Drones Archive – 2012
Jeremy Scahill: A Short History of Drone Warfare
The United States is on a new trajectory in warfare, says Jeremy Scahill, national security correspondent for The Nation. With its increase in drone strikes, the United States is turning away from the large-scale military interventions of the past decade and towards covert operations, beyond such known locations as Pakistan and Yemen.
FAA Releases Lists of Drone Certificates—Many Questions Left Unanswered
eff.org – deeplinks blog
By Jennifer Lynch
April 19, 2012
This week the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) finally released its first round of records in response to EFF’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit for information on the agency’s drone authorization program. The agency says the two lists it released include the names of all public and private entities that have applied for authorizations to fly drones domestically. These lists—which include the Certificates of Authorizations (COAs), issued to public entities like police departments, and the Special Airworthiness Certificates (SACs), issued to private drone manufacturers—show for the first time who is authorized to fly drones in the United States.
Some of the entities on the COA list are unsurprising. For example, journalists have reported that Customs and Border Protection uses Predator drones to patrol the borders. It is also well known that DARPA and other branches of the military are authorized to fly drones in the US. However, this is the first time we have seen the broad and varied list of other authorized organizations, including universities, police departments, and small towns and counties across the United States. The COA list includes universities and colleges like Cornell, the University of Colorado, Georgia Tech, and Eastern Gateway Community College, as well as police departments in North Little Rock, Arkansas; Arlington, Texas; Seattle, Washington; Gadsden, Alabama; and Ogden, Utah, to name just a few. The COA list also includes small cities and counties like Otter Tail, Minnesota and Herington, Kansas. The Google map linked [below] above plots out the locations we were able to determine from the lists, and is color coded by whether the authorizations are active, expired or disapproved. …
Map of Domestic Drone Authorizations
Unmanned aerial warfare: Flight of the drones
The Economist
October 8, 2011
Why the future of air power belongs to unmanned systems
ON SEPTEMBER 30th Anwar al-Awlaki and several of his al-Qaeda colleagues stopped their pickup truck on a remote, dusty road deep inside Yemen’s interior. He can have had only a split second to realise what was about to happen. But the missile strike that killed al-Qaeda’s most effective propagandist was no real surprise. It was just the latest example of the way America’s armed Predator and Reaper drones are changing the terms of combat with the country’s enemies, leaving them able to run but with nowhere to hide.
American officers, with their passion for acronyms, prefer not to call the machine that killed al-Awlaki a drone. They have a point. In nature, drone bees are poor, useless things that produce no honey and have no sting. That hardly describes the remotely-piloted Predator MQ-1 or Reaper MQ-9 aircraft. Laden with sophisticated sensors and carrying Hellfire missiles and laser-guided bombs, they patrol the skies above Afghanistan, launch lethally accurate strikes against terrorists in the tribal areas of Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia and have helped NATO turn the tide against Muammar Qaddafi’s forces in Libya. Even calling them Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) is slightly misleading. There may not be a man in the cockpit, but each Reaper, a bigger, deadlier version of the Predator, requires more than 180 people to keep it flying. A pilot is always at the controls (albeit from a base that might be 7,500 miles, or 12,000km, away); and another officer operates its sensors and cameras. …
Read on: www.economist.com/node/21531433
Click the above image to download/read this document (5.97 MB pdf)
Living Under Drones
Since 2004, up to 884 innocent civilians, including at least 176 children, have died from US drone strikes in the North Waziristan region of Pakistan. A new report (September 2012) from the Stanford and New York University law schools finds drone use has caused widespread post-tramatic stress disorder and an overall breakdown of functional society in North Waziristan. In addition, the report finds the use of a “double tap” procedure, in which a drone strikes once and strikes again not long after, has led to deaths of rescuers and medical professionals.
