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| Senate Committee hearing room |
Stop extra-judicial killings, build schools and hospitals
excerpt by Carolyn
Bennett (minor edit)
Farea Al-Muslimi gave a personal and journalist’s report this
week before the U. S. Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on the
Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights “Drone Wars: The Constitutional and
Counterterrorism Implications of Targeted Killing” This is some of what
Al-Muslimi had to say.
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| Farea Al-Muslimi and the U.S. attacked Yemeni village |
“Today, I am a writer, speaker, and freelance journalist,” Farea
Al-Muslimi said. “I have worked with many local, regional, and international
non-governmental organizations, including the National Democratic Institute for
International Affairs, USAID, and Resonate! Yemen. At the age of 17, I was
elected chairman of the Supporting Democracy Committee in the Yemeni Youth
Consultative Council. One of the most rewarding experiences I have had has been
working as a ‘fixer’ for international journalists in Yemen and Beirut. This
work has allowed me to help the world learn about the experiences of my friends
and neighbors.
“Most of my work with international journalists has been in
the southern provinces of Abyan, Aden, Al-dhalea and Lahj—three of the areas
where the United States has focused its so-called ‘war on terror.’”
However, the people of his Yemeni village of Wessab ─
“Instead of first experiencing America through a school or a
hospital, most people first experienced America through the terror of a drone
strike.
“What radicals had previously failed to achieve in my
village,” he said, “one drone strike accomplished in an instant; and there is
now an intense anger and growing hatred of America.
“For me personally, it is deeply troubling, astonishing, and
challenging to reconcile that the very same hand (the United States of America)
that taught me English, awarded me scholarships, and dramatically improved my
life is the hand that ─
Droned my village,
Terrified my people, and
Now makes it harder for them to
believe the good things that I tell them about America and my American friends.
“It is especially frustrating to me because all the United
States needed to do was identify Al-Radmi as a target, so that he could have
been arrested without the injuries, destruction, and death caused by the drone
strike.”
What happened?
“As I was thinking about my testimony and preparing to
travel to the United States to participate in this hearing, I learned that a
missile from a U.S. drone had struck the village where I was raised.… A drone
strike [happened] in my home village,” he said: “Just six days ago, this
so-called war came straight to my village.…
“Ironically, I was sitting with a group of American
diplomats in Sana’a at a farewell dinner for a dear American friend when the
strike happened. As I was leaving my American friends, both of my mobile phones
began to receive a storm of text messages and calls. For almost all of the
people in Wessab, I’m the only person with any connection to the United States.
They called and texted me that night with questions that I could not answer:
Why was the United States
terrifying them with these drones?
Why was the United States trying to
kill a person with a missile when everyone knows where he (Al-Radmi) is and he
could have been easily arrested?
“My village is beautiful, but it is very poor and in a
remote part of Yemen. Even though the region it is in is about the same size of
Bahrain, there isn’t a single meter of asphalt road in it.
“Developmental projects by the central government rarely
reach my village and humanitarian aid from international organizations like
USAID never does.
“I know that most people have never heard of Wessab. But I
could never have imagined that it would be the location of a drone strike.”
Al-Radmi and Local Government, Wessab Villagers
“My understanding is that Hameed Meftah, who is also known
as Hameed Al-Radmi, was the target of the drone strike.
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“
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Many people in Wessab know Al-Radmi. He received cooperation
from and had an excellent relationship with the government agencies in the
village. This made him look legitimate and granted him power in the eyes of those
poor farmers, who had no idea that being with him meant they were risking death
from a U.S. drone.… After the strike, the farmers in Wessab were afraid and
angry. They were upset because they know Al-Radmi; but they did not know that
he was a target, so they could have potentially been with him during the
missile strike.
“Some of the people who were with Al-Radmi when he was
killed were never affiliated with AQAP (Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula primarily
active in Yemen and Saudi Arabia), and only knew Al-Radmi socially.
“Earlier on the night
he was killed, he was reportedly in the village meeting with the General
Secretary of Local Councilors, the head of the local government.
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| Anti-U.S. protests Yemen |
“The people in my village wanted Al-Radmi to be captured [Yemeni
officials easily could have found and arrested Al-Radmi.], so that they could
question him and find out what he was doing wrong so they could put an end to
it. They still don’t have an answer to that question. Instead, all they have is
the psychological fear and terror that now occupies their souls. They fear that
their home or a neighbor’s home could be bombed at any time by a U.S. drone.”
