Transparency
concerning U.S. extrajudicial killings, assassination drone attacks, is
important; but the practice must end. No debate. No equivocation. No tap
dancing No flowery oratory.
Excerpts, editing, brief comment by Carolyn Bennett
“Over the past several years,” recalls a Press TV report
this week, “Washington has been launching drone attacks on Muslim countries ─
including Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen ─ and claiming that militants are the
targets. But casualty figures clearly indicate that civilians are the main
victims.”
This week Wednesday
At least seven people died, according to local officials,
when a U.S. assassination drone hit Pakistan’s northwestern tribal region.
Pakistan
The deaths were the results of two missiles fired on at a
house in Chashma village near Miranshah, a town in the North Waziristan
district. This strike is the first of its kind since Pakistan’s recent general
elections seated former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League. “U.S.
assassination drone kills seven in northwest Pakistan,” Press TV May 29, 2013, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/05/29/305992/us-drone-raid-kills-in-pakistan/
 |
| Afghanistan hit by U.S.-led attack |
Today in Afghanistan
|
“F
|
our women and a child were among Afghanistan's dead when U.S.-led
NATO forces struck an area in northeastern Kapisa Province. More than twelve people
were reportedly injured. The attack on this residential area of northeastern
Afghanistan left an estimated death toll of six civilians. “Six Afghan civilians killed, 12 injured in
US-led air strike,” Press TV May 30, 2013,
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/05/30/306309/six-afghans-killed-in-usled-air-strike/
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has
suspended operations across Afghanistan after a deadly attack on its office in
the volatile eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad.
‘As a consequence of the attack… all our activities have been frozen and our office in Jalalabad is closed,’ said the statement of the humanitarian organization
 |
| Pakistani women |
“Red Cross halts work in Afghanistan after deadly attack,”
May 30, 2013
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/05/30/306315/red-cross-halts-work-in-afghanistan/
.
Drones kill callously without care, count or accounting
|
“
|
Covert Drone War - Casualty Estimates - The Bureau of Investigative Journalism
CIA Drone Strikes in
Pakistan 2004–2013
|
|
Total US strikes: 369
Obama strikes: 317 Total reported killed: 2,541-3,540 Civilians reported killed: 411-884 Children reported killed: 168-197 Total reported injured: 1,174-1,479 |
US Covert Action in Yemen 2002–2013
|
|
Confirmed US drone strikes:
46-56
|
|
Total reported killed: 240-349 Civilians reported killed: 14-49 Children reported killed: 2 Reported injured: 62-144 |
|
Possible extra US drone
strikes: 78-96
|
|
Total reported killed: 275-442 Civilians reported killed: 25-48 Children reported killed: 9-10 Reported injured: 76-98 |
|
All other US covert
operations: 12-76
|
|
Total reported killed: 148-366 Civilians reported killed: 60-87 Children reported killed: 25 Reported injured: 22-111 |
US Covert Action in Somalia 2007–2013
|
|
US drone strikes: 3-9
|
|
Total reported killed: 7-27 Civilians reported killed: 0-15 Children reported killed: 0 Reported injured: 2-24 |
|
All other US covert
operations: 7-14
|
|
Total reported killed: 47-143 Civilians reported killed: 7-42 Children reported killed: 1-3 Reported injured: 12-20 |
|
http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/category/projects/drones/
http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2012/01/11/obama-2012-strikes/
|
Law Professor Naureen Shah writes “Rhetoric or reality on
drones? President Obama’s recent speech on national security fell short when it
came to addressing drone”
 |
| Yemenis protest U.S. drone attacks |
The trouble is that, to the
American public, these deaths are nearly invisible. While photos of torture at
Abu Ghraib shook the country’s consciousness and helped bring the Iraq war to
an end, the public is unlikely to learn details about civilian deaths from
drone strikes without government disclosure. Few journalists have access to the
parts of Pakistan and Yemen where drone strikes occur; and clear and
incontrovertible evidence of civilian deaths is hard to come by.
