The UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism is to launch an investigation of US and UK Drone strikes, and will review resultant civilian casualties to determine whether the attacks constitute a war crime.
A statement released by the UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights says the inquiry will provide a "critical examination of the factual evidence concerning civilian casualties".
Chris Woods, a senior journalist at London-based The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) said that "more than 400 US covert drone strikes have so far taken place in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia which have killed at least 3,000 people".
Here's Al-Jazeera's report, with video: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2013/01/201312411432248495.html
There's something very symbolic about Drones; a hugely expensive technology, paid for by taxpayers who have little idea of their existence, which is used (at zero risk to those operating them) to kill poor people thousands of miles away, often at weddings and funerals, to... prevent terrorism?
One of the best books on the subject is Medea Benjamin's "Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control" (http://www.amazon.com/Drone-Warfare-Killing-Remote-Control/dp/1470838184).
Last night PBS NewsHour ran a Special on drones – I haven't seen it, but from what I hear, the program-makers interviewed neither Medea Benjamin nor anyone else who might have questioned the use of these weapons, or even whether they are counter-productive in terms of making more enemies for the West rather than fewer.
I've mentioned before how PBS has a longgggg track record of shying away from anything that might challenge the establishment – taking as they do, funds from weapons manufacturers like Northrop Grumman.
On KPFK Radio this morning, there was an excellent discussion on Mitch Jeserich's "Letters and Politics" program, with Brett Max Kaufman, a National Security Fellow at the ACLU's National Security Project
You can hear it by going to http://kpfk.org/listen-live.html and clicking on Archives.
No comments:
Post a Comment