Drones: Instruments of State Terror
By Stephen Lendman
Global Research, September 27, 2012
Url of this article:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/drones-instruments-of-state-terror/
A new report jointly prepared by Stanford University’s International Human
Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic (SU) and New York University School of
Law’s Global Justice Clinic (NYU) is titled “Living Under Drones.”Part one
discusses strikes on rescuers, funerals, and other civilian targets. Part two
examines surveillance, the effects of drones overhead, and how their use creates
fear and distrust. Part three considers the economic and impoverishment
hardships families and communities sustain.
Overall SU/NYU examines key aspects of the CIA’s drone policy. It exposes facts
political Washington and media scoundrels suppress.
The dominant narrative claims drone strikes are precise and effective. They
involve “targeted killings.” Terrorists are assassinated with “minimal downsides
or collateral impacts.” As a result, America is much safer.
“This narrative is false.” It’s a bald-faced lie. Drone strikes are
indiscriminate. Mostly noncombatant civilians are killed. The SU/NYU report
followed nine months of intensive research.
They included two investigations in Pakistan. Over 130 interviews were conducted
with victims, witnesses, and experts.
Thousands of pages of documentation and media reports were reviewed. This report
“presents evidence of the damaging and counterproductive effects of” America’s
drone-strike policy.
Firsthand evidence confirms it. So-called benefits don’t exist. Civilians
sustain enormous harm. “Living Under Drones” exposes what official accounts
won’t say.
Reevaluating Washington’s drone policy is urgently needed. Civilian casualties
are rarely acknowledged. Significant evidence proves they’re commonplace.
US officials claim “no” or “single digit” civilian casualties alone. They lie.
Coverup is policy.
At the same time, “it’s difficult to obtain data on strike casualties because of
US efforts to shield the drone program from democratic accountability,
compounded by the obstacles to independent investigation of strikes in North
Waziristan.”
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) provides best available aggregate
public data. Last February, TBIJ published a report titled “Obama
terror drones: CIA tactics in Pakistan include targeting rescuers and funerals,”
saying:
Predator drones sanitize killing on the cheap. Currently about one-third of US
warplanes are drones. One day perhaps they’ll all be unmanned. Secrecy and
accountability aren’t addressed. Aggressive killing is official policy. Little
about it gets reported.
Civilian rescue parties, funerals, and weddings are targeted. Evidence disproves
Obama saying drone killings are “targeted” and “focused.”
Obama’s a serial liar. Nothing he says is credible. Last winter he claimed
drones haven’t “caused a huge number of civilian casualties. They’re targeted,
focused at people who are on a list of active terrorists trying to go in and
harm Americans.”
BIJ research showed otherwise. Hundreds of civilians are killed, including
dozens of children. On the ground investigative work proved it. Eyewitnesses
provided damning testimonies. Legal experts condemned Washington’s tactics.
In 2004 or earlier, Bush began drone attacks. Obama continues them relentlessly.
Predator drones reign death on civilians regularly. CIA operatives conduct them.
Battlefield casualty figures are suppressed.
Administration officials claim covert attacks anywhere in the world are legal.
International, constitutional, and US statute laws say otherwise. Chief US
counterterrorism advisor John Brennan said:
”Because we are engaged in an armed conflict with al-Qaeda, the United States
takes the legal position that, in accordance with international law, we have the
authority to take action against al-Qaeda and its associated forces.”
“The United States does not view our authority to use military force against
al-Qaeda as being restricted solely to”hot” battlefields like Afghanistan.”
International law experts disagree. State-sanctioned extrajudicial killings are
lawless. Harvard’s Naz Modirzadeh said:
“Not to mince words here, if it is not in a situation of armed conflict, unless
it falls into the very narrow area of imminent threat then it is an
extra-judicial execution.”
“We don’t even need to get to the nuance of who’s who, and are people there for
rescue or not. Because each death is illegal. Each death is a murder in that
case.”
Attorney for the charity Reprieve, Clive Stafford-Smith, said drone strikes
targeting rescuers “are like attacking the Red Cross on the battlefield. It’s
not legitimate to attack anyone who is not a combatant.”
Congress never debated or approved them. In the Af/Pak theater, America has
about 7,000 drones operating. Another 12,000 stand ready on the the ground.
