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Senate committee approves new whistleblower protection measures
Source: The Guardian
Senate committee approves new whistleblower protection measures
Spencer Ackerman in Washington
theguardian.com, Thursday 7 November 2013 22.56 GMT
A new Senate bill authorizing the next year’s worth of intelligence operations would force the public disclosure of civilian deaths in drone strikes and add protections for spy-sector whistleblowers that are being hailed by advocates.
The bill, which was approved in the Senate intelligence committee on Thursday by 13 votes to two, would require the president to provide greater visibility than ever before into the controversial drones programme.
Each year, the president would have to “make public” a report listing “the total number of combatants killed or injured during the preceding year by the use of targeted lethal force outside the United States by remotely piloted aircraft”. The drone casualties so listed would not include those from declared war zones – putting a focus on civilians killed and injured in so-called “shadow battlefields” in places like Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.
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Spencer Ackerman in Washington
theguardian.com, Thursday 7 November 2013 22.56 GMT
A new Senate bill authorizing the next year’s worth of intelligence operations would force the public disclosure of civilian deaths in drone strikes and add protections for spy-sector whistleblowers that are being hailed by advocates.
The bill, which was approved in the Senate intelligence committee on Thursday by 13 votes to two, would require the president to provide greater visibility than ever before into the controversial drones programme.
Each year, the president would have to “make public” a report listing “the total number of combatants killed or injured during the preceding year by the use of targeted lethal force outside the United States by remotely piloted aircraft”. The drone casualties so listed would not include those from declared war zones – putting a focus on civilians killed and injured in so-called “shadow battlefields” in places like Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.
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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/07/senate-intelligence-committee-drones-whistleblower-protection