ACLU takes CIA to court as agency denies existence of drone programme
Guradian.co.uk – By Paul Harris – September 19, 2012
Despite references by president and defence secretary, CIA has refused FOIA request on grounds it cannot confirm drone use
The American Civil Liberties Union will go to court on Thursday in an attempt to get the CIA to hand over documents related to President Barack Obama’s controversial “targeted killing” programme that uses unmanned drones to strike suspected Islamic militants.
The programme has been repeatedly referenced in public by numerous senior officials, including by Obama himself and defence secretary Leon Panetta, but the spy agency has refused to comply with a Freedom of Information Act request from the civil liberties group because it says it will not confirm the secretive use of drones.
As a result the ACLU has gone to court to argue that the CIA cannot deny the existence of a programme that has been so widely reported, including in great detail in off-the-record briefings by administration and agency officials. Jameel Jaffer, the deputy legal director of the ACLU, said: “It is preposterous. The assertion that this programme is a secret is nothing short of absurd.
“For more than two years, senior officials have been making claims about the programme both on the record and off. They’ve claimed that the programme is effective, lawful and closely supervised. If they can make these claims, there is no reason why they should not be required to respond to [FOIA] requests.”
The so-called targeted killing programme has become one of the most controversial aspects of Obama’s national security policy. …
Read on: www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/19/aclu-us-drone-programme-court
Americans press US ambassador for end to drone strikes in Pakistan, and the ambassador responds
CagePrisoners.com – By Robert Naiman – October 6, 2012
Sometimes, when some people insist that it’s impossible to put some urgent problem on the table for discussion and redress, you have no choice but to undertake flamboyant action.
Call it “propaganda by nonviolent deed.”
On Wednesday, as a member of a US peace delegation to Pakistan organized by Code Pink, I delivered a petition from more than 3,000 Americans to Acting US Ambassador to Pakistan Richard Hoagland calling for an end to the CIA drone strike policy in Pakistan.
I also delivered a letter from Alice Walker, Noam Chomsky, Naomi Wolf, Oliver Stone, Danny Glover, Jody Williams, Tom Hayden, Patch Adams, Glenn Greenwald, Juan Cole and other prominent Americans, including former US government officials, calling for an end to the drone strikes. The letter concludes:
We demand an immediate moratorium on the drone strikes. We demand that US policy in Pakistan be brought into compliance with US and international law, that the US government come clean about civilian casualties, that civilian victims and their families be compensated, and that “signature” drone strikes and attacks on civilian rescuers be permanently abandoned, in Pakistan and everywhere else.
In our meeting, I particularly pressed Ambassador Hoagland on reports of US drone attacks on civilian rescuers.
Ambassador Hoagland responded in more specific detail to some of the concerns that I and others raised than has been typical for US officials in the past, who have usually either 1) refused to talk publicly and on the record about the US drone strike program because it is “classified,” or 2) have defended the policy in vague and misleading terms without answering specific allegations.
For an example of the latter: In April, White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan claimed that civilian deaths as a result of the drone strikes have been “exceedingly rare.” Can such a vague assertion truly be reassuring? What exactly does “exceedingly rare” mean? How “rare” is “exceedingly rare?”
