Ohio
Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich says President Barack Obama’s administration has
refused to show Congress any documents detailing the legal justification for
drone strikes overseas.
Kucinich is
currently building bipartisan support for a resolution that would force the
Obama administration to demonstrate the legality of the drone
program.
The resolution
is co-sponsored by Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul, New Jersey Democratic Rep.
Rush Holt, Michigan Republican Rep. Justin Amash, Massachusetts Democratic Rep.
James P. McGovern and California Democratic Rep. Barbara
Lee.
“Thus far, the
administration has refused to release the memo or any documents, despite
multiple requests from members of Congress on both sides of the aisle,” Kucinich
said in a statement on Friday. “Intelligence operations that have virtually no
transparency, accountability or oversight raise serious legal questions,
particularly when such programs may constitute possible violations of
international law or the Constitution of the United
States.”
Kucinich told
The Daily Caller on Capitol Hill this week that Obama is bypassing Congress by
authorizing drone strikes overseas.
“Regardless of
your support of our drone program, Congress and the American people deserve to
know which laws the United States is relying on to conduct this program, and how
they are interpreted by the executive branch,” Kucinich
said.
If the
resolution of inquiry passes Congress, it would require Attorney General Eric
Holder to “transmit to the House of Representatives not later than 14 days after
the date of the adoption of this resolution, any documents and legal memoranda
in the Attorney General’s possession relating to the practice of targeted
killing of United States citizens and targets abroad.”
The drone strikes “violate the U.S. Constitution, kill innocent people and stain our nation’s moral consciousness,” Kucinich said. Daily Caller
In 2008, after
Barack Obama won the presidency in the U.S., the drone strikes escalated and
soon began occurring almost weekly, later nearly daily, and so became a
permanent feature of life for those living in the tribal borderlands of northern
Pakistan. The CIA and the
U.S. military use drones to target and kill those Washington describes as
“suspected militants” in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia and
Libya. A report on the
secret drone war in Pakistan says the attacks have killed far more civilians
than acknowledged, traumatized a nation and undermined international law. In
"Living Under Drones," researchers conclude the drone strikes "terrorize
men, women, and children, giving rise to
anxiety and psychological trauma among civilian communities." Democracy
Now "The number of 'high-level' militants
killed as a percentage of total casualties is extremely low -- estimated at just
2% [of deaths]", says the report According to
revised military stats revealed on December 6, the U.S. launched 447 drone
attacks in Afghanistan this year. That makes Afghanistan, not Pakistan or Yemen,
the epicenter of U.S. drone attacks, The Wired reports.
AGB/HJ
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