Drone Strikes and Kill Lists | NYT Investigation

With remarkable access to participants, reporters Jo Becker and Scott Shane document the increasing use of drone warfare and targeted killings. This is the third in a series of article about President Obama called the shadow war.

It's a revealing look into the bureaucracy that sustains the drone policy and the decision by President Obama to sign off on targeted strikes outside of Pakistan where the CIA is in charge.

“In interviews with The New York Times, three dozen of his current and former advisers described Mr. Obama’s evolution since taking on the role, without precedent in presidential history, of personally overseeing the shadow war with Al Qaeda.

They describe a paradoxical leader who shunned the legislative deal-making required to close the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, but approves lethal action without hand-wringing. While he was adamant about narrowing the fight and improving relations with the Muslim world, he has followed the metastasizing enemy into new and dangerous lands. When he applies his lawyering skills to counterterrorism, it is usually to enable, not constrain, his ferocious campaign against Al Qaeda — even when it comes to killing an American cleric in Yemen, a decision that Mr. Obama told colleagues was “an easy one.”"

How the kill list is developed

“It is the strangest of bureaucratic rituals: Every week or so, more than 100 members of the government’s sprawling national security apparatus gather, by secure video teleconference, to pore over terrorist suspects’ biographies and recommend to the president who should be the next to die.

This secret “nominations” process is an invention of the Obama administration, a grim debating society that vets the PowerPoint slides bearing the names, aliases and life stories of suspected members of Al Qaeda’s branch in Yemen or its allies in Somalia’s Shabab militia.”

New guidelines for strikes in Yemen.

“Today, the Defense Department can target suspects in Yemen whose names they do not know. Officials say the criteria are tighter than those for signature strikes, requiring evidence of a threat to the United States, and they have even given them a new name — TADS, for Terrorist Attack Disruption Strikes. But the details are a closely guarded secret — part of a pattern for a president who came into office promising transparency.”

Article link here.

International Drone Summit | 28/29 April, Washington DC

Human rights activists, civil liberties groups, lawyers, and robotics experts will gather in Washington DC to look at the expanding use of lethal and surveillance drones.

Hosted by CODEPINK, Reprieve, and the Center for Constitutional Rights the summit will have Sunday strategy sessions to explore ways to resist this expansion.




Background:

US drone strikes have killed an estimated 3,000 people around the world, including hundreds of civilians, without any judicial process or meaningful oversight, and without any transparency or accountability. The summit’s dual objectives are to better inform the public about the reality and significance of the US government’s expanding use of both killer and surveillance drones, and to facilitate networks and strategies to resist this expansion. Click here for the program.

Location:

Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church
900 Massachusetts Ave. NW
Washington, DC, 20001

Additional Resource: How the CIA Became a Killing Machine,

Tag: Drones

AG Eric Holder Defends Targeted Killings Of Americans

Targeted killings are also at the core of the deadlock in the US-Afghanistan Strategic Partnership. The government of Afghanistan would like the U.S. to turn over all prisoners it holds on its territory and to stop the kill/capture policy of the night raids that have left so many dead.

Most importantly, it is a defense of the deadly drone program run by the CIA.

Here is what the ACLU had to say.

"In remarks delivered at the Northwestern University School of Law today, Attorney General Eric Holder provided the Obama Administration’s most detailed public description yet of the legal authority under which it believes it can carry out targeted killings, including of U.S. citizens abroad. Unfortunately, the remarks still amounted to a broad defense of the government’s claimed expansive authority to conduct targeted killings far from a battlefield, without judicial review of its legal justifications or evidence, either before or after a killing. The remarks also mischaracterized the debate over the need for judicial review of targeted killing decisions"

***

"As Holder’s speech demonstrates, though, judicial oversight is critically important given the breathtaking authority the government has claimed. Holder acknowledged that all U.S. citizens, including those accused of being terrorists, have a right to due process under the Constitution, but he argued that the Executive Branch, alone, should determine whether the due process requirement is satisfied when the government claims law of war or self-defense authority to kill. In a system of constitutional checks and balances, that simply cannot be the case. Courts must have a role in determining whether the government’s authority to kill its own citizens is legal and whether a decision to kill complies with the Constitution. Otherwise, the government can wield the power to take life with impunity. We should not trust any president – whether this one or the next – to make such momentous decisions fully insulated from judicial review. As the Supreme Court has admonished, “a state of war is not a blank check for the President when it comes to the rights of the Nation's citizens.”

Additional Resources: A view from the ground in Chicago.

This morning's Washington Post editorial makes this point. The administration “should release the Justice Department memorandum that lays out the domestic and international strictures which, it says, undergird its drone policy.”

Assassinations | CIA Drone Strikes | US Policy

At an open public briefing yesterday, President Obama admitted that the United States has been directing the CIA to carry out targeted killings, or assassinations, in Pakistan.

The drone program, extensively discussed among activists and legal scholars, has been Washington's worst-kept secret. Last night CIA drones killed 12 in Yemen.

Here is the big question. At what point does official acknowledgment of an on-going 'covert' action that is killing thousands of people demand accountability? And, how do you stop it?

Jonathan Master writing with the Council on Foreign Relations lays out the post 9/11 strategy and rationale for CIA and special forces targeted killings.

“The United States adopted targeted killing as an essential tactic to pursue those responsible for the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency have employed the controversial practice with more frequency in recent years, both as part of ongoing combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as in counterterrorism efforts in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia.”

The domestic rational rest on the expansive language of a statute passed by the US Congress just days after the 9/11 attack.

