U.S. “liberates” by fueling Iraqi women’s oppression

Organization of
Women's Freedom
in Iraq

Yifat Susskind of MADRE, Yanar Mohammed of the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq this week penned “A Decade of Occupation for Iraqi Women”

Excerpt, editing by Carolyn Bennett

Endlessly repetitive U.S. pattern

Interminable consequences against women

The authors of this article point out what is obvious to any sane person, in or outside the line of fire: women in war zones anywhere in the world will tell you that domestic violence increases in times of war.

“Shock and Awe”the taking of life
U.S. in Iraq

But in Iraq, conditions for women are worsened by the endlessness of war, even after the war pronounced over. In Iraq, the authors report, “violence against women is systematic.” 

V

iolence against women in Iraq “has been orchestrated by some of the very forces that the United States boosted to power: … sectarian militias and clerics [with] a social vision for their country that depends on subjugating women.”

“Liberators'” bargain with slavers

Wagering that fundamentalists “could deliver stability,” the United States “cultivated these [fundamentalists] as allies in Iraq,” Yifat Susskind and Yanar Mohammed write.

Women - Muslim 

Women - Bahrain

Women - International

“In the drafting of Iraq’s constitution ─ heavily brokered by the United States ─ the dynamic was clearly at work. To pass it, the United States needed support from Islamist parties and they got it by trading away women’s rights. The current constitution is a huge step backwards for Iraqi women. It replaces one of the Middle East’s most expansive laws on the status of women, dating from 1959, with separate and unequal laws on the basis of sex. They subjected Iraqi women to a newly introduced Sharia law promoted in an article in the new constitution.”

Women - Gaza

The consequence, Susskind and Mohammed write, is that the invaders and occupiers “never even got the stability for which they had traded women’s rights.”

[Observe a singular U.S. pattern playing out in Libya, in Syria, in Yemen, in Bahrain, in Saudi Arabia, in eastern Africa, and elsewhere.] 

Women - Congo

What do Iraqi women want?

What all women want: Equal Rights guaranteed, protected, enforced in law 

The women of Iraq “are fighting for the same democratic principles we all believe in,” Mohammed and Susskind write. “They know from hard experience that there is no democracy without women’s rights and that ─

Women - America

… Women’s rights will not be delivered by foreign troops.

The women of Iraq having been subjected to war and violence for the past 10 years “want to move beyond mere survival and to build the country they dream of.”

I

Organization of Women's Freedom
in Iraq

n another context a few years ago, Yanar Mohammed, Iraq’s most prominent feminist and a staunch critic of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, was quoted urging U.S. troops to get out of her country immediately because ─

Yanar Mohammed

We the people of Iraq do not agree that all the jihadists from around the world are coming to Iraq to fight this so-called U.S. evil; our cities are turning into a [theater of battle] and all our lives are being devastated.

U.S. troops need to leave immediately, with no conditions. We do not accept the debate that there will be a bloodbath afterwards because nothing is worse than the sectarian war that we are living right now ─ also a consequence of this war.

Sources and notes

“A Decade of Occupation for Iraqi Women ─ A decade after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, only one of the straw-man arguments for going to war remains standing: ‘We did it for democracy and women’s rights’  Yanar Mohammed and Yifat Susskind), March 20, 2013,

http://www.equalityiniraq.com/articles/161-a-decade-of-occupation-for-iraqi-women

Also at http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/03/19-6

Yanar Mohammed

Prominent Iraqi feminist Yanar Mohammed is co-founder and director of the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq and editor of the newspaper Al-Mousawat (Equality).

Yanar Mohammed was born in Baghdad (1960) and returned there in 2003. Upon her return to Iraq, she founded several groups to promote women’s rights in post-Saddam Iraq. Two of those organizations were the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq and the Committee for the Defense of Iraqi Women’s Rights (DIWR).

