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Journalists Exposing Civilian Victims of US Drone Attacks Need Help to Expand Project
Media project hopes to use crowd-funding appeal to help raise money for the next stage of vital project
If the world is to accurately understand the destruction being caused by US drone attacks in Pakistan (and elsewhere), someone must identify and 'name the dead,' says the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ).
On Monday the independent media outlet released a new video designed to highlight their ongoing 'Naming the Dead' project and help raise funds so that their award-winning investigative work can continue.
As many notein addition to the ultimate questions of legality and moralityit is the deeply secretive nature of the US drone and targeted killing campaigns that keeps the world in the dark about how the global superpower justifies and operates such clandestine and lethal actions.
http://vimeo.com/61340141
<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/61340141" width="400" height="300" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe>
If the world is to accurately understand the destruction being caused by US drone attacks in Pakistan (and elsewhere), someone must identify and 'name the dead,' says the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ).
On Monday the independent media outlet released a new video designed to highlight their ongoing 'Naming the Dead' project and help raise funds so that their award-winning investigative work can continue.
As many notein addition to the ultimate questions of legality and moralityit is the deeply secretive nature of the US drone and targeted killing campaigns that keeps the world in the dark about how the global superpower justifies and operates such clandestine and lethal actions.
"All we have is the US government saying trust us, these are bad guys we are killing, trust us," says Jennifer Gibson in the video. A staff attorney with human rights group Reprieve, she continues, "We cant start to get to the bottom of who is being killed until we know the names of those who are being killed.
As fights in the US courts and Congress attempt to pry open the internal secrets of the Obama administration's program, it has remained up to independent media outlets and human rights groups to fill in the knowledge gaps by investigating the human and social impact the drone strikes have had on the populations forced to live with the buzz of drones overhead and the fear of missile attacks that could come at any moment.
In Pakistan, where the brunt of US drone bombings have taken place in recent years, it is the UK-based TBIJ that has perhaps pushed hardest to collect on the ground reports about the victims and the widespread and negative impact the missile attacks have had on the broader communities in the remote sections of Pakistan where they most frequently occur.
Earlier this year, following the launch of the new investigation series, TBIJ received support from the Freedom of the Press Foundation for their work.
"In order to do this work, we are raising funds so we can send journalists into northern Pakistan to talk to families, talk to government agencies, hospitals, even militant groups," says TBIJ deputy editor Rachel Oldroyd.
As part of their appeal, the group said:
So far, our monitoring of CIA drone strikes has recorded at least 2,537 people reported to have been killed by strikes in Pakistan. But fewer than 20% of those killed have been named. Our new Naming the Dead project aims to identify as many as possible of the remainder, whether civilian or militant.
To start with, we will publish all the names and information we have collected so far. But we want to build on this, by identifying as many of the other victims as possible. Naming the Dead will expand the transparency that the Bureau has already brought to this conflict, a factor campaign groups argue is extremely important.
As part of the campaign to raise fundsof which the new video release is a partthe group plans to use crowd-sourcing methods to maintain and expand their 'Naming the Dead' project. They also hope that people will support their work by visiting their Facebook page, sharing the new interactive graphic based on their work, and contributing financially.
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http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/03/26-4
KoKo
(84,711 posts)OnyxCollie
(9,958 posts)msongs
(67,360 posts)KoKo
(84,711 posts)the unintended consequences of fighting wars with drones rather than have more body bags come home to America will cause what you say.
After all the billions spent on Iraq (and much of it unaccounted for) they do the drones...on the cheap and we don't see much of the dead "over there.".
Dragonfli
(10,622 posts)to "just trust me, I only kill evil men, I need not explain to you or anyone why they must die, I have this Godlike right and certitude of my judgement that they are guilty of evil and must die!"
More than a little bit arrogant, what the world must think of us that allow this to happen in our name.
eomer
(3,845 posts)Looking at the big picture it is clear that the goals of those in power are to create the conditions for war rather than peace. Their actions are meant to be provocations.
truedelphi
(32,324 posts)Skies. Some say this will end any hope we have of retaining our privacy. While others point out how very unstable these craft can be. It's one thing to fly a drone in Pakistan, where most people don't have cars, and therefore don't have a garage.
How will the various electronic signals that we use 24/7 impact these drones? Will opening a garage door flip one of these aircraft into crashing?
And since drones were initially employed in Pakistan for the safety of our troops, now we might end up hearing similar arguments about the need to have drones replace our police. Will we someday soon see our politicians decide they want the police to simply hit a signal to incinerate a known drug dealer, rather than going there with the SWAT team and taking the guy out?
