Drones: When will the presidents of U.S. and Yemen catch up?

[unhappycamper]

http://yementimes.com/en/1727/opinion/3106/When-will-the-presidents-of-US-and-Yemen-catch-up.htm

When will the presidents of U.S. and Yemen catch up?
Published on 7 November 2013 in Opinion
Cori Crider

It's been a bad month for those who tend to defend drones. A major series of reports-two by the U.N., and two by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch-all cast serious doubts on the legality, morality, and efficacy of the drone wars. One of these-a landmark survey of civilian deaths from U.S. airstrikes by Letta Tayler of Human Rights watch–features Yemen, and recounts several tragedies of the secret war here. (Reprieve clients, including Faisal bin Ali Jaber of Yemen, are in all these reports. A strike last August killed Faisal’s brother-in-law, an imam who had denounced Al-Qaeda and his nephew).

Like Guantánamo before it, the undeclared and unlawful drone war in Yemen poisons relations between my people and the Yemeni people. The opinions of the Yemeni and American people are also commonly misunderstood in both countries. In America, “armchair experts” often claim that “the people of Yemen' support the drones.” They show no signs of knowing that this summer. Yemen's representative National Dialogue body banned them by a 90 percent majority.

The situation in America is complex as well. With strikes raining death on their villages, Yemenis may well think Americans must support the strikes. (After all, America is supposed to be a democracy, and President Obama continues to authorize these killings). But as I said to Yemeni survivors of strikes at our Town Hall meeting this past April-it isn't true that Americans all support the drones. The truth is that most Americans don’trealize their consequences.

This year, that has started to change. Now a tide against extralegal killings is swelling in the U.S. Child victims of drone strikes from Pakistan have travelled with Reprieve staff to educate congressmen in America about the dark side of drones. Faisal Bin Ali Jaber has been invited to address the U.S. media about the wrongful attacks on his family. This all comes too late for some victims, of course, but it is not too late for Yemeni families who still live in the shadow of the drones.