a new intelligence drone in Afghanistan, which military experts say will allow US troops to monitor much larger operational theaters than before, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

The newspaper said the airborne surveillance system is called Gorgon Stare and will be able to transmit live video images of physical movement across an entire town.

The system consists of nine video cameras mounted on a remotely piloted aircraft, which can can transmit up to 65 live images to soldiers on the ground or to analysts tracking enemy movements, the paper said.

By contrast, current Air Force drones today shoot video from a single camera over a narrow area the size of a building or two, The Post noted.

“Gorgon Stare will be looking at a whole city, so there will be no way for the adversary to know what we’re looking at,and we can see everything,” the paper quoted [an Air Force spokesperson].“

The imperial sky robots see all: First in Afghanistan, with inevitable deployments for mega-events and everyday use in NATO-bloc cities.

The choice of Gorgon as a moniker is a bit disturbing, which is the intent.

The Taliban, self-labelled the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, issued a statement to the US Congress, via Agence-France Press this week. They suggested Congress send a team to Afghanistan to investigate the “ground realities” that they say are being concealed by elements of the US military.

The team should have freedom of movement and should be allowed to remain far from the clutches of your intelligence agencies,“ it said, adding that US military leaders were unlikely to allow the team to do so. The statement accused US defence secretary Robert Gates, commander of foreign troops in Afghanistan US General David Petraeus, and other "military brass” of exaggerating battlefield successes to appear victorious and for financial gain…

Is this conventional behaviour for a group like the Taliban? It seems unusual to address the legislature directly and underlines complications with jurisdiction and authority in both the global and local scale of the conflict.