White House to reveal death toll of US drone strikes for first time

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

A senior White House aide has pledged to release how many terrorism suspects and civilian casualties the US has killed in its drone strikes since 2009, the first-ever disclosure surrounding the US’s most controversial lethal operations.

Lisa Monaco, Barack Obama’s counter-terrorism and homeland security adviser, said in a Washington speech on Monday that the expanded transparency would bolster public support for drone strikes and other counter-terrorism practices that she indicated would last “for years to come”.

The long-desired disclosure will cover strikes in undeclared US battlefields, such as Pakistan, Yemen, Libya, Somalia and elsewhere, rather than the active war theaters of Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria. There was no specific date set for release, White House officials said, though Monaco said it will occur in the “coming weeks”.

“Not only is greater transparency the right thing to do, it is the best way to maintain the legitimacy of our counter-terrorism actions and the broad support of our allies,” Monaco told the Council on Foreign Relations on Monday.

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/07/us-drone-strikes-death-toll

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Spencer Ackerman in New York
Monday 7 March 2016 19.29 GMT Last modified on Monday 7 March 2016 20.39 GMT

[Dont call me Shirley]

1. Just lost the Whitehouse for the Dems.

[IronLionZion]

2. They should compare that to the large ground wars Republicans like

and see which was more effective at getting the terrorism suspects and limiting civilian casualties.

[noretreatnosurrender]

3. More Needs To Be Done

This excerpt is from a similar story at the Intercept:

Human rights groups and legal organizations acknowledged the significance of the move but said more needs to be done. “This is an important step, but it should be part of a broader reconsideration of the secrecy surrounding the drone campaign,” the ACLU’s deputy legal director, Jameel Jaffer, said in a statement. On Friday, the U.S. government, as part of a long-running legal battle with the ACLU, said it would release a redacted version of the Presidential Policy Guidance, the rules and law it relies on for so-called targeted killing. Jaffer argued such documents must be released in order to have a full accounting of the administration’s drone program.

“The administration should also release the legal memos that supply the purported legal basis for drone strikes — particularly those carried out away from recognized battlefields,” Jaffer said. “The authority to use lethal force should be subject to more stringent oversight by the public, by Congress, and, at least in some contexts, by the courts.”

Amnesty International’s Naureen Shah echoed the call for more precise information on the administration’s legal standards. “Today’s announcement is a welcome and crucial step, but the upcoming disclosure must include information on the U.S. government’s definitions and legal standards for these strikes,” Shah said in a statement. “Only then will policymakers, the human rights community and the general public have the information necessary to assess the administration’s numbers and the drone program’s impact.”

https://theintercept.com/2016/03/07/drone-casualty-report-promised-as-u-s-airstrike-kills-150-al-shabaab-members/

[The Roux Comes First]

4. What F'ing Legitimacy is That??

Plain and simple assassination. Unacceptable. Just because it is (relatively) cheap and protects us from direct mortality to our military does not make it a solution.

This slide into being perennial war criminals certainly has roots in the idea of dropping bombs from on high. Much easier to kill at a distance and don't have to watch death happen.