Her feminist newsletter Al-Mousawat is described as ‘a platform of fearless feminism against Islamic fundamentalism and tribal patriarchal tendencies”; and a chronicler of various violations and atrocities against women as the result of war. The Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq, which she founded in 2003, has been active in supporting women’s rights in the post U.S.-led invasion.  Yanar Mohammed’s work with the group gained her a Gruber Foundation Women’s Rights Prize in 2008.

She has been a strong critic of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, suggesting that the “‘U.S. occupation turned the streets of Iraq into a ‘no-women zone.’” She has also spoken of conditions in Iraq as “a false choice” between occupation and political Islam: “‘…The American occupation willing to do genocide; or political Islam forcing [Iraqi women] to live a completely inhuman and un-liberated way of life.’…

 ‘U.S. troops should leave immediately because we, the people of Iraq, do not agree that all the jihadists from around the world are coming to Iraq to fight this so-called U.S. evil; our cities are turning into a [theater of battle] and all our lives are being devastated.

‘U.S. troops need to leave immediately, with no conditions. We do not accept the debate that there will be a bloodbath afterwards because nothing is worse than the sectarian war that we are living right now ─ also a consequence of this war.’ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yanar_Mohammed

 

Yifat Susskind

Yifat Susskind is a writer and analysis and the executive director of MADRE. She works with women’s human rights activists from Latin America, the Middle East, Asia and Africa to create programs in their communities to address women’s health, violence against women, economic and environmental justice and peace building. http://www.madre.org/index/meet-madre-1/who-we-are-49/staff--board-162.html

MADRE

MADRE has in 28 years built a network of community-based women’s organizations worldwide. Its network encompasses thousands of women and families who are on the frontlines of our global crisis: in Sudan, Iraq, Nicaragua, Cuba, Haiti, Guatemala, Kenya, Peru, Colombia, Panama, Palestine, Afghanistan, Bolivia, and elsewhere. The programs fall into categories of peace building, women’s health and combating violence against women, and economic and environmental justice. http://www.madre.org/index/meet-madre-1.html

Women who come together through MADRE are survivors of war, political repression, genocide, economic and sexual exploitation, and the twin burdens of natural disaster and disastrous policies. Yet they have refused to give in to despair. Instead, they have organized with MADRE to build programs that meet urgent needs in their communities and create lasting solutions to the crises they confront.

MADRE has historically partnered with sister organizations based in areas not necessarily highlighted below: our sister organizations highlighted in the upcoming pages are those MADRE has the honor to work with currently.

MADRE’s Sister Organizations:

Colombia: Taller de Vida | LIMPAL

Guatemala: Women Workers' Committee | Muixil

Haiti: KOFAVIV

Iraq: The Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq

Kenya: Indigenous Information Network  | Womankind Kenya

Nicaragua: Wangki Tangni | CADAMUC | REDTRANS

Palestine: Midwives for Peace | The Palestinian Medical Relief Society | Zakher Association

Peru: CHIRAPAQ | LUNDU

Sudan: Zenab for Women in Development

International: International Indigenous Women's Forum

http://www.madre.org/index/meet-madre-1/our-partners-6.html

http://www.madre.org/index/meet-madre-1/our-partners-6/iraq-the-organization-of-womens-freedom-in-iraq-37.html

_________________________________

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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Pageantry at Tel Aviv: America’s neglect funds $BILLIONS in Israeli aggression, welfare

Neglected
U.S. high school students
protest school closings

Marine Vietnam Veteran, Veterans Today editor Gordon Duff pens “Israel driving America’s ‘welfare Cadillac’”

Editing, re-reporting by 

Carolyn Bennett 

 

Self-eating, lies 

Neglected children

“Americans who are going to bed hungry only want to see and hear just so much about life in Israel, the endless free time, the beaches, how all hard work is performed by one million foreign nationals who do the shopping, cook the food, run the farms and factories, leaving real Israelis to enjoy the existence of H.G. Well’s “Eloli” from his novel, The Time Machine,” Duff wrote.

Neglected
U.S. education

Wikipedia note: Eloi in The Time Machine: “The Eloi are the childlike, frail group, living a banal life of ease on the surface of the earth, while the Morlocks live underground, tending machinery and providing food, clothing and infrastructure for the Eloi. Each class evolved and degenerated from humans.

