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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums'True Cost of Covert Killings' Demanded as Drone Strike Victims Speak Out
'It’s crucial that we come to grips with the true extent of the collateral damage these strikes have caused'
by
Andrea Germanos
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/04/21/true-cost-covert-killings-demanded-drone-strike-victims-speak-out
Faisal bin ali Jaber wants answers—and an apology—from the Obama administration for a U.S. drone strike that killed members of his family.
The environmental engineer from Sanaa, Yemen continued his lengthy battle for justice on Wednesday, filing a federal lawsuit (pdf) in Washington, D.C. demanding his "a legal right under FOIA" for the Department of Defense, Department of Justice, Department of State, and Department of the Treasury to provide him with pertinent information about the strike that killed his brother-in-law Salem and his nephew Waleed in 2012.
<snip>
"As the White House prepares to release its first ever estimate of the civilian toll of the U.S. drone program," said Jennifer Gibson, staff attorney at Reprieve, "it’s crucial that we come to grips with the true extent of the collateral damage these strikes have caused. A bean-counting exercise does not tell us this. Only ensuring the voices of the victims are heard can.
"If the Obama Administration is serious about shedding light on this secret program," Gibson continued, "then the President must take down the wall of silence that has met its victims. The U.S. must put names to the numbers, and give Pakistani and Yemeni victims the same measure of respect he accorded an American and Italian—an apology. Only then can we start to come to grips with the true cost of these covert killings."
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It seems that our shame is without end.
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AuntPatsy
(9,904 posts)Easily...
JEB
(4,748 posts)Afghan officials say at least 17 civilians were killed by U.S. drone strikes in Afghanistan on Wednesday. The first strike reportedly hit the truck of a local elder who was on his way to resolve a land dispute—killing the elder and 11 others. The second drone reportedly struck and killed two people were collecting their bodies. A third drone strike reportedly killed three more who had come to see what had happened. The Pentagon has confirmed two of the three drone strikes, but says there were no civilian casualties. Meanwhile, a U.S. oversight office has issued a damning report indicating the $113 billion effort to reconstruct Afghanistan has largely been a failure. The report details shoddily built structures, dangerous roads and hundreds of empty schools. U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John Sopko, who was responsible for the report, said, "Fifteen years into an unfinished work of funding and fighting, we must indeed ask, 'What went wrong?'" Since 2002, the U.S. has spent more than $113 billion on reconstruction efforts—more than the total spending on the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe after World War II.
http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2016/04/11/families-of-afghans-killed-in-us-drone-raids-seek-probe.html
Relatives and tribal elders in southeastern Afghanistan are demanding an investigation into the killing of 17 people by US drones this week, claiming that the air strikes hit civilians, not members of armed groups.
US army officials said on Thursday that two air strikes in Paktika province, near the Pakistani border, had only targeted fighters, without any evidence of civilian casualties.
Afghan officials confirmed to Al Jazeera that 17 people had been killed in Wednesday's strikes in Gomal district, but added they all had links to the Taliban.
The first strike reportedly hit the truck of a local elder who was on his way to resolve a land dispute—killing the elder and 11 others. The second drone reportedly struck and killed two people were collecting their bodies. A third drone strike reportedly killed three more who had come to see what had happened. The Pentagon has confirmed two of the three drone strikes, but says there were no civilian casualties.
Democracy Now!, Apr. 8, 2016
Yet, local leaders and relatives insisted on Saturday that all of those killed were innocent civilians.
Read more: http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2016/04/11/families-of-afghans-killed-in-us-drone-raids-seek-probe.html#ixzz46WH9PTuk
https://www.mintpressnews.com/innocent-man-begs-america-stop-trying-murder-drone-strikes/215611/
Innocent Man Begs America To Stop Trying To Murder Him With Drone Strikes
Malik claims he has been put on a ‘kill list’ and targeted at least four times by U.S. drone strikes for his role in attempting to prevent violence between the local Taliban and the authorities.
AuntPatsy
(9,904 posts)killings just happened here right in thier neighborhood, I've actually heard people say, well they are used to it over there, mind altering ignorance!
JEB
(4,748 posts)Drone Whistleblowers Step Out of the Shadows: Collateral Damage Comes Home
Thursday, 21 April 2016 00:00 By Pratap Chatterjee, TomDispatch
>snip<
Kennebeck's interviewees are among at least a dozen whistleblowers who have stepped forward, or are preparing to do so, in order to denounce Washington's drone wars as morally unjustified, as in fact nightmares both for those who fight them and those living in the lands that are on the receiving end. The realities of the day-in, day-out war they fought for years were, as they tell it, deeply destructive and filled with collateral damage of every sort. Worse yet, drone operators turn out to have little real idea about, and almost no confirmation of, whom exactly they've blown away.
AuntPatsy
(9,904 posts)accidents do happen....we are far too violent a species,
JEB
(4,748 posts)Thanks for caring, AuntPatsy.
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)empathy.
JEB
(4,748 posts)has no problem taking innocent lives.