“As a matter of domestic law, the legal underpinning for U.S. counterterrorism operations and the targeted killing of members of the Taliban, al-Qaeda, and its affiliates across the globe is the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF), which the U.S. Congress passed just days after 9/11. The statute empowers the president "to use all necessary and appropriate force" in pursuit of those responsible for the terrorist attacks.”

The New American Foundation estimates that drone strikes in Pakistan alone have killed between 1,700 and 2,700 people in the last eight years. The government of Pakistan has consistently condemned the bombing attacks as a violation of its sovereignty.

Additional Resources: How the CIA Became a Killing Machine

CIA Drone Strike Kills Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen

U.S. officials have confirmed that Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born cleric linked to al Qaeda's Yemen-based wing, was killed by a CIA drone strike today. The targeted assassination is being claimed as a success for Washington and its partners in the fight against Islamic militancy.

"The United States has stepped up drone strikes in Yemen to try and keep al Qaeda off balance and prevent it from capitalizing on the strife and chaos gripping the nation.

Awlaki was the first U.S. citizen who the White House authorized the CIA or other U.S. agencies to kill because of his alleged operational role in militant attacks directed against the United States.

This authorization was issued after intelligence was collected linking him to a botched attempt to bomb a U.S.-bound plane in December 2009. He was also accused of helping to oversee a failed plot in October 2010 to blow up U.S. cargo aircraft, the Obama administration official said."

More Drone Strikes in Pakistan

The Voice of America reports that earlier today targeted CIA drone strikes in Pakistan killed three people. "U.S. officials do not publicly acknowledge the use of drone strikes inside Pakistan, but privately have confirmed their existence to various news outlets. Pakistani leaders condemn the strikes as a violation of the country's sovereignty."

The Long War Journal reports that "today's strike is the fourth in Pakistan's tribal areas this month, and the third since September 23. In the last two strikes, which took place in North Waziristan on September 23 and South Waziristan on September 27, no senior al Qaeda or Taliban leaders were reported killed. The previous strike, on Sept. 11, killed killed Abu Hafs al Shahri, whom U.S. intelligence officials have described as al Qaeda's operations chief for Pakistan."

The attacks in Pakistan come as tensions are increasing between the two countries. Several U.S. officials, including Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen, have accused Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, or ISI, of directly supporting Haqqani Network attacks inside Afghanistan.


Additional Resource: How the CIA Became a Killing Machine

Global Day of Listening | 18-19 June 2011

Global Day of Listening
June 18-19*, 2011
(* 8:00 pm June 18 - 8:00 pm June 19 Eastern USA time)


Make time this weekend to be a part of the next global listening project. The last one was held in March. The schedule is open and dynamic. Designed for you to join for hours or stay for minutes.

It’s an opportunity engage with ordinary people from Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Israel, Egypt, Yemen, and other countries.

To hear their stories.

Don’t be intimidated. The vision is to bring people together in order to strengthen our strategies for nonviolent social change.

The home page has the schedule of activities and the call-in numbers to join this inspiring community.

Here is the schedule by themes, speakers, and times.

Here is how you can get connected.

You will hear testimonies from Iraqis working with the Muslim Peacemaker Teams, Afghans sharing their experiences of community building and nonviolent resistance, Palestinians testifying to strategies to end the occupation, and Egyptians working to build a brighter future. There will also be updates from peace activists from around the world seeking to end their government’s roles in the violence.

These stories, these testimonies, and these lives are why we work to end the wars.

Make time this weekend to be inspired.

Here are some links to the incredible groups that will be featured.

Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers (blog)
Afghans for Peace (Facebook)
Iraqi & American Reconciliation Project

Pakistan the Model | Strikes Kill 15 in Waziristan - New Air Base to Target Yemen

According to the Voice of America, Pakistani intelligence officials report three CIA-run drone strikes have killed 15. This is a long established pattern.

The Long War Journal has links to yesterday's Wall Street Journal article spelling out a new CIA strategy to destroy al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula using Pakistan as the model. They would rely on unmanned Predator and Reaper strike aircraft.

“The new CIA drone program will initially focus on collecting intelligence to share with the military, officials said. As the intelligence base for the program grows, it will expand into a targeted killing program like the current operation in Pakistan.”

Meanwhile, the Associated Press was reporting on the building a secret air base to launch drone strikes into Yemen.

“The United States is building a secret CIA air base in the Persian Gulf region to target terrorists in Yemen, preparing for the possibility that an anti-American faction may take over Yemen and ban U.S. forces from hunting a lethal al-Qaida faction there…”

General Petraeus, the current commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan is currently in Washington to hand-deliver the military proposal for the US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan next month to the President.

He will face Senate confirmation next week for his new job as CIA director.

When it was announced in April that Mr. Panetta would leave the CIA to head the Department of Defense and General Petraeus would take over as head of the CIA a pattern was emerging. Here is what the NYT’s had to say.

"As C.I.A. director, Mr. Panetta hastened the transformation of the spy agency into a paramilitary organization, overseeing a sharp escalation of the C.I.A.’s bombing campaign in Pakistan using armed drone aircraft, and an increase in the number of secret bases and covert operatives in remote parts of Afghanistan.

General Petraeus, meanwhile, has aggressively pushed the military deeper into the C.I.A.’s turf, using Special Operations troops and private security contractors to conduct secret intelligence missions. As commander of the United States Central Command in September 2009, he also signed a classified order authorizing American Special Operations troops to collect intelligence in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iran and other places outside of traditional war zones.

The result is that American military and intelligence operatives are at times virtually indistinguishable from each other as they carry out classified operations in the Middle East and Central Asia. Some members of Congress have complained that this new way of war allows for scant debate about the scope and scale of military operations. In fact, the American spy and military agencies operate in such secrecy now that it is often hard to come by specific information about the American role in major missions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and now Libya and Yemen."