OMNI
DRONE WATCH
DRONE/ASSASSINATION NEWSLETTER # 20, May 18, 2017.
Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice,
and Ecology.
What’s at Stake: Fred Cook
opens his 1962 The Warfare State with
President Eisenhower’s Farewell Address (January 17, 1961) in which Ike warns
the nation against the military-industrial Complex. (In his original draft he wrote military-industrial-congressional.) “Warfare State” is Cook’s label for the
president’s “Complex,” and his eleven chapters explain what Ike only suggested,
including The Growth of Militarism, Madison Avenue in Uniform, and How the
Warfare State Runs. Jump ahead to 2008,
post-9-11 and the continuing frenzy of the war on/of terror. Nick Turse in The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday
Lives shows how militarism has so grown into every niche of US economic and
social life that it is “hidden in plain sight.
The Complex thrives on the very obliviousness of the civilian population
to it existence in the world” (271). And
Sheldon Wolin in Democracy Incorporated:
Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism hones in on
the difference between the totalitarianism of Hitler and Mussolini, in which
the dictator controlled the big economic institutions, and the inverted
totalitarianism characterizing the US, in which the corporations lead the
government. Alas, 2008 offered no relief
of culmination, for soon afterward further revelations of the warfare state
appeared; for example, the series of articles published in The Washington Post (later a book) by Dana Priest and William Arkin
about the top-secret, $trillion world that the Complex created
in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks so enormous and so secretive that
accounting is impossible (also the Pentagon’s condition of long standing). But as the writings and filmmaking
in these newsletters show, resistance continues undaunted. In the Foreword to Fred Cook’s book, Bertrand
Russell spoke of the “ferocious prejudices” of the military-industrial Complex,
and urged citizens to “make the truth known” against its “intolerant hatred”
and incessant pressure for “preemptive war.”
Drones, a tiny part of the
Complex, are being exposed and protested throughout the country by the peace
and justice movement. In Arkansas we
have barely commenced. Push your peace
and justice organizations to speak out and to fund the resistance to drones,
and to the C-130s, and to corporations profiting from them. Because the Complex possesses the major media,
you and I and our organizations must raise our voices.
Preceding
Newsletters on Drones packed with material for protest
CONTENTS: DRONE NEWSLETTER #20
SPOTLIGHT ON ARKANSAS
Nick Mottern, Know Drones, Veterans for Peace
against the Drones and Arkansas TV
Spots against the Drone base at Ebbing ANG AFB and the C-130s at Little Rock
AFB
Spots against the Drone base at Ebbing ANG AFB and the C-130s at Little Rock
AFB
HISTORY AND CONTEXTS OF DRONES
Terminator Planet
The First History of
Drone Warfare, 2001-2050
by Nick Turse and
Tom Engelhardt
The Changing Face
of Empire: Special Ops, Drones, Spies, Proxy Fighters, Secret Bases, and
Cyberwarfare by Nick Turse
Cyberwarfare by Nick Turse
Tomorrow’s Battlefield: U.S. Proxy Wars and Secret Ops
in Africa by Nick Turse “Transferring CIA Drone Strikes to the Pentagon” by Micah Zenko
“Murky Special Ops Have Become Corporate Bonanza” by
Ryan Gallagher
Killing Civilians:
“The Obama
Administration's Drone-Strike Dissembling” by Conor
Friedersdorf
Friedersdorf
US Drone War Killing, Google Search
Ban Armed Drones from Roots Action
A PLAY AND THREE FILMS
A Play and a Film about Women Drone Pilots:
May 14, 2017, at 21C Museum Hotel in Bentonville the a Performance of Grounded
Letter from the Play’s
Director Laura Shatkus
Review of Play by Nick
Brothers
Letter from Nick Mottern,
Veterans for Peace
Eye in the Sky Film
NYT Review, “Helen Mirren, in one of her fiercest screen performances”
Two films showing
additional realities of drone warfare:
The Good Kill Film, insider's view of 21st-century warfare, psychological toll drone pilots endure. Andrew Niccol (Gattaca, Lord of War)
director.