The novel suggests that the separation of species may have been the result of a widening split between different social classes. The main difference from their earlier ruler-worker state is that, while the Morlocks continue to support the world’s infrastructure and serve the Eloi, the Eloi have undergone significant physical and mental deterioration.

Neglected and abused
U.S. elderly

While one initially has the impression that the Eloi people live a life of play and toil-less abundance, it is revealed that the Morlocks are attending to the Eloi’s needs for the same reason a farmer tends cattle; the Morlocks use the Eloi for food. This is why there are no old people, and why the Eloi seem to fear the dark.

Gordon Duff resumes

Armed to the teeth
aided by
USA neglecting
its own

“The American entertainment industry may have to take a spare moment away from its glorification of torture and abuse, its demonization of ‘the inferior races’ and return to its role of incessant victimization mythology. If this fails, Israel may find its free ride on the ‘gravy \train’ at an end.”

A December 10, 2012, Glenn Greenwald article addresses a dark Hollywood case, “Zero Dark Thirty,” in which he asks and answers the question: “Can a movie that relies on fabrications to generate support for war crimes still be considered great?”

Torture
practiced
upheld
by USA

“What this film does,” Greenwald says, “is [it] uncritically presents as fact the highly self-serving, and factually false, claims by the CIA that its torture techniques were crucial in finding [Ethnic Yemeni Kindite, member of the wealthy Saudi bin Laden family, al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad] bin Laden.

“[It] propagandizes the public to favorably view clear war crimes by the U.S. government, based on pure falsehoods.”

I

Neglected
Abandoned
U.S. people

 spliced in the ending of Gordon Duff’s article. This is the heart of Duff’s development pegged to the current pageantry in Tel Aviv and less-headlined neglect at home. U.S. President Barack Obama’s message to Israel, Duff says, “will never be reflected in a press release.” Certain utterances will never reach screaming network news. Duff says ─  

Neglected
U.S. workers

It isn’t just that America can no longer function as the largest unpaid mercenary force in the world; America is broke.

America’s ‘free money’ printing presses are at the ‘end of the line,’ policing the world is no longer an option when America itself is coming apart ‘at the seams.’

It is Obama’s job to explain to [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu that America is going to have to cut back on its deliveries of free white phosphorous and cluster bombs; this may require cutting back Israel’s bombing of Gaza.

Neglected
U.S. children

 America’s state of neglect

Neglected and abused
U.S. prisoners

“$25 billion in American money buys a life in Israel that those who pay for it will never be able to enjoy,” says Vietnam Veteran Duff, “unless they happen to be of the right religion and ‘theoretical ethnicity.’

“America can no longer pay its soldiers and is working very hard to find ways to totally abandon its millions of disabled 

Neglected
U.S. education

Neglected
U.S. children
U.S. education

veterans, some whose ‘paperwork’ has been in ‘processing’ since the end of the Vietnam War.

“

Between 25,000 and 50,000 veterans of the ‘War on Terror’ have killed themselves, quite honestly to the relief of American ‘conservatives’ who looked on them as unpleasant reminders of Bush-era failed policies.

Neglected
U.S. soldiers

America’s GOP ─ the Israeli dominated political party of Mitt Romney, John McCain and Lindsey Graham ─ has long played the American people for fools, attacking ‘entitlements’ … , Social Security retirement, Medicare/Obamacare [Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA, the Affordable Care Act)], veterans benefits and military pay as money ‘stolen’ from America’s ‘tax cheating’ one percent-ers.

Neglected
U.S. children

[Yet] … one rule has been inviolable: no matter how many veterans die of exposure and starvation, no matter how many children of the poor go to sleep hungry or … are forced to eat rats to stay alive, the endless overt and covert aid to Israel ─ up to $25 billion dollars per year ─ is supposed to continue.

