OMNI DRONE/ASSASSINATION NEWSLETTER #
13, December 28, 2013. Compiled by
Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace and Justice. (Newsletter
#1, Dec. 29, 2010; #2 July 20, 2011; #3 Feb. 16, 2012; #4 May 3, 2012; #5 June
9, 2012; #6 Oct. 12, 2012; #7 Dec. 20, 2012; #8 Jan. 22, 2013; #9, Feb. 16,
2013; #10 May 11, 2013; #11 May 29, 2013; #12 Nov. 1, 2013.) See Newsletters on ACLU, Air War, Assassinations, CIA, Civil Liberties, Constitution
and Drones, Democracy and Drones, Extra-Judicial Killing, Geneva Conventions, International
Law, Killing Civilians, Media and Drones, Obama ,
Pakistan
The multifarious methods of oppression employed by
an oppressor state would fill an encyclopedia.
One general method is the control of language,
including rhetorical devices. A specific
figure is euphemism, one of many
effective linguistic devices designed to
hide the truth. For example, our
government has rebranded US
If
any subject links these drone newsletters with other newsletter subjects, it is
violence,
particularly US
Write or Call the White House
President
Obama has declared his commitment to creating the most open and accessible
administration in American history. That begins with taking comments and
questions from you, the public, through our website.
Call
the President
PHONE NUMBERS
Comments:
202-456-1111Switchboard: 202-456-1414
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Comments:
202-456-6213Visitor's Office: 202-456-2121
Write a letter to
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Here are a
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as quickly as possible.1. If possible, email us! This is the fastest way to get your message to President Obama.
2. If you write a letter, please consider typing it on an 8 1/2 by 11 inch sheet of paper. If you hand-write your letter, please consider using pen and writing as neatly as possible.
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4. And finally, be sure to include the full address of the White House to make sure your message gets to us as quickly and directly as possible:
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington , DC 20500
My blog: War
Department/Peace Department
My Newsletters:
Index:
Peace, Justice, Ecology National
Days
Visit OMNI’s Library.
“Act in such a way that the
principle according to which the action is performed can be accepted as a
universal law.” Immanuel Kant’s
Categorical Imperative. Ahimsa. Nonviolence.
Reverence for life.
DRONE
WATCH: www.MuckRock.com
, a free, online data-base.
Nos. 7, 8, 9, 10 at end
Contents
#11
Robert Greenwald Film Needs Our Help
Extra-Judicial Killing, UN Rapporteur
Medea Benjamin Challenges President Obama
Sprusansky on Muslimi and Obama Admin.
Preference for Killing
BOOKS ON DRONES (in reverse chronological
order)
Scahill, Dirty Wars
Benjamin, Drone
Warfare
Engelhart
and Turse, Terminator Planet
Cavallaro,
Living Under Drones (a long report)
Contents #12
Nov. 1, 2013
Goodman, Resistance to Obama’s Drone Wars
United Nations: Put Drones Under International Law
Draft Drone Ban Treaty
Malala to Obama: Dones Cause Terrorism
Dirty War Film
Jeremy
Scahill
Amnesty International
Palast, Drones, Missiles, Etc.
FAIR, Media Not Examining Drone Attacks
Against Alleged “Terrorists” in Yemen
Savage and Baker, Obama Limits Targets and
Shifts to Military Control
Contents #13
Drones Coming to Ark.
NG 188th at Ft.
Smith
ANSWER Demonstration
Moyers on Drones.
New Greenwald Film, Unmanned: America
Moyers & Co. Nov. 3
Democracy
Now: Tahir, Director, Wounds of
Waziristan, New Film on US Drone War in Pakistan
Porter, CIA Revenge Strike Blocks Pakistan
Extra!, Media Downplay Drones
Alston, UN Special Rapporteur on
Extra-Judicial Killing
Reprieve Organization Defending People
Sentenced to Death
Hina Shamsi, ACLU vs. Targeted Killing,
Extra-judicial Murder
CCR & ACLU Suit Soon to Be Decided by USSC
ARKANSAS
1.
Arkansas Delegation Questions Plan For 188th Drones | The Times ...
Feb 29, 2012 - WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen.
Mark Pryor, D-Ark., said Wednesday that the Air Force should expand Fort
Smith's 188th Fighter Wing mission to ...
2.
AR Nat'l Guard to shift to drones - FOX16.com
Feb 3, 2012 - The Fort Smith-based
fighter wing of the Arkansas
3.
Welsh reassures Womack that 188th Wing will get its drone mission ...
May 9, 2013 - “The intent is to have
(the drone mission) operational in
the first quarter of Fiscal '16, ...