National Bird Documentary, “three whistleblowers determined to break the silence” by Sonia
Kennebeck
Drone Newsletter #19
ARKANSAS
Nick Mottern, Coordinator
of Veterans for Peace Drone Committee and I have been corresponding perhaps ever
since OMNI began its newsletters on drones, of which this is the 20th. Recently we discussed how best to awaken
the citizens of Arkansas 1) to the drone assassination arm of the military
involving direct presidential participation, in Arkansas based at Ebbing NAGAFB
at Ft. Smith and 2) to the C-130 base at
Little Rock AFB in Jacksonville, near Little Rock, where the huge C-130Js
(quick takeoffs, short landings) supply the Empire. He acted
quickly, organizing TV spots for the Ft. Smith area critical of the drones and
for the C-130s in the central Arkansas area. Did you see them? Nick is fundraising to continue these
spots. After all, we are up against the
world’s most powerful propaganda machine.
And we might add Camden to the spots, Arkansas’ main city for the
military-industrial Complex. Get in
touch: <nickmottern@gmail.com. Here is Mottern’s web site. –Dick
KnowDrones Google
Search, April 18, 2017
https://www.knowdrones.com/
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HISTORY AND CONTEXTS OF DRONES
Terminator Planet: The
First History of Drone Warfare, 2001-2050 (A TomDispatch Book)
The first history of
drone warfare, written as it happened.
From the opening
missile salvo in the skies over Afghanistan in 2001 to a secret strike in the
Philippines early this year, or a future in which drones dogfight off the coast
of Africa, Terminator Planet takes you to the front lines of combat, Washington
war rooms, and beyond. Drawing on several years of research -- including
official documents, open-source intelligence, and interviews with military
officers -- two of the foremost analysts specializing in drone war offer a
sobering, factual account of robot warfare combined with critical analyses
found nowhere else.
Packed with rarely
seen Pentagon photos, Terminator Planet
provides a rich history of the last decade of drone warfare, a clear-eyed look
at its present, and a far-reaching guide to its future. You used to have to
watch science fiction movies to imagine where that future was headed, now you
can read Terminator Planet -- and know.
https://www.amazon.com/Changing-Face-Empire-Fighters.../dp/1608463109
The Changing Face of Empire: Special
Ops, Drones, Spies, Proxy Fighters, Secret Bases, and Cyberwarfare [Nick
Turse]
The Changing Face of
Empire
Special Ops, Drones,
Spies, Proxy Fighters, Secret Bases, and Cyberwarfare
The
Changing Face of Empire is a devastating anatomy of the U.S. military’s new
six-point program for twenty-first-century war.
Following the failures of the Iraq and
Afghan wars, as well as “military lite” methods and counterinsurgency, the
Pentagon is pioneering a new brand of global warfare predicated on special ops,
drones, spy games, civilian soldiers, and cyberwarfare. It may sound like a
safer, saner war-fighting. In reality, it will prove anything but, as Turse's
pathbreaking reportage makes clear.
Nick Turse. Tomorrow's
Battlefield: U.S. Proxy Wars and Secret Ops in Africa. Haymarket Books, 2015. Google Search, 5-17-17.
www.haymarketbooks.org/pb/Tomorrows-Battlefield
A description for this result is not available because of this
site's robots.txt
https://www.democracynow.org/2015/11/.../tomorrows_battlefield_as_us_special_ops
Nov 13,
2015 - fellow at The Nation Institute and the managing editor of
TomDispatch.com. His most recent book is Tomorrow's Battlefield: U.S.
Proxy Wars ...
www.tomdispatch.com/.../tomorrow%27s_battlefield%3A_u.s._proxy_wars_and_secr...
Behind
closed doors, U.S. officers now claim that "Africa is the battlefield of
tomorrow, today." InTomorrow's Battlefield,
award-winning journalist and bestselling ...
Transferring CIA Drone Strikes to the Pentagon
Publisher Council on Foreign Relations
Press
Release Date April 2013
The main obstacle to acknowledging the scope, legality, and
oversight of U.S. targeted killings beyond traditional or "hot"
battlefields is the division of lead executive authority between the Joint
Special Operations Command (JSOC)—a subunit of the Department of Defense (DOD)
Special Operations Command—and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). In
particular, the U.S. government cannot legally acknowledge covert actions
undertaken by the CIA. The failure to answer the growing demands for
transparency increases the risk that U.S. drone strikes will be curtailed or
eliminated due to mounting domestic or international pressure. To take a
meaningful first step toward greater transparency, President Barack Obama
should sign a directive that consolidates lead executive authority for planning
and conducting nonbattlefield targeted killings under DOD.