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism has reported 474 to 884 civilians killed in US drone strikes in Pakistan since 2004 out of 2,572 to 3,341 killed overall. That suggests that somewhere between a sixth and a third of the deaths have been civilian deaths. Is that “exceedingly rare?” Meanwhile, a recent Stanford/NYU report says that only 2 percent of drone strike deaths have been “high-level” targets. This suggests that somewhere between seven and 15 times as many civilians have been killed as “high level” targets, and that while killing civilians has been common, it is the killing of “high level” targets that has been “exceedingly rare.” …
For the September 2012 update: US covert actions in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia (published October 1 by The Bureau of Investigative Journalism) click here: www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2012/10/01/september-2012-update-us-covert-actions-in-pakistan-yemen-and-somalia/
Unnecessary and Disproportional: The Killings of Anwar and Abdul Rahman al-Awlaki
CagePrisoners.com – By CagePrisoners Editor – September 30, 2012
One year since the assassination of Anwar al-Awlaki CagePrisoners publishes a report which reveals what role he really played in the Al-Qaeda leadership
“How excellent would it be if you ask brother Basir to send us the resume, in detail and lengthy, of brother Anwar al-‘Awlaqi, as well as the facts he relied on when recommending him…and how excellent would it be if he gives us a chance to be introduced to him more … “
– Usamah Bin Laden (more than a year after US Justice Department’s memo ‘legalising’ the targeted killing of Awlaki)
“As for my husband who was assassinated by a US drone exactly one year from today, I believe strongly that his killing has nothing to do with the allegations by the US that he has links to terrorist attacks, but rather to silence him because of his influence on Muslims in the Western world as a Muslim scholar and preacher…the drone programme is wrong and illegal because it kills a lot more civilians than so called [high] valuable targets.”
– Gihan Mohsen Baker, wife of Anwar al-Awlaki
Exactly a year ago, American citizen Anwar al-Awlaki was killed in a drone strike carried out by the US in Northern Yemen – only one of scores that are dying as part of a programme of extrajudicial killings.
On the anniversary of his killing, CagePrisoners releases its report “Unnecessary and Disproportional: The Killing of Anwar and Abdul-Rahman al-Awlaki”. …
Civilian Deaths From US Drone Attacks Much Higher Than Reported
TruthOut.org – By Paul Jay, The Real News Network – August 22, 2012
Gareth Porter: New investigative work shows that civilian deaths in Pakistan, including from second wave attacks, higher than Pentagon reports.
Watch the video or read a transcript: http://truth-out.org/news/item/11058-civilian-deaths-from-us-drone-attacks-m
Drones: A New Death From Above
truthout.org – September 2, 2012
It’s being sold as a cleaner way to wage war. But unmanned military drones are wreaking havoc in Pakistan, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
In addition to the above radio broadcast, the Truthout site lists more information, videos and interviews related to this controversial topic:
http://truth-out.org/news/item/11288-drones-a-new-death-from-above
America’s Drones Are Homeward Bound
ThruthDig
By Col. Ann Wright
July 17, 2012
Americans have been protesting and getting arrested at U.S. drone bases and research institutions for years, and some members of Congress are starting to respond to the pressure.
But it’s not that drones are being used to extrajudicially execute people, including Americans, in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia that has U.S. lawmakers concerned. Rather it’s the possible and probable violation of Americans’ privacy in the United States by unlawful drone surveillance that has caught the attention of legislators.
Rep. Jeff Landry, R-La., says “there is distrust amongst the people who have come and discussed this issue with me about our government. It’s raising alarm with the American public.” Based on those discussions, Landry has placed a provision in a defense spending bill that would prohibit information gathered by drones without a warrant from being used as evidence in court.
Two other legislators, Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., introduced identical bills to bar any government agency from using a drone without a warrant to “gather evidence or other information pertaining to criminal conduct or conduct in violation of a regulation.”
No one in Congress, however, has introduced legislation requiring the government to provide to a neutral judge evidence of a criminal act committed by a person to be targeted for assassination by a drone, or allowing such a person the right to defend himself against the U.S. government’s allegations. …
Read on: www.truthdig.com/report/item/americas_drones_are_homeward_bound_20120717/
Absent Justice – Predator Drones
Absent Justice by Moazzam Begg: Predator drone warfare – with Clive Stafford Smith – June 1, 2012
In this episode of Absent Justice Moazzam discusses America’s increasing use of drones. Leading human rights lawyer and Director of Reprieve, Clive Stafford Smith, joins him in the studio.
Absent Justice is a fortnightly television series which looks at case studies from around the world relating to human rights and civil liberties violations. Join the presenter as he speaks to some inspiring and courageous individuals as they recount their struggle for justice. Every first and third Friday at 9.30pm, only on the Islam Channel (Sky channel 813).
