Drone War Crimes: "Will I Be Next?"

[georgephillip]

That's the question from eight year-old Nabeela that inspired the title of Amnesty International's recent report on the possibility of US officials responsible for carrying out drone strikes facing prosecution for war crimes.

"The report is based on the investigation of the nine out of 45 drone strikes reported between January 2012 and August 2013 in North Waziristan, the area where the US drone campaign is most intensive.

"The research is centered on one particular case – that of 68-year-old Mamana Bibi, who was killed by a US drone last October while she was picking vegetables with her grandchildren.

"The report is entitled ‘Will I be next?’ citing the woman’s eight-year-old granddaughter Nabeela, who was near when the attack occurred, but miraculously survived.

"'First it whistled then I heard a "dhummm". The first hit us and the second my cousin,' Nabeela recalls.

"The report also recounts an incident from July 2012, when 18 laborers, including a 14-year-old, were killed in the village of Zowi Sidgi. The men gathered after work in a tent to have a rest when the first missile hit. The second struck those who tried to help the injured."

http://rt.com/news/us-drones-war-crimes-535/

Human Rights Watch and the UN have issued separate reports on the same subject calling for greater transparency and reparations for innocent victims in the Long War.

 

[JakeStarkey]

No basis for war crime charges are possible.

Drone technology is morally and legally acceptable.

 

[Chuckt]

No basis for war crime charges are possible.

Drone technology is morally and legally acceptable.

But cluster bombs are not?

 

[Chuckt]

No basis for war crime charges are possible.

Drone technology is morally and legally acceptable.

They miss and innocent people get hurt and or killed. Because they don't want the program to close, there is no reporting or under reporting.

 

[georgephillip]

No basis for war crime charges are possible.

Drone technology is morally and legally acceptable.

"'Amnesty International is seriously concerned that these and other strikes have resulted in unlawful killings that may constitute extrajudicial executions or war crimes,' the report reads.

"Amnesty’s main point is the need for transparency and accountability, something the US has so far been reluctant to offer.

“'The US must explain why these people have been killed - people who are clearly civilians...'"

Would you care to offer an justification for killing civilians in a country we have not declared war upon? Would you consider identical actions by Pakistani drones that killed grandmothers on your block "war crimes?"

US may be guilty of war crimes over drone use ? Amnesty Intl ? RT News

 

[georgephillip]

No basis for war crime charges are possible.

Drone technology is morally and legally acceptable.

They miss and innocent people get hurt and or killed. Because they don't want the program to close, there is no reporting or under reporting.

There seems to be a reluctance on the part of the US and its allies to release the data in any meaningful way or significant amount. The UN is concerned about what it views as a deliberate strategy of deceit on the part of the Pentagon and the CIA:

"A UN report accuses the United States of downplaying the number of civilians killed in anti-terrorist drone operations, while failing to assist in the investigation by releasing its own figures..."

"In Afghanistan, for example, the number of aerial drone strikes surged from 294 in 2011 to 447 during the first 11 months of 2012, according to data released by the US Air Force in November 2012, UN Special Rapporteur Ben Emmerson noted in his interim report.

"Pakistan officials confirmed that out of 2,200 deaths 'at least 400 civilians had been killed as a result of remotely piloted aircraft strikes and a further 200 individuals were regarded as probable non-combatants.'”

If you click on my link you'll find another story alleging the next phase of drone warfare will involve land-based platforms (treads on the ground?), which would seem to foreshadow more innocent death$ for Wall $treet Profit$.

?Drone strikes killed more civilians than publicly acknowledged? ? UN investigator ? RT News

 

[Kondor3]

It's fun bein' the biggest kid on the block with the coolest toys, ain't it?

 

[georgephillip]

It's fun bein' the biggest kid on the block with the coolest toys, ain't it?

Depends on the amount of humor you find in killing women and kids for money.

 

[Kondor3]

It's fun bein' the biggest kid on the block with the coolest toys, ain't it?