“

Education Neglected 
Force preferred

Schools can close” in this Union, Duff reminds us, “teachers lose their jobs, nurses are laid off, millions of Americans lose their homes ─

[Yet] billions in welfare payments taken from the taxes of America’s working poor floods into Israel to finance

U.S. citizens
beg for what
was believed
secured

their [Israelis’] free healthcare,

their [Israelis’] free education,

their [Israelis’] bulldozers and guard towers, endless miles of walls and barbed wire and a standard of living few Americans can come close to.

Sources and notes

“Israel, driving America’s ‘welfare Cadillac’” (by Gordon Duff), March 20, 2013 7:48AM, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/03/20/294505/israel-driving-americas-welfare-cadillac/

GD/SL, © Copyright 2012 Press TV All rights reserved.

Eloi: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eloi

Gordon Duff

“Gordon Duff is a Marine Vietnam veteran, a combat infantryman, and Senior Editor at Veterans Today. His career has included extensive experience in international banking along with such diverse areas as consulting on counter insurgency, surveillance technologies, intelligence analysis, defense technologies or acting as a UN diplomat and ‘special consultant.’

“Duff currently serves on the boards of the Adamus Group [?], one of the world’s largest energy technology firms and of a private financial institution participating in the Federal Reserve Banking group. His most recent project adapts advanced military technologies to wildlife and land management in cooperation with the UN, USAID and International Wildlife Federation.

“Gordon Duff has traveled to over 80 nations. His articles are published around the world and translated into a number of languages. Duff, military affairs analyst for Press TV, regularly appears on TV and radio, a popular and sometimes controversial guest.” http://www.veteranstoday.com/author/gordonduff/

Affordable Care Act

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) (commonly called Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act) is a United States federal statute signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. Together with the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, it represents the most significant government expansion and regulatory overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system since the passage of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obamacare

Zero Dark Thirty

In a December 10, 2012, article in The Guardian UK, Glenn Greenwald addressed the “Zero Dark Thirty” issue. “Can a movie that relies on fabrications to generate support for war crimes still be considered great?” he asked and answered.  

“…That this film would depict CIA interrogation programs as crucial in capturing America’s most hated public enemy, and uncritically herald CIA officials as dramatic heroes, is anything but surprising.

A large Hollywood studio would never dare make a film about the episode which is America’s greatest source of collective self-esteem and jingoistic pride without clinging tightly to patriotic orthodoxies.

The events that led to bullets being pumped into Osama bin Laden’s skull and his corpse being dumped into the ocean have taken on sacred status in American lore, and Big Hollywood will inevitably validate rather than challenge that mythology.

“…The claim that waterboarding and other torture techniques were necessary in finding bin Laden was first made earlier this year (2012) by Jose Rodriguez, the CIA agent who illegally destroyed the agency’s torture tapes, got protected from prosecution by the DOJ [U.S. Department of Justice], and then profited off this behavior by writing a book. He made the same claim as ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ regarding the role played by torture in finding bin Laden.

That caused two Senators who are steadfast loyalists of the CIA - Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein and Armed Services Committee Chair Carl Levin - to issue statements definitively debunking this assertion. Even the CIA’s then-Director, Leon Panetta, made clear that those techniques played no role in finding bin Laden. An FBI agent central to the bin Laden hunt said the same.

“What this film does, then, is [it] uncritically presents as fact the highly self-serving, and factually false, claims by the CIA that its torture techniques were crucial in finding bin Laden.

“Put another way, it propagandizes the public to favorably view clear war crimes by the U.S. government, based on pure falsehoods.

“Shouldn’t that rather glaring ‘flaw’ preclude gushing admiration for this film? Is it possible to separate the filmmakers’ political propaganda and dissemination of falsehoods from their technical skills in producing a well-crafted entertainment product?”

