"The Drone Papers" Oops, You're A Dead Civilian.

HT to Common Dreams for carrying this new trove exposed by the Intercept.

'Kill or capture' war crimes r us illegal drone use now exposed for the fail it is, even as use may now be spread to Africa and even Bernie Sanders may not rein it in. Unless we 'help' him.

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/10/15/drone-papers-leaked-military...

Published on
Thursday, October 15, 2015
by
Common Dreams
Drone Papers: Leaked Military Documents Expose US 'Assassination Complex'

Based on cache of secret slides leaked by national security whistleblower, stunning exposé by The Intercept reveals inner workings—and failures—of the U.S. military's clandestine efforts in Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somalia
by
Nadia Prupis, staff writer
63 Comments

The Intercept has obtained a cache of secret slides that provides a window into the inner workings of the U.S. military’s kill/capture operations at a key time in the evolution of the drone wars — between 2011 and 2013. (Image: The Intercept)The Intercept has obtained a cache of secret slides that provides a window into the inner workings of the U.S. military’s kill/capture operations at a key time in the evolution of the drone wars — between 2011 and 2013. (Image: The Intercept)

A stunning new exposé by The Intercept, which includes the publication of classified documents leaked by an intelligence source, provides an unprecedented look at the U.S. military's secretive global assassination program.

The series of articles, titled The Drone Papers, follows months of investigation and uses rare primary source documents and slides to reveal to the public, for the first time, the flaws and consequences of the U.S. military's 14-year aerial campaign being conducted in Yemen, Somalia, and Afghanistan—one that has consistently used faulty information, killed an untold number of civilians, and stymied intelligence-gathering through its "kill/capture" program that too often relies on killing rather than capturing.

"The series is intended to serve as a long-overdue public examination of the methods and outcomes of America's assassination program," writes the investigation's lead reporter, Jeremy Scahill. "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."

Hopefully daylight shed on this will help.

Namaste.

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mimi's picture

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mimi's picture

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in the Drone Papers. It's a worthwhile read.
Just for example:
“The drone campaign right now really is only about killing. When you hear the phrase ‘capture/kill,’ capture is actually a misnomer. In the drone strategy that we have, ‘capture’ is a lower case ‘c.’ We don’t capture people anymore,” Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told The Intercept. “Our entire Middle East policy seems to be based on firing drones. That’s what this administration decided to do in its counterterrorism campaign. They’re enamored by the ability of special operations and the CIA to find a guy in the middle of the desert in some shitty little village and drop a bomb on his head and kill him.”
“It is the politically advantageous thing to do — low cost, no U.S. casualties, gives the appearance of toughness,” said Adm. Dennis Blair, Obama’s former director of national intelligence, explaining how the administration viewed its policy at the time. “It plays well domestically, and it is unpopular only in other countries. Any damage it does to the national interest only shows up over the long term.”
Lt. Gen. Flynn, who since leaving the DIA has become an outspoken critic of the Obama administration, charges that the White House relies heavily on drone strikes for reasons of expediency, rather than effectiveness. “We’ve tended to say, drop another bomb via a drone and put out a headline that ‘we killed Abu Bag of Doughnuts’ and it makes us all feel good for 24 hours,” Flynn said. “And you know what? It doesn’t matter. It just made them a martyr, it just created a new reason to fight us even harder.”
Those sentiments were echoed by Lt. Gen. Flynn, who served for years as the chief intelligence officer for JSOC. “You cannot conduct counterinsurgency, counterterrorism, or counter-guerrilla operations without having effective interrogation operations,” Flynn said in an interview. “If the president says, ‘Defeat this enemy,’ but you say you need resources that you never get, you just can’t defeat the enemy. Without the ability to capture or interrogate, your effectiveness when conducting counterterrorism operations can be cut in half, if not even lower than that, and that’s the challenge that we face.”

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shaharazade's picture

really are psychos on a par with the nastiest war criminal killers the world has seen. Here's a chilling gem via mimi's FP link.

One military official described to me the normalcy of killing with drones in 2012, saying, “It really is like swatting flies. We can do it forever easily and you feel nothing. But how often do you really think about killing a fly?”

Seems Cheney's lawless Dark Side is here to stay. No one in our government will even speak out against these crimes against humanity, including Bernie. Smart drones and Saudis getting their hands dirty is not acceptable. Their is no rule of law, universal or domestic. or any parliamentary way left to keep these monsters in check.

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Only connect. - E.M. Forster

joe shikspack's picture

i used that quote in an article that i posted over at the gos back in 2012. it didn't make a dent with the partisan democrat crowd.

crickets.

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gulfgal98's picture

Sadly, I agree based upon the conversations that I have had with ordinary people at our Peace vigils. Most of this is due to the scare propaganda that has been disseminated by the mainstream media. Also most people who support drone strikes believe that they are surgical and targeted to known individuals. I have tried to explain the concept of death by metadata and it seems to be very hard for the average person to digest. They also seem to be unable to accept just how high the number of innocent women and children are being killed as a result of "collateral damage."

Again, the mainstream media has not done its job in educating the public as to exactly what is happening in the Middle East. But until the American public can overcome their irrational fears of scary Muslims, I am afraid it will continue to be ignored.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

gulfgal98's picture

I also watched the Democracy Now show with Jeremy Scahill, Cora Currier, and Ryan Devereau, all of whom have worked on the drone papers. To me, the use of drones shows just how far this government has sunk in its immoral wars.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy