[Peace-discuss] veterans urging armed forces members to refuse to fly drone missions."

[David Johnson]

January 1, 2016 

 <http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/01/01/the-year-in-drones-2015/> The Year
in Drones: 2015

by  <http://www.counterpunch.org/author/charles-pierson/> Charles Pierson 

*	" Other veterans are also speaking out. In June, forty-four veterans
representing each of the four service branches with ranks from private to
colonel signed a letter urging armed forces members to refuse to fly drone
missions."

Description:
http://uziiw38pmyg1ai60732c4011.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/dropzone/
2015/12/dronespak-510x317.jpg

2015 was another glorious, blood-soaked year for US killer drones.

One story began in 2014, but it was not until 2015 that we knew how it
ended. In February 2014, the Associated Press reported that the Obama
Administration was contemplating a drone strike on a US citizen, an al-Qaeda
member living in Pakistan and known by the nom de guerre Abdullah al-Shami
(Abdullah the Syrian). Al-Shami had been born in Texas, but had not been in
the United States since he was a toddler.

We did not hear of Al-Shami again until the following April. Al-Shami still
lived but had been captured by Pakistani security forces and turned over to
the United States. In April, al-Shami (now identified by his real name,
Mohanad Mahmoud Al Farekh) was arraigned on terrorism charges in federal
court in Brooklyn.

Other US citizens have been less fortunate than Al Farekh. On January 14, a
73 year old aid worker, Warren Weinstein, was killed in a US drone strike on
an Al-Qaeda compound in Pakistan. His family had been trying to negotiate
ransom for Weinstein who had been abducted from his home in Lahore in 2011.
Also killed in the strike were an Italian aid worker, Giovanni Lo Porto, and
an American member of al-Qaeda, Ahmed Farouq.

Eight US citizens have been killed in US drone strikes. The best known is
Anwar al-Awlaki, a US-born high-profile al-Qaeda spokesman. Al-Awlaki was
killed by a US drone in Yemen on September 30, 2011. Al-Awlaki's 16-year old
son, Abdulrahman, was killed in a separate drone attack a month later. All
other US citizens killed by drones have been members of Al-Qaeda. Al-Shami's
tale proves that the Obama Administration continues to be willing to execute
Americans without due process of law.

"The entire program was diseased"

In 2015, The Intercept broke two important stories on drones. In February,
<https://theintercept.com/2015/04/17/ramstein/> Jeremy Scahill reported on
the US base in Ramstein, Germany. Leaked US slides and their confidential
source confirmed what had long been suspected: that Ramstein Air Base is the
global hub for relaying signals which allow pilots in the United States to
control US drones in South and Central Asia, the Arabian Peninsula and
Africa. The slides put the lie to US and German attempts to minimize
Ramstein's crucial importance to the drone war. The slides raise the
possibility of US personnel at Ramstein facing prosecution under German law
for assisting drone assassinations in violation of international law.
<http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/01/01/the-year-in-drones-2015/#_ftn2> [2]

Then in October, The Intercept published
<https://theintercept.com/drone-papers/> The Drone Papers: a series of
classified documents on the US government's drone assassination program. The
Drone Papers were leaked to The Intercept by an unidentified source inside
the intelligence community who is being called the new Edward Snowden. The
new source can look forward to getting his face on the cover of Time and his
ass in a prison cell-that is, unless he gets out of the US before the Obama
Administration finds out who he is.

The Drone Papers confirm every horrifying thing we have learned about
drones' indiscriminate killing. For every intended target, about six
unintended targets are killed. Civilians killed by American drones are
counted as enemies killed in action (EKIA), unless they are subsequently
proven not to be militants. Internal criticism of the drone program is rife.
Insiders say that drones are successful only at boosting terrorist
recruitment.

Four other whistleblowers-former drone operators in the US Air Force-went
public in an
<http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/18/obama-drone-war-isis-recruitme
nt-tool-air-force-whistleblowers> open letter to President Obama in
November. The four lashed out at the drone program's callous disregard for
human life. Drone operators call children "fun-size terrorists" and refer to
killing children as cutting the lawn before the grass gets high. One of the
whistleblowers, former Staff Sergeant Brandon Bryant has said: "We killed
people who we really didn't know who they were, and there was no oversight."

True that. After Warren Weinstein was killed the New York Times ran this
headline: "Drone Strikes Reveal Uncomfortable Truth: U.S. Is Often Unsure
about Who Will Die." "The entire program was diseased," Bryant says. For
speaking out, Sgt. Bryant and his colleagues have had their bank accounts
and their credit cards frozen.

Perhaps the most appalling revelation in The Drone Papers was that during
one five-month period in Afghanistan 90% of drone victims were not the
intended target. The civilian death toll is not always that high, but it is
high enough. An op-ed in the July 14 New York Times gives these figures:

In 646 probable drone strikes in Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen recorded by the
[British NGO] Bureau of Investigative Journalism, as many as 1,128
civilians, including 225 children, were killed-22 percent of deaths. The New
America Foundation's estimates are lower, but suggest a civilian death rate
of about 10 percent.
<http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/01/01/the-year-in-drones-2015/#_ftn3> [3]

US killer drones have taken lives in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Iraq,
Libya, and Somalia, Syria, and the Philippines. US drone strikes on Yemen
have continued even during the country's civil war, providing de facto
assistance to Saudi Arabia's criminal aggression in bombing Yemen.

Drone missions take their toll on those drone operators who still have a
conscience. Substance abuse is common. So are burnout and PTSD.
"Guilt-ridden American drone pilots continue to quit in unprecedented
numbers," according to RT, the Russian news service. Yet the Obama
Administration wants to increase daily drone flights by 50% over the next
four years. Good luck finding enough pilots.

Other veterans are also speaking out. In June, forty-four veterans
representing each of the four service branches with ranks from private to
colonel signed a letter urging armed forces members to refuse to fly drone
missions. The "Refuse to Fly" campaign is also running a series of
fifteen-second anti-drone TV  <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlUo7Z7jN6M>
ads. The ads show graphic scenes of death and destruction taken from Madiha
Tahir's documentary  <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sk7fD5umakg> Wounds of
Waziristan about Pakistanis killed by US drones. Each ad ends with a voice
urging drone operators to "refuse to fly."

According to a poll conducted in May by the Pew Research Center, 58% of
Americans support US drone strikes. The same poll shows that one-third (35%)
of Americans disapprove of drone strikes, up from 26% two years ago.
Americans need to learn the truth about drones. 

Yet coverage of The Drone Papers and the four whistleblowers in the
mainstream media has been spotty to nil. 

The word needs to go out if there is to be the sort of public pressure that
it will take to ground the drones.

 

 

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