“Zero Dark Thirty: new torture-glorifying film wins raves” (Glenn Greenwald Guardian UK),

December 10, 2012, http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/10/zero-dark-thirty-torture-awards

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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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Privacy regs, congressional catch-up imperative to rein in runaway UAV tech ─ Poe, Leahy, Calo

Drones in America

Editing, re-reporting by 

Carolyn Bennett

G

overnment recklessly remiss in oversight, regulatory process, rules in a  drone problem bigger than drone problem

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) yesterday convened a hearing on “The Future of Drones in America: Law Enforcement and Privacy Considerations” 

Senator
Patrick Leahy

 Senator Leahy

“While there may be many valuable uses for this new technology, the use of unmanned aircraft raises serious concerns about the impact on the constitutional and privacy rights of American citizens. The Department of Homeland Security, through Customs and Border Protection, already operates modified, unarmed drones to patrol rural parts of our northern and southern borders, as well as to support drug interdiction efforts by law enforcement. In addition, a growing number of local law enforcement agencies have begun to explore using drones to assist with operational surveillance.

“This raises a number of questions regarding the adequacy of current privacy laws and the scope of existing Fourth Amendment jurisprudence regarding aerial surveillance:

When is it appropriate for law enforcement to use a drone, and for what purposes?

Under what circumstances should law enforcement be required to first obtain a search warrant, and what should be done with the data that is collected? And although no drones operating in the U.S. are yet weaponized, should law enforcement be permitted to equip unmanned aircraft with non-lethal tools such as tear gas or pepper spray?

 

“

My concerns about the domestic use of drones extend beyond government and law enforcement,” Sen. Leahy said. “Before we allow widespread commercial use of drones in the domestic airspace, we need to carefully consider the impact on the privacy rights of Americans.

Just last week, we were reminded how one company’s push to gather data on Americans can lead to vast over-collection and potential privacy violations.

Similarly, a simple scan of amateur videos on the internet demonstrates how prevalent drone technology is becoming amongst private citizens.

Small, quiet unmanned aircraft can easily be built or purchased online for only a few hundred dollars, and equipped with high-definition video cameras while flying in areas impossible for manned aircraft to operate without being detected.

“It is not hard to imagine the serious privacy problems that this type of technology could cause.” 

University of Washington School of Law Professor Ryan Calo was one of the people who had been invited to give testimony at “The Future of Drones in America: Law Enforcement and Privacy Considerations” hearing.

Professor Calo

“The subject of today’s hearing is drones and law enforcement [but] I pause to note that, if anything, there are even fewer limits on the use of drones by individuals, corporations, or the press.

The common law privacy torts such as intrusion upon seclusion tend to track the constitutional doctrine that there should be no expectation of privacy in public.

Some might go further and argue that the press (at least) has a free speech interest in using technology to cover newsworthy events.

This combination of cheap, powerful surveillance and inadequate privacy law has understandably resulted in a backlash against drones, one further compounded by our association of the technology with the theatre of war.

Professor
Ryan Calo

After making that critical aside further down in his statement, he led with concerns not unlike Sen. Leahy’s on privacy and lax oversight, monitoring, regulation, rules. “Drones,” Professor Calo said, “have a lot of people worried about privacy—and for good reason.

Endless apps: “Drones drive down the cost of aerial surveillance to worrisome levels. Unlike fixed cameras, drones need not rely on public infrastructure or private partnerships. And they can be equipped not only with video cameras and microphones, but also the capability to sense heat patterns, chemical signatures, or the presence of a concealed firearm.”

Endless spying: “American privacy law, meanwhile, places few limits on aerial surveillance,” he said.

End of privacy: “We enjoy next to no reasonable expectation of privacy in public,” the professor said, “or from a public vantage like the nation’s airways.

“

The Supreme Court has made it clear through a series of decisions in the nineteen-eighties that there is no search for Fourth Amendment purposes if an airplane or helicopter permits officers to peer into your backyard. I see no reason why these precedents would not extend readily to drones.”

Stalking

“Drones may … follow people around from place to place,” Professor Calo said, “even after the recent decision of United States v. Jones.

Jones held that affixing a global positioning device to a vehicle for the purpose of tracking the location of the occupant is a search within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment.

 

But it is far from certain how Jones would apply to surveillance by a drone, which need not be affixed to anything.

“Citizens have no reasonable expectation of privacy in contraband.