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W
|
hen his village was bombed, Farea Al-Muslimi said, “I was
devastated for days because I knew that the bombing in my village by the United
States would empower militants. Even worse, I know it will make people like
Al-Radmi look like a hero, while I look like someone who has betrayed his
country by supporting America.”
Far-reaching
Human, international costs of U.S.
killer drone attacks
“In some areas of Yemen, the anger against America that
results from the strikes makes it dangerous for me to even acknowledge having
visited America, much less having given testimony as to how much my life
changed thanks to the U.S. State Department scholarships. It is sometimes too
dangerous even to admit that I have American friends.”
[Psychological torment] “Late last
year, I was with an American colleague from an international media outlet on a
tour of Abyan. Suddenly, locals started to become paranoid.
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| Yemenis rally against U.S. drone attacks |
“They were moving erratically and frantically pointing
toward the sky. Based on their past experiences with drone strikes, they told
us that the thing hovering above us – out of sight and making a strange humming
noise – was an American drone. My heart sank. I was helpless. It was the first
time that I had earnestly feared for my life, or for an American friend’s life
in Yemen. I was standing there at the mercy of a drone.”
[Cruelty,
threat, violence the only direct experience] “In the past, most of
Wessab’s villagers knew little about the United States.
“My stories about my experiences in America, my American
friends, and the American values that I saw for myself helped the villagers I
talked to understand the America that I know and love. Now, however, when they
think of America they think of the terror they feel from the drones that hover
over their heads ready to fire missiles at any time.
“I personally don’t even know if it is safe for me to go
back to Wessab because I am someone who people in my village associate with
America and its values. I don’t know whether it is safe to travel to visit my
mom because the roads are dangerous.
There is nothing villagers in
Wessab needed more than a school to educate the local children or a hospital to
help decrease the number of women and children dying every day.
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“
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Had the United States built a school or hospital, it would
have instantly changed the lives of my fellow villagers for the better and been
the most effective counterterrorism tool. And I can almost certainly assure you
that the villagers would have gone to arrest the target themselves.”
Ending his testimony before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee
Farea Al-Muslimi said ─
“I have access to ordinary Yemenis [and], [f]or me, helping
the people of my country understand and know the America that I have
experienced is a passion and not a career.
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“
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[However], the drone strikes and the targeted killing
program have made my passion and mission in support of America almost
impossible in Yemen.
“…As someone who has lived and worked on this issue very
closely, I cannot help but feel that the American and Yemen governments are
losing the war against AQAP.
Even when drone strikes target and kill the ‘right’ people,
it is at the expense of creating many strategic problems.…”
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| Across-nations People in solidarity |
Cease and desist, construct, mend and make amends
- Stop all targeted killing strikes.
- Build a school or hospital in every village where there has been a targeted killing, so that villagers’ only experience with America [is] not the death and destruction caused by an American missile.
- Issue an official apology to the families of all civilians killed or injured by targeted killing strikes.
- Compensate the families of innocent civilians killed or injured by strikes conducted or authorized by the United States.
- Announce the names of those already on the ‘kill list’ so that innocent civilians can stay out of harm’s way.
Sources and notes
“Drone Wars: The Constitutional and Counterterrorism
Implications of Targeted Killing” Statement of Farea Al-Muslimi, United States
Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and
Human Rights, April 23, 2013, http://www.judiciary.senate.gov/pdf/04-23-13Al-MuslimiTestimony.pdf
AQAP
Primarily active in Yemen and Saudi Arabia, Al-Qaeda in the
Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is believed to have been “named for al-Qaeda and is subordinate
to that group and its leader (deceased) Osama bin Laden, a Saudi citizen whose
father was born in Yemen. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Qaeda_in_the_Arabian_Peninsula
“WATCH: Yemeni tells US Senate ‘drones are fuelling
anti-Americanism’, April 24, 2013, by Alice K Ross, Published in All Stories,
Covert Drone War, Drone strikes in Yemen, http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2013/04/24/watch-yemeni-tells-us-senate-drones-are-fuelling-anti-americanism/
“Yemeni Activist
Farea al-Muslimi Urges U.S. to Stop the Drone War on His Country,” April 25,
2013, http://www.democracynow.org/2013/4/25/yemeni_activist_farea_al_muslimi_urges
Transcript
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