The Drone Papers

[Robongo]

https://theintercept.com/drone-papers

The Intercept has obtained a cache of secret documents detailing the inner workings of the U.S. military’s assassination program in Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somalia. The documents, provided by a whistleblower, offer an unprecedented glimpse into Obama’s drone wars.

Haven't had time to sift through it all but it's incredibly well put together from what I can see and should make for a good read for anyone with the time.

Some excerpts:

The articles in The Drone Papers were produced by a team of reporters and researchers from The Intercept that has spent months analyzing the documents. The series is intended to serve as a long-overdue public examination of the methods and outcomes of America’s assassination program. This campaign, carried out by two presidents through four presidential terms, has been shrouded in excessive secrecy. The public has a right to see these documents not only to engage in an informed debate about the future of U.S. wars, both overt and covert, but also to understand the circumstances under which the U.S. government arrogates to itself the right to sentence individuals to death without the established checks and balances of arrest, trial and appeal

Hellfire missiles—the explosives fired from drones—are not always fired at people. In fact, most drone strikes are aimed at phones. The SIM card provides a person’s location—when turned on, a phone can become a deadly proxy for the individual being hunted.

When a night raid or drone strike successfully neutralizes a target’s phone, operators call that a “touchdown.”

https://www.aclu.org/news/aclu-comment-leaked-targeted-killing-documents

NEW YORK — The Intercept released documents today showing that the government’s targeted killing operations are rife with intelligence shortcomings and frequent civilian casualties. The papers also reveal that the reality of the operations is far from the public picture presented by the government.

These eye-opening disclosures make a mockery of U.S. government claims that its lethal force operations are based on reliable intelligence and limited to lawful targets. In fact, the government often claims successes that are really tragic losses. The Obama administration’s lethal program desperately needs transparency and accountability because it is undermining the right to life and national security.”

[etsen3]

This is no secret, but it's good that someone has taken the time compile a comprehensive study on the subject.

[AlphaHoneyBadger]

That is what my phantom 3 can do?

[Offensive Threat]

drones sometimes kill innocent people? Sometimes they kill the wrong person? This is news?

Details of what is already generally accepted. I have never been a fan of this type of use of drones as weapons platforms. It should never be that easy to kill someone, especially when you dont have to deal with the collateral damage. Being in a foreign land does not stop it from being murder. Whatever, we all have blinders on to shut out the things we cant change in the world.

[Armada]

That is what my phantom 3 can do?

Phantom 3 is a quadcopter not a drone.

[Offensive Threat]

Phantom 3 is a quadcopter not a drone.

Any unmanned controlled aerial vehicle is a drone. From a Predator to a Phantom 3.

[Robongo]

http://www.activistpost.com/2015/11/drone-pilots-have-bank-accounts-and-credit-cards-frozen-by-feds-for-exposing-us-murder.html

Quote

 

 

Drone Pilots have Bank Accounts and Credit Cards Frozen by Feds for Exposing US Murder

The U.S. Government failed to deter them through threats of criminal prosecution, and clumsy attempts to intimidate their families. Now four former Air Force drone operators-turned-whistleblowers have had their credit cards and bank accounts frozen, according to human rights attorney Jesselyn Radack.

“My drone operators went public this week and now their credit cards and bank accounts are frozen,” Radack lamented on her Twitter feed (the spelling of her post has been conventionalized). This was done despite the fact that none of them has been charged with a criminal offense – but this is a trivial formality in the increasingly Sovietesque American National Security State.

 

Quote

“We are former Air Force service members,” the letter begins. “We joined the Air Force to protect American lives and to protect our Constitution. We came to the realization that the innocent civilians we were killing only fueled the feelings of hatred that ignited terrorism and groups like ISIS, while also serving as a fundamental recruiting tool similar to Guantanamo Bay. This administration and its predecessors have built a drone program that is one of the most devastating driving forces for terrorism and destabilization around the world.”

Elsewhere the former drone operators have described how their colleagues dismissed children as “fun-sized terrorists” and compared killing them to “cutting the grass before it grows too long.” Children who live in countries targeted by the drone program are in a state of constant terror, according to Westmoreland: “There are 15-year-olds growing up who have not lived a day without drones overhead, but you also have expats who are watching what’s going on in their home countries and seeing regularly the violations that are happening there, and that is something that could radicalize them.”

By reliable estimates, ninety percent of those killed in drone strikes are entirely harmless people, making the program a singularly effective method of producing anti-American terrorism. “We kill four and create ten,” Bryant said during a November 19 press conference, referring to potential terrorists. “If you kill someone’s father, uncle or brother who had nothing to do with anything, their families are going to want revenge.”