Our police are increasingly worried about their safety. Example: recently I called the local cops as my friend's son was being physically abusive. The cop was far more concerned about the possible dangers to him posed by my friend's 15 year old sleeping (and dying) doggie than by what her violent son was doing. So in the future: Given that so many people are victims of SWAT teams, when the teams show up at the WRONG DAMN ADDRESS! it seems like there will be hell to pay for the "civilian and police force uses" of the New Drone Order.
Dragonfli
(10,622 posts)"what would be gained by such a deliberate strategy?" I will be stuck trying to answer that question for a long time I think, I wish I had the innocence I had just before reading your post.
There may be tactical advantages of such a ploy to those that grow rich off terror, imagined, generated, or naturally occurring.
There would be a boost in generated terror, second hand, but generated nonetheless, lord knows they have been using imagined terror for much of history. Generated terror has happened, a good example would be the reichstag fire in Germany that gave Hitler the boost he needed, but that used straw men enemies that he simply wanted to justify action against (successfully unfortunately), this creating new, very real enemies, would be a new game to my knowledge.
A risky, scary game if true.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)WillyT
(72,631 posts)Dragonfli
(10,622 posts)The not so sane sociopaths among us may have no such empathy driven moral opposition, but even those with no human decency, no empathy, no moral core should be able to see that killing people, blowing up their homes, their children, a few ambulances perhaps in a "double tap" will enrage people, will radicalize them, will compromise their own moral centers (such things happen when people watch their children or neighbors murdered). It will create more enemies that are driven by hate against those that nurtured such hated with such carnage, one need only apply common sense to see how this will create exponentially more enemies than may be neutralized by such terrorist tactics. Make no mistake, USA or not, these are terrorist tactics being employed in our names.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)because it does:
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)KoKo
(84,711 posts)Plus there are "other drones" from other countries...and it's a free-for-all as to which country get's it's DRONES GOING...that could have some strange SHIT going forward.
No longer need Soldiers on the Ground...just have DRONE WARS...
It's aways away...but not so far that it wouldn't take more than a year for "Star Wars Drones" and the Collateral Damage from it that will NOT BE LISTED...anywhere....anywhere..
We have to think about a World that will be for us to all live in....
Tech Tracking, Drone Targeting.......and WHO will CATALOGUE the DEATHS?
It's a New Form of War...and the LAWS that Govern HUMAN RIGHTS are not being kept up with because the TECHNOLOGY is Moving SO FAST AND FURIOUS!
WHERE ARE OUR SOVEREIGN CITIZEN PROTECTIONS?
bvar22
(39,909 posts)The names and photos should be posted to the Internet,
published in every newspaper monthly,
and hard copies sent directly to the White House daily,
C/O: The Assassination Decider
DURec,
and looking for a few extra dollars to donate to this cause.
You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their rhetoric, promises, or excuses.
[font size=5 color=green]Solidarity99![/font][font size=2 color=green]
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indepat
(20,899 posts)terraist wherever in the world that terraist might happen to be at the moment and further realize the US will take all due care to hold collateral damage down to an acceptable level for we are the good guys who wear the white hats and its a mean, hard, cruel world out there.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)Last edited Tue Mar 26, 2013, 08:50 PM - Edit history (1)
But...It is FALSE...and some Digging all over would reveal that.
indepat
(20,899 posts)their faces as to imply the sarcasm thingy. In reality, luckily or sadly the US, a superpower (the winner), can do to others in the post-WWII era what others (losers) would have been hanged for in WWII. This, imo, continues to define us as a nation and a people, and it's not very pretty imo. One recent poll indicated 64% of Americans are thirsting for war with Iran although a war of aggression is the ultimate war crime under international conventions. In post WWII, we have done what was necessary to stem the spread of godless communism, toppled any number of governments that leaned to the left or not far enough to the right, detonated 100s (?) of nuclear devices impervious to their impact on mother earth, and more recently have gone to a permanent worldwide war on the ubiquitous terra featuring junior's war of aggression imo in Iraq.
got the context of what you were saying and replied in kind..
It's so frustrating isn't it. The hypocrisy that's going on. I guess the PTB figure those who remember the atrocities that were prosecuted after WWII will be dead soon. And, those who remembered the atrocity/futility and waste of WWI are already dead ... Once the memory is gone a new generation has to learn all over gain.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)Bonobo
(29,257 posts)Millions of homeless without shelter, millions without basic health care, millions without jobs...
And you DARE spend out tax money on this!? Further reducing the reputation of America, increasing the number of enemies?
And good Progressives look away because it is a Democrat doing it.
Tierra_y_Libertad
(50,414 posts)After all, those intrepid pushers of buttons are fighting for "justice and freedom"...aren't they?