Ads related to Drones in Arkansas
|
Demonstration draws participants
from across
The ANSWER Coalition
joined CodePink and other anti-war organizations on Nov. 15 for a march from
the White House to General Atomics in protest of the
Speakers at the White
House included a delegation from
Click here to view a slideshow of photos from
the demonstration!
Read Article | Share:
 |
|
|
Your contributions are needed to
sustain the work of ANSWER
|
Moyers: "Obama's
Cold-Blooded Use Of Drones" Shows ...
Feb 10, 2013
By the standards of slaughter in Vietnam
Sent to Ashlie,
Dale, Chele, Sidney, Joel, Carl, Caleb, Kelly, Gerry, Mark S, Jesse, Jay J,
John G, Gladys
Robert
Greenwald, Brave New Foundation
GREENWALD’S UNMANNED AVAILABLE AT PRESENT FREE STREAMING
1.
Unmanned America's Drone War | Brave New Films
Stream Unmanned: America
2.
Video - "Unmanned: America's Drone Wars" Robert Greenwald
5 days ago - "Unmanned: America
3.
'Unmanned: America's
Drone Wars' Documentary Premieres in NYC ...
5 days ago - A new documentary film,
called "Unmanned: America
4.
News for Greenwald, Unmanned
Thank you for signing up to stream "Unmanned: America
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Dick --
We
are glad you have joined us in the fight to expose America's Drone Wars.
Here is the link for you to stream the film.
Here is the link for you to stream the film.
Like all of our previous films, this one is
made to help create social change. From Outfoxed to Wal-mart to Rethink: Afghanistan
Thanks to a
generous donor, we're able to provide this film for FREE for a limited time!
Who else do you think needs to see this film? Can we count on you to send them this link and ask them to sign up to watch this
important film? Are there friends or family members
that can help us spread the word, people in the media, elected officials,
people who disagree with us on this issue? With your help we can educate
and engage enough people and work to change the U.S.
The documentary is available to stream for
FREE for a limited time. Let's work together to make sure others are receiving
this documentary for FREE.
Thank you for your support. War Costs
Thank you for your support. War Costs
MOYERS & CO., UNMANNED
Focused on the first part of the film: Tariq
Azis, his cousin killed by CIA drone, then Tariq killed. Neither by judge or jury. Primacy of killing the enemy inevitably
results in killing innocent people.
Write to Moyers at BillMoyers.com.
COMMON DREAMS
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'Wounds of Waziristan':
Exclusive Broadcast of New Film on Pakistanis Haunted by U.S.
The Pakistani government is
warning of a new rift with the United
States after a CIA drone strike that killed
the head of the Pakistani Taliban. Hakimullah Mehsud and six other militants
died on Friday when U.S.
missiles hit their vehicle in North Waziristan .
Mehsud had a $5 million bounty on his head and was accused of responsibility
for thousands of deaths. The attack came just as the Pakistani government had
relaunched peace talks with the Taliban.
In a broadcast exclusive, Democracy Now! airs
a documentary that highlights the stories of civilians directly impacted by
drone attacks in Pakistan :
"Wounds of Waziristan," directed by
Madiha Tahir. "Waziristan is only half the size of New Jersey . How would it
feel if bombs rained over New Jersey
for nine years?" asks Tahir in the film. "Would you be frightened? If
they killed your son, your cousin or your husband, and got away with it, would
you be angry? You probably couldn’t forget about it if you tried. You’d be
haunted."
© 2013 Democracy Now!
DRONE STRIKE SERVED CIA REVENGE, BLOCKED PAKISTAN
But the drone strike that killed Pakistani Taliban leader
Hakimullah Mehsud Nov. 1 stopped the peace talks before they could begin.
After a drone strike
had reportedly killed Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud Nov. 1, the
spokesperson for the U.S. National Security Council declared that, if true, it
would be “a serious loss” for the terrorist organization.
That reaction
accurately reflected the Central Intelligence Agency’s argument for the strike.
But the back story of the episode is how
President Barack Obama supported the parochial interests of the CIA in the
drone war over the Pakistani government’s effort to try a new political
approach to that country’s terrorism crisis.
The failure of both
drone strikes and Pakistani military operations in the FATA tribal areas to stem
the tide of terrorism had led to a decision by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to
try a political dialogue with the Taliban.
But the drone strike
that killed Mehsud stopped the peace talks before they could begin.
Pakistani Interior
Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan immediately denounced the drone strike that
killed Mehsud as “a conspiracy to sabotage the peace talks.” He charged that
the United States
An unidentified State
Department official refused to address the Pakistani minister’s criticism,
declaring coolly that the issue was “an internal matter for Pakistan
Three different Taliban
commanders told Reuters Nov. 3 they had been preparing for the talks but after
the killing of Mehsud, they now felt betrayed and vowed a wave of revenge
attacks.
