Hale’s revelations did not pose a threat to national security, even by traditional interpretations.
I could only look on as I sat by and watched through a computer monitor when a sudden, terrifying flurry of hellfire missiles came crashing down, splattering purple-colored crystal guts on the side of the morning mountain.” Hale told the sentencing judge about this incident in his pre-sentencing letter, writing, “Despite having peacefully assembled, posing no threat, the fate of the now tea drinking men had all but been fulfilled. “What was different,” Hale asked, “between that and the little red joystick that pushes a button thousands of miles away?” He said he realized that he “was no longer part of something moral or sane or rational.” He had heard someone say that “terrorists are cowards” because they used improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Hale relayed information that resulted in a drone strike, killing all five men. He described how he located a man riding a motorcycle in the mountains who then met up with four other people and they sat around a campfire, drinking tea. Hale also spoke on a panel at that conference. In November 2013, I participated in a panel on the illegality of drones and targeted killing at a drone summit in Washington, D.C. “You had to kill part of your conscience to keep doing your job,” Hale added. District Judge Liam O’Grady, “I believe that it is wrong to kill, but it is especially wrong to kill the defenseless.” Hale said he revealed what “was necessary to dispel the lie that drone warfare keeps us safe, that our lives are worth more than theirs.” But drone operators who make or carry out remote targeting decisions nevertheless suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).Īt his sentencing hearing, Hale told U.S. military members from harm in order to minimize Americans’ opposition to war. military and CIA drone operations have killed 9,000 to 17,000 people since 2004, including 2,200 children and many U.S. Indeed, Hale wrote in his 11-page pre-sentencing letter, “the war had very little to do with preventing terror from coming into the United States and a lot more to do with protecting the profits of weapons manufacturers and so-called defense contractors.” It is estimated that U.S.
Drones terrorize communities, breeding resentment against Americans and making the United States more vulnerable to violence. The Drone Papers reveal that reliance on drones actually undermines U.S. Hale said, “It’s stunning the number of instances when selectors are misattributed to certain people.” Calling a missile fired at a target in a group of people a “leap of faith,” he noted, “it’s a phenomenal gamble.” Hale added, “Anyone caught in the vicinity is guilty by association.” But civilian bystanders were nonetheless classified as “enemies killed in action” unless proven otherwise. The Drone Papers divulged that half of the intelligence used to identify potential targets in Yemen and Somalia was based on signals intelligence.ĭuring one five-month period during January 2012 to February 2013, nearly 90 percent of those killed by drone strikes were not the intended target, according to The Drone Papers. Countless civilians were killed using “signals intelligence” in undeclared war zones: Targeting decisions were made by following cell phones that might not be carried by suspected terrorists. And Democrats who might take issue with unaccountable wars and civilian deaths know to do so they’d have to acknowledge Obama’s role in the mess, and so …Trump’s tax returns it is.The leaked documents disclosed the “kill chain” the Obama administration used to determine whom to target. Republicans, of course, no longer criticize these sorts of things - even if they subscribe to Trump’s Obama-rebuking, “America First” isolationism. You can also blame cowardly, partisan politics for hearing little from lawmakers about these escalations. drone wars when Obama first took office, but less than when he left. Trump has peeled back all of those requirements because, well, he can. Obama eventually put in place arcane requirements to issue public reports on civilian death tolls (but just in certain military theaters), to limit targets to high-level militants (again, in certain battlefields), and require interagency approval (also only for certain targets). citizens, first by hiding it, then by begrudgingly acknowledging it, and then by pretending to meaningfully constrain it. For one, the Obama administration paved the way for popularizing and normalizing drone wars, which also included the extrajudicial killing of U.S.
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