Twenty-six
members of Congress have called on President Barack Obama to provide a legal
justification for so-called “signature” drone strikes that the CIA and special
operations forces have been launching in Pakistan and
Yemen.
Signature
strikes are drone bombings that target individuals that the administration
cannot identify.
Decisions to
kill a person or group of people in these countries can be based on “suspicious
behavior,” a loosely-defined judgment that would give the administration carte
blanche to kill whoever it pleases.
The request to
provide legal justification is warranted, but is unlikely to be heeded by the
administration. The technically covert nature of the drone program - even though
everyone knows about it - has so far allowed them to dismiss court challenges
for the legality of these strikes. antiwar.com
“We are
concerned that the use of such ‘signature’ strikes could raise the risk of
killing innocent civilians or individuals who may have no relationship to
attacks on the United States,” the members of Congress, lead by Rep. Dennis
Kucinich (D-OH), wrote Wednesday in a letter to Obama. Raw Story
“Our drone
campaigns already have virtually no transparency, accountability or oversight.
We are further concerned about the legal grounds for such strikes under the 2001
Authorization for the Use of Military Force.” Raw Story The report
added: “The joke was that when the C.I.A. sees ‘three guys doing jumping jacks,’
the agency thinks it is a terrorist training camp, said one senior official. Men
loading a truck with fertilizer could be bomb-makers - but they might also be
farmers, skeptics argued.” Antiwar Robert Grenier,
a previous CIA station chief in Pakistan, said recently the drone program is too
sweeping and may be creating terrorist safe havens. “We have gone a long way
down the road of creating a situation where we are creating more enemies than we
are removing from the battlefield. We are already there with regards to Pakistan
and Afghanistan.” Antiwar
AT/ARA
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