Dogs can sniff luggage or cars without triggering the Fourth Amendment because, courts assume, dogs only alert in the presence of narcotics or other illegal possessions.

A logical extension of this precedent, it seems to me, is that drones could fly around looking for unusual heat patterns or testing the air for drug particles and report back suspicious activity to law enforcement without ever implicating the Constitution. 

Remiss oversight, dated regulatory process a “shame”

“I am very concerned,” Professor Calo said, “that we will not realize the potential of this technology because we have been so remiss in addressing the legitimate privacy concerns that attend it. There are several ways the government could change this picture.

Ideally, we would take the opportunity to finally drag privacy law into the twenty-first century by reexamining our outmoded doctrines.

  

Remedying what is remiss

In offering his own remedy to what is remiss, Calo said, “There is one approach that … could act as stop-gap, and that is for Congress to instruct the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) to take privacy into account as part of its mandate to integrate drones into domestic airspace.

The agency has been largely silent on the issue of privacy—only recently did members of the privacy community receive a letter from the FAA asking for input in connection with the selection of drone testing centers.

 

“Several federal bills have proposed placing limits on drones,” he said, but “I think we should be very careful here for a few reasons.

First, the problem is broader than unmanned aircraft systems: flight is not a prerequisite for threatening civil liberties. There are robots that climb the side of buildings, for instance; that would not be covered under the draft bills I’ve read.

Second, there is likely some benefit to allowing individual states to adopt different approaches to drones and seeing what works and what does not.

B

efore yesterday’s Senate hearing, Texas Congressman Ted Poe had raised concerns about the constitutional guarantee of right to privacy and related congressional responsibility surrounding the unmanned aerial vehicle use inside the United States. “As technology changes,” the congressman said, “Congress has the responsibility to be proactive and to protect the Fourth Amendment right of all citizens. The Fourth Amendment states:  

 

Congressman
Ted Poe

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated.

“It doesn’t take a constitutional law professor,” Poe said, “to see why legislation is needed to protect the rights of the American people.

The right of a reasonable expectation of privacy is a constitutional right.

Any form of snooping or spying, surveillance or eavesdropping goes against the rights that are outlined in the Constitution.

“

POE: CONGRESS MUST PRESERVE AMERICAN PRIVACY: a bill establishing safeguards to protect Americans from Drone Surveillance”

excerpt

Congresswoman
Zoe Lofgren

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Ted Poe (TX-02) along with Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (CA-19) introduced H.R. 637, the “Preserving American Privacy Act.” The bill seeks to ensure the privacy of American citizens by establishing specific guidelines about when and for what purposes law enforcement agencies and private individuals can use drones.

American Civil Liberties Union

‘Unmanned drones must not become a perpetual presence in our lives, hovering over us, following us and recording our every move,” said Chris Calabrese, legislative counsel for the ACLU. “Strict rules should govern the use of drones by the government. By requiring that law enforcement secure judicial approval before using drones, this legislation achieves the right balance for the use of these eyes in the sky.’

Electronic Privacy Information Center

‘Transparency and accountability are vital to the use of drones in the United States. EPIC has petitioned the Federal Aviation Administration to protect the privacy rights of individuals against increased drone use, but the Agency has failed to act. We support Congressman Poe's efforts to address this problem.’

The “Preserving American Privacy Act”:

Prohibits targeted surveillance of an individual or their property by law enforcement without a warrant

Mandates transparency during the permitting process for public accountability

Makes it unlawful for private individuals or law enforcement officers to use or operate an unmanned aircraft system that is armed with a firearm (includes explosives) in the national airspace of the United States. 

“

Nobody should be spying on another unless they have the legal authority to do so,” Congressman Poe said. “The decision should not be left up to unelected bureaucrats to decide the use of drones, so Congress has the obligation to set guidelines, to secure the right of privacy and to protect citizens from unlawful drone searches.

Just because the government has the technology to look into somebody’s yard does not give it the constitutional right to do so.

