For the past 12 years, following the attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States has been waging what it initially called a globa l "war on terror." Through various adjustments and "rebrandings," this has included the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq; the construction of a massive apparatus to spy on people all over the world; and, increasingly, global drone warfare: missiles fired from unmanned aircraft, or drones.
Since 2002, there have been hundreds of drone strikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and perhaps other countries. Thousands have been killed.
The U.S. government steadfastly claims these drone strikes are "necessary, legal, and just." This past May, President Obama, who has radically escalated U.S. drone warfare, said the U.S. only targets "terrorists who pose a continuing and imminent threat to the American people." He stated that "before any strike is taken, there must be near-certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured." Because of these criteria, his administration claims that very, very few non-"terrorist" civilians have been killed in drone strikes. The bottom line, according to Obama: "our actions are effective.... Simply put, these strikes have saved lives."
Recently, a series of in-depth investigations by human-rights groups, United Nations agencies, and news organizations have exposed these claims and shone a light on the brutal reality of U.S. drone warfare. For the most part, these exposures are being ignored or downplayed by the mainstream media and the U.S. government. But an analysis of what is revealed in these reports reveals not just that most of these attacks are illegal (which the human-rights reports document); beyond that, they are illegitimate and immoral.
Laborers were gathered in a tent on the edge of the village of Zowi Sidgi, home to hundreds in northwest Pakistan, after working a long, hot summer day. Most there worked in the local chromite (iron ore) mine. Others made their living from farming, cutting and selling wood, or driving. "It was our gathering place; usually at the end of the day after work the villagers sit together and talk to each other about our daily business," said Ahsan, a chromite miner.
Four drones were visible overhead. The sound of Hellfire missiles piercing the air at 950 miles an hour came without warning. At least one scored a direct hit on the tent. At least eight were killed instantly. The tent burned. "When we went to where the missiles hit to help people," Ahsan told Amnesty International, "we saw a very horrible scene. Body parts were scattered everywhere. [I saw] bodies without heads and bodies without hands or legs. Everyone in the hut was cut to pieces."
Family and friends ran to help and retrieve the bodies, carrying water, blankets, and stretchers. But moments after the first volley, another was launched, instantly massacring at least six first responders. "Some people lost their hands," one villager said of the follow-on strike. "Others had their heads cut off. Some lost their legs. Human body parts were scattered everywhere on the ground. The bodies were burnt and it was not possible to recognize them."
Eighteen were killed that night, and at least 22 more would wounded, including an eight-year-old girl.
Mid-Afternoon, October 24, 2012, Ghundi Kala village, northwest PakistanA little before 3:00 in the afternoon, Mamana Bibi, a 68-year-old grandmother, was picking okra for the evening meal in her family's field in Ghundi Kala, a small agricultural village in northwest Pakistan. Eid al-Adha, the year's holiest day for Muslims, was the next day. Her eight-year-old granddaughter Nabila and 12-year-old grandson Zubair were helping her nearby.
"They noticed drones overhead. They were sort of used to that, because drones are ubiquitous in the skies over there," an Amnesty International researcher told Democracy Now! Suddenly, there was a whistling sound, a loud explosion. Mamana was hit directly by a U.S. Hellfire missile, fired from a drone. She was blown to bits, pieces of her body scattered across the field. Two of her grandchildren witnessed the attack: "There was a very bad smell," said Zubair, "and the area was full of smoke and dust. I couldn't breathe properly for several minutes." Nabila went to look for her grandmother: "I saw her shoes. We found her mutilated body a short time afterwards. It had been thrown quite a long distance away by the blast and it was in pieces. We collected as many different parts from the field and wrapped them in a cloth."
Two other grandchildren, Kaleemul and Samadur Rehman, were in the family home drinking tea when they heard the explosion. "I ran outside and saw the rocket had left a big crater in the field and dead animals, and the area was full of smoke and dust. I could not see my grandmother anywhere," said Kaleemul. He and Samadur were afraid of more strikes so they tried to flee. They were too late. A few moments after their grandmother had been blown to pieces, the U.S. launched another strike about nine feet from where Mamana had been working. Shrapnel hit Kaleemul. "This time I felt something hit my leg and the wave of the blast knocked me unconscious. Later I regained consciousness and noticed that my leg was wounded and my cousin was carrying me on his back to the main road, about 1.5 miles away."
No one from the United States government ever contacted Mamana's family to acknowledge their grandmother was killed by a U.S. drone, much less apologize or compensate the family.
Lies, Laws, and LegitimacyThese two accounts come from a new report by the human-rights organization Amnesty International, "'Will I Be Next?' US Drone Strikes in Pakistan." This extensively documented study, released on October 22, is based on on-the-scene investigations, including testimony from survivors of drone attacks and analysis of the 45 known drone strikes in North Waziristan, Pakistan, that occurred from January 2012 to August 2013. On Tuesday, October 29, the late Mamana Bibi's son, Rafiq ur Rehman, and his two children, Nabila and Zubair, also gave their testimony to a Congressional committee. It was the first time victims of drone strikes had testified before Congress. Only five of 435 members of the House of Representatives bothered to attend.
On October 22, Human Rights Watch (HRW) released its own report on drone strikes in Yemen: "'Between a Drone and Al-Qaeda': The Civilian Cost of US Targeted Killings in Yemen." The same day, the New York Times carried a lengthy front-page story and an editorial on Amnesty's and HRW's findings, and its own investigation of the impact of the drone war on Miranshah, a small town in North Waziristan. United Nations Special Rapporteurs on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, and on Human Rights and Counterterrorism also issued reports documenting and criticizing U.S. attacks, reports which were debated at the UN.
All of this is coming in the context of an international uproar over America's NSA global spy net and the revelations of whistleblower Edward Snowden. The Washington Post reports that Snowden's documents reveal the NSA's "extensive involvement in the targeted killing [drone] program," that many drone attacks have been based on information culled from NSA phone and Internet surveillance.
While these reports do not analyze or question the fundamental nature of the U.S. "war on terror," they do expose the illegality, under current international law, of many of these strikes, the lie that very few innocent people have been killed by U.S. drones, and the enormous toll these attacks have taken on thousands upon thousands of oppressed people.
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