One Mission, Two Programs
U.S.
targeted killings are needlessly made complex and opaque by their division
between two separate entities: JSOC and the CIA. Although drone strikes carried
out by the two organizations presumably target the same people, the
organizations have different authorities, policies, accountability mechanisms,
and oversight. Splitting the drone program between the JSOC and CIA is
apparently intended to allow the plausible deniability of CIA strikes. Strikes
by the CIA are classified as Title 50 covert actions, defined as
"activities of the United States Government . . . where it is intended
that the role . . . will not be apparent or acknowledged publicly, but does not
include traditional . . . military activities." As covert operations, the
government cannot legally provide any information about how the CIA conducts
targeted killings, while JSOC operations are guided by Title 10 "armed
forces" operations and a publicly available military doctrine. Joint
Publication 3-60, Joint Targeting, details steps in the joint targeting cycle,
including the processes, responsibilities, and collateral damage estimations
intended to reduce the likelihood of civilian casualties. Unlike strikes
carried out by the CIA, JSOC operations can be (and are) acknowledged by the
U.S. government.
The different reporting requirements of JSOC and the CIA mean
that congressional oversight of U.S. targeted killings is similarly murky.
Sometimes oversight is duplicated among the committees; at other times, there
is confusion over who is mandated to oversee which operations. CIA drone
strikes are reported to the intelligence committees. Senator Dianne Feinstein
(D-CA), chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), has
confirmed that the SSCI receives poststrike notifications, reviews video
footage, and holds monthly meetings to "question every aspect of the
program." Representative Mike Rogers (R-MI), chair of the House Permanent
Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), has said that he reviews both CIA and
JSOC counterterrorism airstrikes. JSOC does not report to the HPSCI. As of
March 2012, all JSOC counterterrorism operations are reported quarterly to the
armed services committees. Meanwhile, the foreign relations committees—tasked
with overseeing all U.S. foreign policy and counterterrorism strategies—have
formally requested briefings on drone strikes that have been repeatedly denied
by the White House. However, oversight should not be limited to ensuring
compliance with the law and preventing abuses, but rather expanded to ensure
that policies are consistent with strategic objectives and aligned with other
ongoing military and diplomatic activities. This can only be accomplished by
DOD operations because the foreign relations committees cannot hold hearings on
covert CIA drone strikes. MORE
Under Pentagon Control, Special Operations Command
See Wolin, Democracy Inc. and books and articles on the military-industrial
complex.
The Intercept. September 8 2014, 8:40 p.m.
The U.S. government is paying private contractors billions
of dollars to support secretive military units with drones, surveillance
technology, and “psychological operations,” according to new research.
A detailed report, published last week by the London-based Remote Control Project, shines a light on the murky activities of the U.S.
Special Operations Command by analyzing publicly available procurement
contracts dated between 2009 and 2013.
USSOCOM encompasses four commands – from the Army, Navy,
Air Force, and Marine Corps – and plays a key role in orchestrating clandestine
U.S. military missions overseas. MORE https://theintercept.com/2014/09/08/special-ops-corporate-bonanza/
KILLING
CIVILIANS
The Obama Administration's Drone-Strike Dissembling by CONOR FRIEDERSDORF. The
Atlantic, March 14, 2016.
Debunking
John Brennan’s claim that “the president requires near-certainty of no
collateral damage” to allow a drone killing to go forward.
The notion that the
Obama Administration has carried out drone strikes only when there is
“near-certainty of no collateral damage” is easily disproved propaganda.
America hasn’t killed a handful of innocents or a few dozen in the last 8
years. Credible, independent attempts to determine how many civilians the Obama
administration has killed arrived at numbers in the hundreds or low thousands. And there is good reason to believe that they undercount the
civilians killed. To read the entire
article go to: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/03/the-obama-administrations-drone-strike-dissembling/473541/
I
add multiple references since the precise number of drone killings is disputed. --D
US DRONE WAR KILLINGS Google Search, July 20,
2016
The Bureau's complete data sets on drone strikes in
Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. ... Civilians killed: 424-966 ...
Dataset: US strikes continue
in Yemen despite catastrophic civil war and Saudi-led bombing campaign pushing country
towards ...
www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/...drone.../473541/
Mar 14, 2016 - The Obama
Administration's Drone-Strike Dissembling. Debunking .... observers characterize
as war crimes, I
might be less than forthright, too.
Civilian casualties from US
drone strikes consist of non-combatant
civilians who have been killed by drone strikes by the United States government starting in the
early 2000s. According to the Long War Journal, as of mid-2011, the drone strikes
in ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drone_strikes_in_Pakistan
Jump to U.S. viewpoint - U.S. President George W. Bush vastly accelerated the drone... son Saad bin Laden
was believed to have been killed in a drone attack ... Furthermore, with the drawdown of the war in Iraq,
more drones,
support ...