Obama’s Secret Kill List
“The Most Radical Power a Government Can Seize”
Democracy NOW – Glenn Greenwald – May 30, 2012
The New York Times revealed this week that President Obama personally oversees a “secret kill list” containing the names and photos of individuals targeted for assassination in the U.S. drone war. According to the Times, Obama signs off on every targeted killing in Yemen and Somalia and the more complex or risky strikes in Pakistan. Individuals on the list include U.S. citizens, as well as teenage girls as young as 17 years old. “The president of the United States believes that he has the power to order people killed, assassinated, in total secrecy, without any due process, without transparency or oversight of any kind,” says Glenn Greenwald, a constitutional law attorney and political and legal blogger for Salon.com. …
www.democracynow.org/2012/5/30/glenn_greenwald_obamas_secret_kill_list
See also:
Praying at the Church of St. Drone: The President and His Apostles
Truthout – By Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch – June 5, 2012
Be assured of one thing: whichever candidate you choose at the polls in November, you aren’t just electing a president of the United States; you are also electing an assassin-in-chief. The last two presidents may not have been emperors or kings, but they — and the vast national-security structure that continues to be built-up and institutionalized around the presidential self — are certainly one of the nightmares the founding fathers of this country warned us against. They are one of the reasons those founders put significant war powers in the hands of Congress, which they knew would be a slow, recalcitrant, deliberative body.
Thanks to a long New York Times piece by Jo Becker and Scott Shane, “Secret ‘Kill List’ Proves a Test of Obama’s Principles and Will,” we now know that the president has spent startling amounts of time overseeing the “nomination” of terrorist suspects for assassination via the remotely piloted drone program he inherited from President George W. Bush and which he has expanded exponentially. Moreover, that article was based largely on interviews with “three dozen of his current and former advisers.” In other words, it was essentially an administration-inspired piece — columnist Robert Scheer calls it “planted” — on a “secret” program the president and those closest to him are quite proud of and want to brag about in an election year. …
Read on: http://truth-out.org/news/item/9608-praying-at-the-church-of-st-drone-the-pr
The Rise of the Killer Drones: How America Goes to War in Secret
RollingStone.com – By Michael Hastings – April 16, 2012
An inside look at how killing by remote control has changed the way we fight.
One day in late November, an unmanned aerial vehicle lifted off from Shindand Air Base in western Afghanistan, heading 75 miles toward the border with Iran. The drone’s mission: to spy on Tehran’s nuclear program, as well as any insurgent activities the Iranians might be supporting in Afghanistan. With an estimated price tag of $6 million, the drone was the product of more than 15 years of research and development, starting with a shadowy project called DarkStar overseen by Lockheed Martin. The first test flight for DarkStar took place in 1996, but after a crash and other mishaps, Lockheed announced that the program had been canceled. According to military experts, that was just a convenient excuse for “going dark,” meaning that DarkStar’s further development would take place under a veil of secrecy. …
Not long after takeoff – a maneuver handled by human drone operators in Afghanistan – the RQ-170 switched into a semiautonomous mode, following a preprogrammed route under the guidance of drone pilots sitting at computer screens some 7,500 miles away, at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada. But before the mission could be completed, something went wrong. One of the drone’s three data streams failed, and began sending inaccurate information back to the base. Then the signal vanished, and Creech lost all contact with the drone.
Today, even after a 10-week investigation by U.S. officials, it’s unclear exactly what happened. Had the Iranians, as they would later claim, hacked the drone and taken it down? Did the Chinese help them? …
Ten days after the crash, the missing drone turned up in a large gymnasium in Tehran. The Iranian military displayed the captured aircraft as a trophy; an American flag hung beneath the drone, its stars replaced with skulls. …
Read in full: www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-rise-of-the-killer-drones-how-america-goes-to-war-in-secret-20120416
