By Marjorie Cohn
Last weekend, I participated in a panel on the illegality of drones
and targeted killing off the battlefield at the conference, “Drones
Around the Globe: Proliferation and Resistance,” in Washington DC.
Nearly 400 people from many countries came together to gather
information, protest, and develop strategies to end targeted killing
by combat drones. I found the most compelling presentations to be
first-hand accounts by those victimized by U.S. drone attacks, and a
former military intelligence analyst who helped choose targets for
drone strikes.
Members of a delegation from Yemen provided examples of the
devastation drones have wrought in their communities. Faisal bin Ali
Jaber is an engineer. For some time, one of his relatives had been
giving public lectures criticizing drone attacks. In August 2012,
family and friends were celebrating the marriage of Jaber’s son. After
the wedding, a drone struck Jaber’s relative, killing him instantly.
Jaber lost a brother-in-law who was a known opponent of Al Qaeda, and
a 21-year-old nephew in the attack.
Baraa Shaiban, a human rights activist who works with REPRIEVE,
revealed that 2012 was a year that saw “drones like never before” in
Yemen. He described the death of a mother and daughter from a drone
strike. “The daughter was holding the mother so tight, they could not
be separated. They had to be buried together.”
Two members of Al Qaeda were in Entesar al Qadhi’s village, one of the
most oil rich areas of Yemen. Villagers were negotiating with the two
men. A drone killed the chief negotiator, scuttling the negotiations
and leaving the village vulnerable to Al Qaeda. “The drones are for Al
Qaeda, not against Al Qaeda,” al Qadhi said.
Air Force Col. Morris Davis (ret.) is a professor at Howard University
Law School. He was chief prosecutor at the Guantanamo military
commissions until he was reassigned due to his disagreement with the
government’s policies. Davis had been assigned to a chain of command
below Defense Department General Counsel William Haynes, who favored
the use of evidence gained through waterboarding. “The guy who said
waterboarding is A-okay I was not going to take orders from. I quit,”
Davis said at the time. At the Drone Summit, Davis related the case of
Nek Muhammad, who, Davis noted, “was not a threat to us. He was killed
as a favor to the Pakistani government so they would look the other
way when we wanted to kill our targets.”
Daniel Hale helped choose targets for drone attacks. The former
intelligence analyst with the Joint Special Operations Command in
Afghanistan delivered a riveting talk. Hale utilized surveillance data
for drone attacks. He would tell the sensor operator – who sits next
to the “pilot” of the unmanned drone thousands of miles from the
target – where to point the camera. This information would guide the
“pilot” in dropping the bomb.
Every day, a slideshow of the most dramatic images from 9/11 and
George W. Bush “looking somber” would be projected in the room in
which Hale worked. On the wall in the main facility, there were
television screens, each showing “a different bird [drone] in a
different part of the country.” Every branch of the U.S. military and
foreign militaries monitored “all of Afghanistan.” Hale would be
assigned a mission “to go after a specific individual for nefarious
activities.” He fed his intelligence to a sensor operator “so they
would know where to look before a kinetic strike or detention” of an
individual.
On one occasion, Hale located an individual who had been involved with
Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). The man was riding a motorcycle
in the mountains early in the morning. He met up with four other
people around a campfire drinking tea. Hale relayed the information
that led to a drone strike, which killed all five men. Hale had no
idea whether the other four men had done anything. Hale had thought he
was part of an operation protecting Afghanistan. But when the other
four men died – a result of “guilt by association” – Hale realized he
“was no longer part of something moral or sane or rational.” He had
heard someone say that “terrorists are cowards” because they used
IEDs. “What was different,” Hale asked, “between that and the little
red joy stick that pushes a button thousands of miles away”?
Marjorie Cohn is a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, past
president of the National Lawyers Guild, and deputy secretary general
of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers. Her book,
“Drones and Targeted Killing: Legal, Moral, and Geopolitical Issues,”
will be published next year by University of California Press. –
Eurasia Review