 

Sources and notes

Statement of Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee,

Hearing On “The Future of Drones in America: Law Enforcement and Privacy Considerations”

March 20, 2013, http://www.judiciary.senate.gov/pdf/3-20-13LeahyStatement.pdf

Written Statement of Ryan Calo, Assistant Professor, University of Washington School Of Law

United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, “The Future of Drones in America: Law Enforcement and Privacy Considerations”, March 20, 2013, http://www.judiciary.senate.gov/pdf/3-20-13CaloTestimony.pdf

The hearing by order of the Chairman Witness List Hearing before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary On “The Future of Drones in America: Law Enforcement and Privacy Considerations”

Wednesday, March 20, 2013, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 226, 10:30 a.m. Testimony:

Benjamin Miller, Unmanned Aircraft Program Manager, Mesa County Sheriff’s Office Representative, Airborne Law Enforcement Association Mesa County, CO Michael Toscano, President and CEO, Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International Arlington, VA

Amie Stepanovich Director of the Domestic Surveillance Project Electronic Privacy Information Center Washington, D.C. Ryan Calo, Assistant Professor (Law) University of Washington School of Law Seattle, WA

http://www.judiciary.senate.gov/hearings/hearing.cfm?id=d27f2c4073b40a8e678e4a9f6f36acec

Ryan Calo, law professor at the University of Washington; former director for privacy and robotics at the Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society

Statement of Representative Pope: The Library of Congress Thomas, Congressional Record document, http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?r113:1:./temp/~r113715K8q::

POE: CONGRESS MUST PRESERVE AMERICAN PRIVACY: Bill establishes safeguard to protect Americans from Drone Surveillance

http://poe.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8981:poe-congress-mut-preserve-american-privacy&catid=104:press-releases

CONGRESSMAN TED POE

Ted Poe is a U.S. Representative from Texas, elected as a Republican to the One Hundred Ninth and to the four succeeding Congresses (January 3, 2005-present). Before entering the Congress, he was a member of the United States Air Force Reserves (1970-1976), a lawyer and district attorney for Harris County, Texas (1973-1981), and a judge in Harris County (1981-2003).

Congressman Poe took his academic credentials at the University of Houston (J.D., Houston, Texas, 1973) and Abilene Christian University (B.A., Abilene, Texas, 1970). He was born September 10, 1948, in Temple, Bell County, Texas. http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=P000592

SENATOR PATRICK LEAHY

Patrick Joseph Leahy is a U.S. Senator from Vermont, elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in 1974; reelected in 1980, 1986, 1992,1998, 2004 and again in 2010 for the term ending January 3, 2017; president pro tempore (December 17, 2012-); chair, Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry (One Hundredth through One Hundred Third Congresses), Committee on the Judiciary (One Hundred Seventh Congress [January 3-20, 2001; June 6, 2001-January 3, 2003], One Hundred Tenth to One Hundred Thirteenth Congresses).

Before entering the Congress, he was an attorney practicing law in Burlington and Vermont (State’s) attorney, Chittenden County, Vermont (1966-1974). Sen. Leahy took his academic credentials at Georgetown University (J.D., Washington, D.C., 1964) and St. Michael’s College (Winooski, Vermont, 1961). He was born March 31, 1940, in Montpelier, Washington County, Vermont. http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=L000174

CONGRESSWOMAN LOFGREN

Zoe Lofgren is a Representative from California, elected as a Democrat to the One Hundred Fourth and nine succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1995-present); chair, Committee on Standards of Official Conduct (One Hundred Eleventh Congress).

Before entering the Congress, she was lawyer in private practice; on the faculty of Santa Clara University School of Law (Santa Clara, Calif., 1978-1980); a member of the staff of United States Representative Don Edwards; executive director of Community Housing Developers; one of the managers appointed by the House of Representatives in 2009 to conduct the impeachment proceedings of Samuel B. Kent, judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

Representative Lofgren took her academic credentials at Santa Clara University School of Law, (J.D., Santa Clara, 1975) and Stanford University (B.A. Stanford, Calif., 1970).  She was born December 21, 1947, in San Mateo, San Mateo County, Calif. http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=L000397

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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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