Naureen Shah is a lecturer in law at Columbia University Law
School’s Human Rights Institute. She is also coauthor of the report “The
Civilian Impact of Drones.” Her article posted at Al Jazeera, May 26, 2013, http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/05/2013526224110408976.html
Wikipedia-collected
Drone Statistics
U.S. Drone Strike Statistics estimate according to the New
America Foundation
(As of April 17, 2013), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drone_attacks_in_Pakistan#Statistics
(As of April 17, 2013), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drone_attacks_in_Pakistan#Statistics
|
YEAR
|
Number of
Attacks |
Number Killed
Minimum
|
Number Killed
Maximum
|
|
2004
|
1
|
5
|
8
|
|
2005
|
3
|
12
|
13
|
|
2006
|
2
|
90
|
102
|
|
2007
|
4
|
48
|
77
|
|
2008
|
36
|
219
|
344
|
|
2009
|
54
|
350
|
721
|
|
2010
|
122
|
608
|
1,028
|
|
2011
|
72
|
366
|
599
|
|
2012
|
48
|
222
|
349
|
|
2013
|
12
|
62
|
73
|
|
Total
|
354
|
1,982
|
3,314
|
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drone_attacks_in_Pakistan#Statistics
“President Barack Obama said (in a recent speech) that he
will engage Congress in exploring a number of options for increased oversight
of lethal drone strikes outside of war zones like Afghanistan.” But routinely “official
U.S. figures of number of strikes and estimated deaths (have remained)
classified. According to a New America Foundation database of strikes carried
out by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and the U.S. military “estimates
416 drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen ─ resulting in 3,364 estimated deaths
including militants and civilians. The United States CIA and the military have
executed 69 (est.) strikes in Yemen, reportedly with the permission of the
Yemeni government.”
 |
| Campaign to stop Killer Robots UK |
Assassination drones to “killer Robots”
“Unmanned aerial vehicles were intended initially only for
surveillance,” says a news piece in yesterday’s edition of the Guardian; “and
their use for offensive purposes was prohibited. .But once strategists realized
their perceived advantages as a means of carrying out targeted killings, all
objections were swept out of the way.”
Now, Ed Pilkington writes, “Drone technology has … moved a
step closer to a fully autonomous state in the form of the X-47B, a
super-charged UAV developed by the U.S. Navy that can fly itself, and which
last week completed the first takeoff from an aircraft carrier.” Though this “drone is billed as a non-combat craft, its
design includes two weapons bays capable of carrying more than 4,000lbs.” Other
nations are following the development and use of this lethal, remote weaponry. |
“
|
Apart from drones,” he says, “several states are known to be
actively exploring the possibility of autonomous weapons operating on the
ground.
(U.S. ally) South Korea has set up sentry
robots known as SGR-1 along the Demilitarized Zone with North Korea that can
detect people entering the zone through heat and motion sensors; though the
sentry is currently configured so that it has to be operated by a human, it is
reported to have an automatic mode, which, if deployed, would allow it to fire
independently on intruders.
State’s militaries “‘are looking to develop autonomous
weapons’… (and) given its dominance as the world’s leading military power, the
United States is likely to set the pace.”
 |
| Women's International League for Peace and Freedom Protest |
UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary
executions, Christof Heyns, addressing the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva this
week is expected to “call for a worldwide moratorium on ‘lethal autonomous robotics’
– weapons systems that, once activated, can lock on and kill targets without
further involvement of human handlers.” Heyns’ is quoted saying:
‘Machines lack morality and
mortality, and as a result should not have life and death powers over humans.’
“‘Killer robots’ pose threat to peace and should be banned,
UN warned ─ Human rights investigator Christof Heyns to call for moratorium on
weapons that can kill targets without human involvement” (Ed Pilkington in New
York, The Guardian, Wednesday 29 May 2013 08.42 EDT), May 29, 2013, http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/may/29/killer-robots-ban-un-warning
_______________________________________
Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy
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