Oct 15, 2015 - U.S. drone strikes have killed scores of civilians in Afghanistan, ... 'Intercept' Report
Uncovers Secrets Behind U.S.'s Drone Warfare Program.
Apr 2, 2016 - 'No doubt' US drone
strikes killed civilians,
Obama says ... Drone warfarehas become a symbol of post-9/11 wars in Afghanistan, Iraq,
Libya ...
Oct 15, 2015 - An unmanned U.S. Predator drone flies over
Kandahar Air Field, southern ... and are subsequently written off as
adversaries killed during war, ...
drones.pitchinteractive.com/
... Out of Mind. A visualization of all documented drone strikes in
Pakistan since 2004. ... Since 2004, drone strikes have killed an estimated 0 people in Pakistan.
www.theguardian.com › US News › Obama
administrationThe Guardian
Nov 24, 2014 - The data cohort is
only a fraction of those killed by US drones overall ..... It's as true today as if ever was that war really is the
mother of invention ...
Apr 23, 2015 - By most accounts,
hundreds of militants have been killed by drone s. But the ... Barack Obama inherited two ugly, intractable wars in Iraq
and ...
Stop the spread of
killer drones
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Contents Drone Watch Newsletter #20, Plays, Readings, Films
The
preceding studies of drones provide a factual foundation for the reading of the
following play and three films:
GROUNDED ONE-WOMAN DRONE PILOT PLAY WAS PERFORMED MAY 14
at 21C Museum Hotel in Bentonville, AR.
INFORMATION
ABOUT GROUNDED AND AWARDS
“Grounded” is a powerful one-woman show that follows a gutsy
fighter pilot whose unexpected pregnancy puts her career on hold. When she gets
back in the game, flying has a whole new meaning: operating remote-controlled
drones in Afghanistan from an air-conditioned trailer near Las Vegas. Hunting
"the enemy" by day and being a wife and mother by night, The Pilot’s
struggle to navigate her dual identities is her toughest mission yet.
“Grounded” is a riveting drama filled with powerful storytelling
about the dualities of war and family. Both relevant and original, George
Brant’s award-winning script tackles issues of surveillance, drones, and the
ambiguities of warfare in the twenty-first century.
https://gc.synxis.com/rez.aspx?Hotel=56600&Chain=7748&arrive=05%2F14%2F2017&depart=05%2F15%2F2017&adult=2&child=0&promo=ARSTAGED
Or call: 479.286.6500 code: ARSTAGED
“A scorching sharp-eyed, timely script…lets no one off easy…clap all you want at the end of the play—and you’ll want to clap a lot—but the game stays with you” – Time Out New York
Directed by Laura Shatkus
The Pilot: Mischa Hutchings
Stage Manager: Celeste Richard
Assistant Director: Johnathan Benjamin Jewel Jarmon
Production Assistant: Katie ORear
Awards:
The Smith Prize for Political Theatre
Fringe First Award - Edinburg Fringe Festival
Off-West End Theatre Award for Best Production of 2013
Short-listed for the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award
Named a Top 10 London Play of 2013 by both The Guardian and the London Evening Standard\
Or call: 479.286.6500 code: ARSTAGED
“A scorching sharp-eyed, timely script…lets no one off easy…clap all you want at the end of the play—and you’ll want to clap a lot—but the game stays with you” – Time Out New York
Directed by Laura Shatkus
The Pilot: Mischa Hutchings
Stage Manager: Celeste Richard
Assistant Director: Johnathan Benjamin Jewel Jarmon
Production Assistant: Katie ORear
Awards:
The Smith Prize for Political Theatre
Fringe First Award - Edinburg Fringe Festival
Off-West End Theatre Award for Best Production of 2013
Short-listed for the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award
Named a Top 10 London Play of 2013 by both The Guardian and the London Evening Standard\
ONE-WOMAN PLAY GROUNDED, LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR OF THE PERFORMANCE
HI Dick, 5-13-17
A fellow artist and director made me aware of
the play about a year ago, which was the first time I read it. I was totally
compelled by the story of a female fighter pilot coming to terms with no longer
being on leave from her family and how being a mother every night at home
affected her ability to be a war machine during the day.
This was my first time
digging into any research about drones, to be honest. One of the wonderful
things about being a theatre artist is all the worlds we get to play in. . . .
It leads to a more universal understanding of human nature and human behavior.
Have you seen
"National Bird" yet?
Our show is on
Sunday so I'd love to have you write about the show for the newsletter but
just want to make sure you know there's only the one!
