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<pre wrap=""><blockquote type="cite"><pre wrap="">"For years, senior Obama officials, including the president himself, have been making public claims about their drone program that have just been proven to be categorically false."</pre></blockquote>
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Sen. Durbin is holding hearings on drone use and policy soon. It's
encouraging that they're even undertaking such a thing - they are
empowered to ask questions that will make the Administration
uncomfortable, which it should be. And maybe if pushed they will
actually do that.<br>
<br>
[The hearings had been set for April 16th, but have now been
postponed to the 23rd... so there is more time to call Durbin's
office! I did, last Friday, following Bob Naiman's suggestion
below. They report having gotten a fair number of calls on drones
already, let's send them more! ]<br>
<br>
Robert Naiman spoke about doing just this at the ACLU-CU meeting
last weekend. He proposes calling Durbin's office and urging that
Durbin - as chair of the Constitution subcommittee of the Sen.
Intelligence Cmte - raise at least these four specific questions:<br>
<br>
1- How many civilians have US drone strikes killed in Pakistan,
and why has this number been classified?<br>
(Naiman mentioned that he'd learned last year that such a
count *is* being kept, *and* that it is classified, from Richard
Hoagland of the US Embassy in Pakistan.)<br>
<br>
2- Is it true that the US has performed *secondary strikes* in
Pakistan? (... where a strike at some site is followed, after
other unknown people have arrived to help those hurt, by a second
strike) Hoagland told them that this is not happening, but
mainstream press reports allege that it has on a number of
occasions. It would be a clear war crime, if true.<br>
<br>
3- Is it true - as reported in the NYTimes last May - that the CIA
counts any military-aged male killed by a drone strike as a presumed
militant? (Sen. Feinstein, chair of the full Intelligence Cmte,
later claimed she was unaware of such a report.) If this is true,
what does it mean for the estimates of civilians killed?<br>
<br>
4- What fraction of those killed by drone strikes in Pakistan have
been high-level militants?<br>
(The strikes' stated purpose had been to kill specifically those
people. Yet other estimates (including from the Knuckey and
Sonnenberg report, <a
href="http://www.livingunderdrones.org/report/">http://www.livingunderdrones.org/report/</a>
and detailed reporting from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism
such as <a
href="http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2013/04/02/march-2013-update-us-covert-actions-in-pakistan-yemen-and-somalia/">this,</a>
suggest only about 2% of the 2500-3500 people killed by US drone
strikes since 2004 were high level militants. Some 10-30% of those
killed were reported to be civilians, including 5% children.)<br>
<br>
Durbin's office phone numbers - <br>
<tt> Washington, DC: 202-224-2152. or if that's busy, you can
also call his</tt><tt> ...</tt><tt><br>
</tt><tt> </tt><tt>Springfield, IL: 217-492-4062. </tt><tt><br>
</tt><br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 4/13/13 11:27 AM, C. G. Estabrook
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:814976FB-CD4B-4FAB-BD18-D18CAD5ECAC0@newsfromneptune.com"
type="cite">
<pre wrap=""><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/04/12-2">http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/04/12-2</a>
For years, senior Obama officials, including the president himself, have been making public claims about their drone program that have just been proven to be categorically false. The evidence of this falsity is so conclusive that even establishment sources are using unusually harsh language - including "lies" - to describe Obama's statements. McClatchy's national security reporter, Jonathan Landay, obtained top-secret intelligence documents showing that "contrary to assurances it has deployed US drones only against known senior leaders of al-Qaida and allied groups, the Obama administration has targeted and killed hundreds of suspected lower-level Afghan, Pakistani and unidentified 'other' militants in scores of strikes in Pakistan's rugged tribal area." That article quotes drone expert Micah Zenko of the Council on Foreign Relations as saying that "McClatchy's findings indicate that the administration is 'misleading the public about the scope of who can legitimately be targ
eted.'"
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