Drone Wars, Without Any Rules

[Echo In Light]

by Dan Froomkin

The CIA's extensive use of unmanned drones to kill alleged terrorists in Pakistan and elsewhere is arguably against international law and raises the possibility that top U.S. officials will someday be tried at the Hague for war crimes, a law professor told a congressional oversight panel on Tuesday.

Despite the rapidly increasing use of drones in warfare and anti-terrorism -- and the legal and ethical issues their use raises -- the U.S. government has never publicly advanced a legal justification for sending its drones on targeted killing runs overseas; up until Tuesday, Congress hadn't even held a single hearing into the question.

Kenneth Anderson, an American University law professor, told the panel he believes there is legal justification for the U.S.'s use of drones, not just by the military but by the CIA, under the doctrine of self-defense.

But, he said, government lawyers "have not settled on what the rationales are, and I believe that at some point that ill serves an administration which is embracing this. Now, maybe the answer is: This is really terrible and illegal and anybody that does it should go off to the Hague. But if that's the case, then we should not be having the president saying that this is the greatest thing since whatever. That seems like a bad idea."

As HuffPost reported last week, the ACLU has filed a freedom of information lawsuit demanding that the government disclose the legal basis for its use of unmanned drones to conduct targeted killings overseas, as well as the ground rules regarding when, where and against whom drone strikes can be authorized, and the number of civilian casualties they have caused. The initial response from the government was that some public legal justification was, indeed, forthcoming.

http://www.aclu.org/national-security/aclu-seeks-information-predator-drone-program

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/03/24-5

[zipplewrath]

1. I'm a bit confused

Is someone claiming that these are autonomous vehicles? They are "unmanned" but they are "human operated". The human just isn't in the vehicle. We have bombs we drop from plans right now that are "self guided". Those are vastly more autonomous than the drones.

[elias49]

2. I think the whole drone-war thing is a travesty

Some guy sitting in an air-conditioned 'war room'(?) in Florida can direct a drone and fire missiles at who-knows-who? on the other side of the planet!
Guess what? War is not a video game. Those people tasked (or who volunteer?) for this kind of murder should be required to inspect the bloody remains of their handiwork via satellite.
Friggin sick

[Echo In Light]

3. True. Given the health ins bill, however, there isn't much interest in this just now

[Mari333]

4. people are blind because they dont want to think of the US as the bad guys

but yeah

we ARE the bad guys.

murderous assholes, we are.

[Echo In Light]

5. Bump

[Echo In Light]

6. .