Thanks so much!!
Laura Shatkus
Comment by Nick Brothers
In The Free Weekly (5-11-17, p.
10). Nick Brothers (editor),
“ArkansasStaged to Present Mother Day’s Reading of ‘Grounded.’”
Comment on the Play by
Nick Mottern
Mottern
is the coordinator of Veterans for Peace Drones Watch.
5-13-17
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12:43 PM (28 minutes ago)
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Hi Dick:
I wish I could be there to see the
play tomorrow.
Laura Shatkus seems to be a concerned
person. She acknowledges that she is new to the issue of drone war.
In her description of the play she says it is about a woman doing
"Isolated work defending the country." One can argue, as we
have in the C-130 ad, that the woman pilot in "Grounded" is not, in
fact, "defending the country" but, instead, advancing the interests
of corporate investors, advancing the empire.
The story of "Grounded" is quite
clearly about a person being driven over the edge by doing "work"
that is soul-destroying. The work is the stalking and murder of people
who may or may not have criminal intent, people who have never been to court
and never will go to court, and those who are unfortunate enough to be with
them at the moment of attack. This stalking and killing and the drone
technology that enables it is the work of enforcement, and the very nature and
purpose of the work is what is driving the woman "pilot" crazy.
It is quite encouraging that the art show "Seeing Now" at the 21c
Museum Hotel, where "Grounded" is being performed, does address
the issue of empire. Alice Gray Stites, the curator of the Museum has
written a very interesting, insightful statement about "Seeing Now",
and I would love to see this show too. https://www.21cmuseumhotels.com/museum/exhibit/seeing-now/
You've got some very thoughtful, courageous
people in your neighborhood.
Thank you very much for keeping me in touch
with what is happening.
EYE IN THE SKY film
was shown Wednesday, July 20, 2016, 7pm, at OMNI. A
commercial, feature film about drone warfare starring Helen Mirren as another
woman pilot. Some evaluative questions leading to action
after seeing the film: How accurate is
the film? How does the film help to
explain the general public acceptance of drone warfare and the “war on/of
terror”? What should be our next possible
action to tell people about drones?
NEW YORK TIMES REVIEW
EYE IN THE SKY
NYT Critic’s Pick Directed by Gavin
Hood
1h 42m
Helen Mirren in “Eye in the Sky.” CreditKeith
Bernstein/Bleecker Street
An alternative title
to “Eye in
the Sky,” a riveting thriller about drone warfare and its perils, might
be “Passing the Buck.” When urgent life-or-death decisions are required in a
race against time to kill terrorists preparing a suicide attack, officials,
wary of being held responsible for civilian casualties, repeatedly “refer up”
to higher authorities for final approval.
That means securing an
official go-ahead to deploy a Hellfire missile on a house in a crowded
neighborhood in Nairobi, Kenya, where terrorists are meeting. But the British
foreign secretary is at an arms trade fair in Singapore and the American
secretary of state is attending a table tennis tournament in Beijing. How
inconvenient! Meanwhile, the military, champing at the bit to unleash its
firepower before the terrorists disperse, are increasingly frustrated.
“Eye in the Sky,”
directed by Gavin Hood (“Tsotsi”)
from a screenplay by Guy Hibbert (“Five Minutes of Heaven”), is a grim,
suspenseful farce in which unpredictable human behavior repeatedly threatens an
operation of astounding technological sophistication. Like many films of its
type, it doesn’t dwell on geopolitical minutiae.
Helen Mirren, in one of
her fiercest screen performances, plays Col. Katherine Powell, the chilly
officer in charge of Egret, an operation to capture a radicalized English woman
meeting with Shabab terrorists at the house in Nairobi. Colonel Powell has been
pursuing her for years. But as the moment of capture arrives, Colonel Powell’s
plans abruptly change when a cyborg beetle, a small whirring surveillance
device, reveals two inhabitants strapping on explosives for a suicide mission.
MOVIES By AINARA
TIEFENTHÄLER and ROBIN LINDSAY 1:06Movie
Review: ‘Eye in the Sky’
Video
Movie Review: ‘Eye in the Sky’
The
Times critic Stephen Holden reviews “Eye in the Sky.”
By AINARA TIEFENTHÄLER and ROBIN LINDSAY, March 10,
2016. Photo by Keith Bernstein/Bleecker Street, via Associated
Press. Watch
in Times Video »
The metallic spy, the
movie’s creepiest element, reinforces the Orwellian notion that nowadays there
are no hiding places if the powers-that-be are out to get you. The characters’
robotic techno argot, intended to convey military expertise while camouflaging
human element, is equally Orwellian.
