INSTITUTE INDEX: Follow the drone money
Date on which U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) launched a talking filibuster protesting John Brennan's appointment as CIA director, and raising concerns about the Obama administration's policy on the domestic use of unmanned aircraft known as drones against U.S. civilians: 3/6/2013
Hours Paul spoke before he was forced to stop for a bathroom break: almost 13
Days after Paul launched the filibuster that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder sent him a letter stating that the answer to the question of whether the president has "the authority to use a weaponized drone to kill an American not engaged in combat on American soil" is "no": 1
Date on which U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina scolded fellow Republicans who supported Paul's filibuster, saying he doesn't "remember any of you coming down here suggesting that President Bush was going to kill anybody with a drone": 3/7/2013
Amount in campaign contributions Graham has received from the political action committee and employees of Lockheed Martin, a leading drone maker: $45,600
Amount his campaign received from Northrop Grumman, Boeing and General Atomics, other leading drone makers: $38,000
Amount in campaign contributions Graham has received from defense industry PACs overall: $242,550
Amount in campaign contributions Paul has received from defense industry PACs: $0
Number of military drones the U.S. deployed in 2002: fewer than 200
Total number the U.S. has deployed since then: 11,000
Estimated number of CIA drone strikes that have taken place overseas, a policy that Paul was not protesting in his filibuster: 410 to 426
Estimated number of civilians killed in those strikes: 423 to 944
Estimated number of children killed: 170 to 199
Number of members of the Congressional Unmanned Systems Caucus, also known as the "drone caucus": 49
Amount in campaign contributions members of that caucus received from political action committees associated with drone manufacturers from 2011 through mid-2012: $2.3 million
Between 2005 and 2012, amount in contracts the federal government awarded for drones: at least $12 billion
Factor by which the drone market is expected to grow over the next decade: 2
Number of companies that are now in the drone business: more than 1,000
Number of private-sector and government requests to fly drones that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has approved since 2007: 1,428
Number of police departments that have asked the FAA for permits to fly drones: 12
Number of commercial drones that the FAA predicts will be flying in domestic airspace by 2017: 10,000
Under a law signed last year by President Obama, date by which the FAA has to draw up rules regulating how law enforcement, the military and others may use drones in U.S. airspace: 9/2015
Date on which Charlottesville, Va. because the first city to pass an anti-drone resolution: 2/4/2013
Price of a drone-proof hoodie being sold by the British company Stealth Wear, which also offers drone-proof scarves and burqas: $481
(Click on figure to go to source.)
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Sue Sturgis
Sue is the former editorial director of Facing South and the Institute for Southern Studies.