Today, The Intercept published a series of articles allegedly based on leaked documents that expose the inner workings of the lethal drone program. While we are not in a position to independently verify them, they underscore the Obama administration’s long-standing failure to bring transparency to the drones program.
1. There's new evidence that aspects of drone program may be unlawful. International law requires that lethal force be used outside of specific recognized zones of armed conflict only when it is strictly unavoidable to prevent an imminent threat to life. The leaks show that after strikes are approved, there is a 60-day window for them to be carried out. It is difficult to imagine a truly imminent threat that lasts for two months.
2. There's now even more cause for concern about identity of those killed in strikes. If confirmed, the Intercept’s revelations paint an alarming picture. According to the documents, during one five-month stretch, 90 percent of those whom the U.S. government killed by drone strike were unintended targets.
The documents also show that those killed by strikes are considered an “enemy killed in action” even if they were not the intended target, unless evidence emerges after their death to prove otherwise. This is completely inconsistent with the administration’s policy guidelines, announced in May 2013, stating that drone strikes will only occur with “near certainty” that there will be no civilian casualties.
3. This sort of info is the type of transparency Obama says he supports. The Obama administration must own what that the article reveals: a lethal drone program responsible for apparently unintended killings, and which appears to operate outside the established international legal norms.
Today’s articles show that the “global war on terror” did not end with the George W. Bush administration. Instead, under the auspices of the wide-ranging 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force, the Obama administration continues in many ways to to operate as if the entire world is a battlefield. An endless war paradigm persists, and drones are its new soldiers.
The full article is available here