Colonel Powell quickly
secures permission from her superior, Lt. Gen. Frank Benson (Alan
Rickman), to upgrade the order from “capture” to “kill.” Those orders
are relayed to Steve Watts (Aaron Paul), a drone pilot in Las Vegas poised to
launch the air-to-surface missile. But unforeseen interruptions keep delaying
the attack.
General Benson is Mr.
Rickman’s final screen performance, and it is a great one, suffused with a
dyspeptic world-weary understanding of war and human nature. Because his
character is observed early in the movie buying a doll for a child, he is not
unsympathetic so much as profoundly sad. Ms. Mirren has rarely been icier, and
her powerful, scary performance doesn’t strive to make her character likable.
“Eye in the Sky” covers
many of the same issues addressed in “Good
Kill,” Andrew Niccol’s underrated critique of American drone strikes
in Afghanistan, released last year. At what point does warfare by remote
control become an impersonal video game in which the human element is
overlooked in the pursuit of a so-called “good kill”? In that movie, Ethan
Hawke played a drone operator in Las Vegas increasingly sickened by having to
deploy missiles that killed women and children. The movie reserved special
contempt for the Central Intelligence Agency, whose attitude toward collateral
damage was portrayed as one of indifference. Mr. Paul’s pilot, like Mr. Hawke’s
in “Good Kill,” is the farthest thing from a blasé video-gamer eager to set off
an explosion. At moments, he seems near tears.
Sharper, better made and
better acted, “Eye in the Sky,” doesn’t present as overtly critical a view of
drone warfare. The military officers take their work seriously and fret over
every detail as they try to estimate the number of casualties for various
scenarios.
By BLEEKER STREET 2:30Trailer:
'Eye in the Sky'
Video
Trailer: 'Eye in the Sky'
A
complex international anti-terrorism operation involving a drone escalates when
a suicide bombing appears imminent, and the mission becomes further complicated
when a little civilian girl inadvertently enters the picture.
By BLEEKER STREET on Publish DateDecember 6,
2015. Image courtesy of Internet Video Archive. Watch
in Times Video »
The movie still makes
very clear the contrast between military personnel who want to discharge their
duties as efficiently as possible, and their more cautious overseers who
calculate the chances that the attacks could spur a diplomatic crisis, or
worse.
As in “Good Kill,”
civilians keep intruding into the line of sight at the last second. Moments
before the Nairobi attack is to begin, a spunky little girl (Aisha Takow)
selling bread posts herself opposite the terrorists’ house, and nothing can be
done until she leaves. A Somali undercover agent (Barkhad Abdi, from “Captain
Phillips) is dispatched to buy up her loaves, but that assignment is
interrupted.
An assistant of Colonel
Powell is strongly pressured to estimate the chances of the girl’s being killed
as less than 50 percent, in which case Colonel Powell can give the order to
proceed. Another film might have found black comedy in the continuing “risk
assessment” that accompanies each step of the operation. But “Eye in the Sky”
allows the story’s absurdist elements to speak for themselves.
67COMMENTS
“Eye in the Sky” is rated R (Under 17
requires accompanying parent or adult guardian) for violent images and strong
language. Running time: 1 hour 42 minutes.
NYT Critic’s Pick
·
Director Gavin Hood Writer Guy Hibbert
·
Stars Helen
Mirren, Aaron Paul, Alan Rickman, Barkhad Abdi, Jeremy
Northam
PLAY TRAILER
GOOD KILL (2015)
Rotten Tomatoes Critics Consensus: Thought-provoking,
timely, and anchored by a strong performance from Ethan Hawke, Good
Kill is a modern war movie with a troubled conscience.
GOOD KILL VIDEOS
GOOD KILL PHOTOS
MOVIE INFO
In the shadowy world of drone
warfare, combat unfolds like a video game-only with real lives at stake. After
six tours of duty, Air Force pilot Tom Egan (Ethan Hawke) yearns to get back
into the cockpit of a real plane, but he now fights the Taliban from an
air-conditioned box in the Las Vegas desert. When he and his crew start taking
orders directly from the CIA, and the stakes are raised, Egan's nerves-and his
relationship with his wife (Mad Men's January Jones)-begin to unravel.
Revealing the psychological toll drone pilots endure as they are forced to
witness the aftermath of their fight against insurgents, Andrew Niccol
(Gattaca, Lord of War) directs this riveting insider's view of 21st-century
warfare, in which operatives target enemies from half a world away. (C) IFC
Films. Rating:
R (for violent content including a rape, language, and some
sexuality). Directed
By: Andrew Niccol. Written By: Andrew Niccol. 2015.