They’re rapidly replacing manned aircraft. US aerospace companies have no
ongoing research to develop new ones.
Privately some Pentagon commanders express unease about Obama’s drone policy.
They’re extrajudicial. CIA enforces extreme secrecy. It won’t admit their
operations exist.
Legal experts say drone killings outside war theaters set a dangerous precedent.
Other countries may follow America’s lead. UN Special Rapporteur on
extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Christof Heyns said:
“Our concern is how far does it go? Will the whole world be a theatre of war?”
“Drones, in principle, allow collateral damage to be minimized but because they
can be used without danger to a country’s own troops they tend to be used more
widely.”
“One doesn’t want to use the term ticking bomb but it’s extremely seductive.”
TBIJ reported harrowing narratives of survivors, witnesses, and family members.
It provided detailed information on specific strikes.
SU/NYU said:
“US drone strike policies cause considerable and under-accounted-for harm to the
daily lives of ordinary civilians, beyond death and physical injury.”
“Drones hover twenty-four hours a day over communities in northwest Pakistan,
striking homes, vehicles, and public spaces without warning.”
“Their presence terrorizes men, women, and children, giving rise to anxiety and
psychological trauma among civilian communities.”
“Those living under drones have to face the constant worry that a deadly strike
may be fired at any moment, and the knowledge that they are powerless to protect
themselves. These fears have affected behavior.”
Targeted areas are struck multiple times in quick succession. The practice is
called “double tap.” It dissuades bystanders and professionals from helping. One
group ordered staff to avoid struck sites for six hours before investigating.
People in targeted areas are on their own to help. What they find is horrifying.
Strikes “incinerate” victims. They’re left in unidentifiable pieces. Traditional
burials are impossible.
Firoz Ali Khan’s father-in-law’s home was struck. He graphically described what
he saw, saying:
“These missiles are very powerful. They destroy human beings.”
“There is nobody left and small pieces left behind. Pieces. Whatever is left is
just little pieces of bodies and cloth.”
A doctor who treated drone victims described how “skin is burned so that you
can’t tell cattle from humans.” Another family survivor at the same site said
his father was killed. “The entire place looked as if it was burned completely,
so much so that even (the victims’) own clothes had burnt.”
“All the stones in the vicinity had become black.” Ahmed Jan lost his foot last
March. He discussed challenges rescuers face in identifying bodies, saying:
“People were trying to find the body parts. We find the body parts of some
people, but sometimes we do not find anything.” It’s incinerated and gone.
Rescuers, community and family members, and humanitarian workers are vulnerable.
Parents keep children at home. With good reason, they’re traumatized. Fear grips
everyone.
Families who lost loved ones or their homes now struggle to survive.
Official statements about drone killing keeping America safer are false.
At most, only 2% of victims are high-level combatants. Evidence suggests that US
strikes facilitate anti-American recruitment. The New York Times said drone
attacks replaced Guantanamo as “the recruiting tool of choice for militants.”
The vast majority of Pakistanis consider America the enemy.
Targeted killings also undermine respect for international and US rule of law
principles. They’re lawless and unconscionable. Secrecy is official policy.
Transparency and accountability are absent.
In light of serious concerns, SU/NYU’s report said Washington must conduct “a
fundamental re-evaluation of current targeted killing practices, taking into
account all available evidence, the concerns of various stakeholders, and the
short and long-term costs and benefits.”
A “significant rethinking (is) long overdue.” Policy makers can’t ignore
civilian harm and counterproductive impacts much longer.
Rule of law principles are fundamental. Violating them encourages others to
replicate US practices. US lives become vulnerable. That alone is reason enough
to rethink policy. Most important is state-sanctioned murder. Nothing justifies
what’s clearly illegal.
Stanford’s James Cavallaro was one of the report’s authors. He said “real people
are suffering real harm,” but they’re largely ignored by US officials and in
media accounts.
Cavallaro added that the study was intended to challenge official notions of
precise targeted killings with little fallout. Investigative work proved
otherwise.
CIA officials and National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor declined
comment. Perhaps they fear anything they say can be used against them. Whatever
they say is false.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
His new book is titled “How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking,
Government Collusion and Class War”
http://www.claritypress.com/Lendman.html
Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge
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