The strategy of
engaging the Taliban in peace talks, which was supported by the unanimous
agreement of an “All Parties Conference” on Sept. 9, was not simply an
expression of naïvete about the Taliban as was suggested by a Nov. 3 New York
Times article on the Pakistani reaction to the drone strike.
A major weakness of
the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan
The most important success achieved by Pakistan
Sharif and other
Pakistani officials were well aware that the United States
The government lobbied
the United States in
September and October to end its drone war in Pakistan
Obama had already
suggested in a May 23 speech at National
Defence University
that the need for the strikes was fast diminishing and would soon end, because
there were very few high value targets left to hit, and because the U.S. would be withdrawing troops from Afghanistan
After the meeting
with Sharif on Oct. 23, Obama said they had agreed to cooperate in “ways that
respect Pakistan
Shortly after the
meeting, Sharif’s adviser on national security and foreign affairs, Sartaj
Aziz, said in an interview with Al Jazeera that the Obama administration had
promised to “consider” the prime minister’s request to restrain drone attacks
while the government carried out a political dialogue.
A “senior Pakistani
official” told the Express Tribune that Obama had “assured Premier Nawaz that
drone strikes would only be used as a last option” and that he was planning to
end the drone war once “a few remaining targets” had been eliminated.
The official said the
Pakistani government now believed the unilateral strikes would end in “a matter
of months.”
But Obama’s meeting
with Sharif evidently occurred before the CIA went to Obama with specific
intelligence about Mehsud, and proposed to carry out a strike to kill him.
The CIA had an
institutional grudge to settle with Mehsud after he had circulated a video with
Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, the Jordanian suicide bomber who had talked
the CIA into inviting him to its compound at Camp Chapman
The CIA had already
carried out at least two drone strikes aimed at killing Mehsud in January 2010
and January 2012.
Killing Mehsud would
not reduce the larger threat of terrorism and would certainly trigger another
round of TTP suicide bombings in Pakistan
Although it would
satisfy the CIA’s thirst for revenge and make the CIA and his administration
look good on terrorism to the U.S.
Obama appears to have
been sympathetic to Sharif’s argument on terrorism and had no illusions that
one or a few more drone strikes against leading Taliban officials would prevent
the organization from continuing to mobilize its followers to carry out terror
attacks, including suicide bombers.
But the history of
the drone war in Pakistan Lahore
Munter had learned
that the CIA wanted the strike because it was angry at Pakistan ’s ISI, which regarded the Haqqani group
as an ally, over Davis U.S.
and NATO troops in Afghanistan
but was opposed to the TTP’s terror attacks in Pakistan
CIA Director Leon
Panetta rejected Munter’s objection to the strike, however, and Obama had
supported Panetta. It was later revealed that the strike had been based on
faulty intelligence. It was not a meeting of Haqqani network that was hit but a
conference of tribal leaders from all over the province on an economic issue.
But the CIA simply
refused to acknowledge its mistake and continued to claim to journalists that
only terrorists had attended the meeting.
After the strike, Obama had formalized the ambassador’s
authority to oppose a proposed drone strike, giving Munter what he called a
“yellow card.” But despite the evidence that the CIA had carried out a drone strike for parochial reasons rather
then an objective assessment of evidence, Obama
gave the CIA director the power to override an ambassadorial dissent, even if
the secretary of state supported the ambassador.
The extraordinary power of the CIA director
over the drone strike policy, which was formalized by Obama after that
strike, was evident in Obama’s decision to approve the CIA’s proposal for the
Mehsud strike. The director was now John
Brennan, who had shaped public opinion in favor of drone strikes through a
series of statements, interviews and leaks as Obama’s deputy national security
adviser from 2009 to 2013.
Even though Obama was
determined to phase out the drone war in Pakistan
A late July 2013
survey had shown that 61 percent of U.S. Pakistan
and the United States in
trying a different approach to Pakistan
MEDIA
REPORTING DRONES
Rania Khalek, “Seeing What They Want to See in
Malala.” Extra! (Dec. 2013). “Media amplify Yousafzai’s criticism of Taliban,
not US drones.” The “extensive coverage
in US corporate media” of Malala Yousafzai “is well-deserved. But it stands in striking contrast to the
muted coverage” of “US drone strikes” in the meeting she had with Pres.
Obama. Khalek studied ABC, NBC, CBS, NYT, WP ,
USA
PHILIP ALSTON, REPORT BY UN SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR FOR
EXTRA-JUDICIAL KILLING