103 min.
Andrew Niccol on his new drone-warfare drama Good
Kill
May 20,
2015 9:00 AM
Over the past two decades, Andrew
Niccol has written and directed six feature films. None of them revolve around
a superhero, and none is a sequel, spin-off, or reboot. For better or worse,
the New Zealand-born writer-director has yet to make a movie he hasn’t wanted
to make. From genetics (Gattaca) to immortality (In Time) to colonization (The Host), his work
consistently roots heady topics in dystopian visions of the future. Perhaps
it’s this tendency to look forward that makes Good Killsuch a jarring transition back to
reality.
The film focuses on Major Thomas Egan
(Ethan Hawke), a celebrated Air Force pilot who’s been reassigned to drone
duty. Now back home with a family eager to have him away from physical combat,
Egan grows discontent and despondent. Aside from the precarious ethics of the
position, the man doesn’t see drone piloting as a satisfying substitute for
what he loved to do. His wings have been clipped.
We spoke with Niccol about the bizarre
lives of drone operators, filmmaking as a drug, and why he’s never watched a
single one of his own movies.
The A.V. Club: A line in your script
reads, “War is not a first-person shooter.” Are you skeptical of what
we’ve done, and continue to do, in the Middle East?
Andrew Niccol: That’s what Bruce
Greenwood’s character says. I’m just really trying to tell it like it is, warts
and all. And you know, it’s all factual—I didn’t make anything up. When Bruce
Greenwood was ordering more drones and jets, that was a fact. That’s why I was
drawn to the whole thing. Ethan Hawke’s character—there’s going to be more like
him. I think we’re going to fight more remote wars.
AVC: He’s a character who has a certain
nostalgia for a bygone era of warfare.
AN: When we were thinking
about his backstory, we imagined that he saw Top Gunas a kid. And
he wanted to become [a top gun], and he did, and now he’s ripped out of a
cockpit. A lot of the movie from his point of view is about the death of
flying. He’s grieving that loss. Even the drones depicted in the movie are
antiquated now. They’ve got new drones that can take off and land from an
aircraft carrier.
AVC: And did you ever want to be a top
gun?
AN: My father was in the
Air Force, so it sort of touched me.
AVC: What sources did you use for your
research?
AN: Well, there’s no
strike that takes place in the movie that’s not well documented, but Ethan’s
character is a composite character, and I used two ex drone pilots quite
heavily to authenticate what I was doing. So they were on the set the whole
time, and they were teaching Ethan and Zoë [Kravitz] how to fly from 7,000
miles away, how to say and do the right things.
AVC: And these two ex-pilots, did they
have fond memories? Or were they, as in the film, upset and bitter?
AN: They weren’t exactly
bitter, but there’s a lot of burnouts in drone programs—not that they’re
allowed to call it a drone program. They call it “UAVs” [unmanned aerial
vehicle]. The problem is, we would ask them about, “Is it like playing a video
game?” And they would be like, “Yeah, it would be like playing the most boring
video game of all time.” There’s a lot of monotony to it. The way it’s depicted
in the movie, they would watch a compound for a month, waiting for a so-called
bad guy to show up. It’s monotony punctuated by the most horrific action and
then it’s back to the monotony.
AVC: “Monotony punctuated by the
most horrific action” may not be a video game people would want to play.
AN: Yeah, well there’s
something that I didn’t put in the movie because I thought it might be too
outrageous: Some of the younger drone pilots would work a 12-hour shift with a
joystick, fight the Taliban in Afghanistan, and they would go to their
apartment after on the Vegas strip and play video games. I realized I couldn’t
put that in the movie because they’d say that’s going too far. I did put a
console in his son’s hands, but after they said that, I was like, “How do you
possibly separate that and how does that not desensitize you to what you’re
doing?”
AVC: Did you say this aloud?
AN: I said it silently to
myself. I’m not here to pass any kind of judgment, I’m just trying to shed some
light on it, because for me, making the movie, I was educating myself at the
same time.
Mostly, I come at it from Ethan’s point
of view, and all the characters have a slightly different take on what’s going
on. But if I’m closest to anybody it would have to be Bruce Greenwood’s
character, because he’s heavily conflicted. He says toward the end of the
movie—and I have no answer for his question—“If we stopped killing them, do we
think for a second they’d stop killing us?” And so can we declare victory and
go home? Because if and when we ever pull the troops out of Afghanistan—which,
by the way, is called America’s longest war, since you’ve been there for 14
years—I don’t imagine for a second that the drones are going home. So how are
we going to police that part of the world?