Depends on the amount of humor you find in killing women and kids for money.

Or the amount of enjoyment one takes in flipping-off anti-American bleeding hearts...

 

[georgephillip]

It's fun bein' the biggest kid on the block with the coolest toys, ain't it?

Depends on the amount of humor you find in killing women and kids for money.

Or the amount of enjoyment one takes in flipping-off anti-American bleeding hearts...

What's "American" about flippant bigots wetting themselves over mass murder?

 

[Kondor3]

Depends on the amount of humor you find in killing women and kids for money.

Or the amount of enjoyment one takes in flipping-off anti-American bleeding hearts...

What's "American" about flippant bigots wetting themselves over mass murder?

Time for your meds, Georgie... now... drift-off to Jihadi Dreamland again... there's a good little Fifth Columnist...

 

[georgephillip]

Or the amount of enjoyment one takes in flipping-off anti-American bleeding hearts...

What's "American" about flippant bigots wetting themselves over mass murder?

Time for your meds, Georgie... now... drift-off to Jihadi Dreamland again... there's a good little Fifth Columnist...

"'The US must explain why these people have been killed - people who are clearly civilians. It must provide justice to these people, compensation and it must investigate those responsible for those killings,' Mustafa Qadri, the Amnesty researcher who wrote the report, says."

What do your dreams tell you about watching your grandmother blown to pieces by heroic Hellfire before your ninth birthday, Bigot?

US may be guilty of war crimes over drone use ? Amnesty Intl ? RT News

 

[hjmick]

After his recent lambasting of Obama's ACA, I'm pretty sure Jon Stewart is asking the very same question...

 

[R.C. Christian]

No basis for war crime charges are possible.

Drone technology is morally and legally acceptable.

Go to hell you statist pile of shit. Don't preach to us about morals coward.

 

[Luddly Neddite]

Drones are horrible. Truly horrendous.

And, I will happily take them over the massive slaughter we saw in Iraq.

A few dead innocents or hundreds of thousands of innocents?

And, I don't mind that other countries are watching the skies.

 

[R.C. Christian]

Mrs I completely missed the point alert ^^.

 

[georgephillip]

Drones are horrible. Truly horrendous.

And, I will happily take them over the massive slaughter we saw in Iraq.

A few dead innocents or hundreds of thousands of innocents?

And, I don't mind that other countries are watching the skies.

Wouldn't it make even more sense to repudiate the drones and illegal invasions/occupations we've seen since 1945?? Why should eight year-olds living in countries which pose no threat to your skies need to watch theirs?

 

[Luddly Neddite]

Drones are horrible. Truly horrendous.

And, I will happily take them over the massive slaughter we saw in Iraq.

A few dead innocents or hundreds of thousands of innocents?

And, I don't mind that other countries are watching the skies.

Wouldn't it make even more sense to repudiate the drones and illegal invasions/occupations we've seen since 1945?? Why should eight year-olds living in countries which pose no threat to your skies need to watch theirs?

Why don't we just end all wars?

I agree with you but there will always be conflict. Isn't it better to mitigate the damage all we can? And, as I hinted at, drones are scaring the crap out of our enemies.

President Obama is no where near as lib-rule as some would like but he has turned out to be a bit of a hawk. Him taking out terrorists with drones has got to be terrifying to other terrorists.

 

[Kondor3]

"...'The US must explain why these people have been killed - people who are clearly civilians. It must provide justice to these people, compensation and it must investigate those responsible for those killings,' Mustafa Qadri, the Amnesty researcher who wrote the report, says.'..."

The US must do no such thing.

And Mustafa Qadra can suck donkey <bleep>.

Who gives a damn what he says?

Or Muslim-Arab apologists and fifth-columnists, for that matter...

 

[ScienceRocks]

Millions have died through bombing raids at 10,000 feet from airplanes. At least with a drone they get close enough to kill who they're getting at.

Bush killed probably over a million innocent people with airplanes. So are you going to be against the airplane???? Do you want to do away with the airplane?