When is enough enough ─ How many did Washington kill today?

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

  

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

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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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