AVC: It’s the longest war that very few
people care about in this country.
AN: It’s been going since 9/11. I was
on my way from L.A. to New York that day when my flight got canceled. I’m not a
soldier or anything. I’m a filmmaker, not a policy maker, I’m not running for
anything. It was such a brutal attack. On the flip side, it’s been 14 years,
when is it going to be overkill? It’s actually why I set the film in 2010,
during the greatest escalation in drone strikes. We were coming up with all of
these words like “proportionality” and “preemptive self-defense,” which
basically means, “I think you’re gonna kill me so I’ll kill you.” We’ll say
anything to avoid saying “killing people.” Orwell would be spinning in his
grave the way we say we’re going to prosecute a target or neutralize a threat.
And none of these words are words that I made up.
AVC: In a way, with Lord
Of War and now Good Kill, you’ve been
chronicling the longest war for over a decade.
AN: Yes, well, in Lord Of War, I would see a guy
on the front page waving a Kalashnikov in the air, and I would think, “How did
that get into his hands?” And when you start researching that, there’s such a fascinating
underbelly to a war. And it was the same with Good Kill because
it was a culmination of all these drone strikes, and I would wonder, “How the
hell did that happen?” What are the mechanics of going about that? And when you
find out that there is a base located outside of Vegas and you find out about
these guys who are operating, you just think, “Whoa, it’s a new type of war,
it’s a new generation of soldier.” How are they going to cope with going to war
at home? A lot of people have said to me, “Andrew, why the hell did you set it
outside of Vegas?” And, of course, I didn’t, the U.S. military did. And for
very good reason, because the terrain around Las Vegas is very much like
Afghanistan. And that’s where you train. And that’s where you basically
practice flying around those mountains, and then you pick it up the next day
and fly it over Afghanistan.
AVC: For Hawke’s character, who often
exhibits addictive behavior, Vegas seems like an apt setting.
AN: Flying was his drug
of choice. That’s why he got into it. And that’s what he says in that scene in
the casino—he feels like a coward. And there was an interesting thing when they
were about to issue a medal for drone operators and they had to rescind it.
They never awarded it in the end because there was such an outcry from other
branches of the military, because they said, “Medals are for valor and acts of
courage.” But then what kind of message did that send to the operators? It said
to them, “Okay, you are making mortal decisions, life and death decisions, but
it’s not worthy of recognition.”
MORE http://www.avclub.com/article/andrew-niccol-his-new-drone-warfare-drama-good-kil-219614
NATIONAL BIRD DOCUMENTARY
Support
provided by:More
MAY
1, 10 PM NATIONAL
BIRD
Premiered May 1, 2017
About the Film
National Bird follows the dramatic journey of three whistleblowers determined to break the silence around one of
the most controversial issues of our time: the secret U.S. drone war, which has
been waged globally for more than a decade. The film, executive produced by
Errol Morris and Wim Wenders, gives rare insight into the program through the
eyes of veterans and survivors, to explore the complexities of drone warfare from
a human perspective. MORE
Do you think the results/benefits of the US military’s secret
drone program are worth the human costs both at home and abroad? Did learning
about the human faces asked to pilot drones change your perspective on using
drones in war?
AWARDS
·
RIDENHOUR
DOCUMENTARY FILM PRIZE
Contents Drone Watch Newsletter #19
Drone Information, History, Contexts
Kersley: Mass Surveillance
Cockburn’s Kill Chain: History of Drone Warfare
Kricorian, Israeli Drones Against Gaza
Cook: Israeli Drones vs. Gaza
Solomon: Ramstein AFB Hub of US
Drone War
Michael: Yemen al Qaida Leader Killed by Drone
Constitution, Civil Liberties, ACLU, and Action
ACLU, Drone
Warfare, Due Process Google Search
Citizen Resistance, Whistleblowers, Leakers
Common Dreams, Prupis:
Whistleblowers Westmoreland and Ling
Roots Action, Cian Westmoreland
Film, National Bird by Sonia
Kennebeck on 3 Whistleblowers (coming this fall)
UUA Rev. Antal Resigns His Chaplaincy
Presidential Campaign
Support for Drones:
Clinton Yes and Sanders Qualified Yes
END DRONE WAR/ASSASSINATION WATCH NEWSLETTER #20, MAY 18, 2017
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