The unfortunate reality is that these drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and other places within the world are illegal. The Obama administration like all presidencies before his like to say that these instances are not “acts of war” and thus do not require Congressional approval. And in many ways – the executive branch’s power to take these actions comes from Congress having failed in it’s responsibility as a check to the authority of the executive branch.
But regardless of Congressional inaction … we know that many innocent people have died due to these drone strikes. We know that killing innocent people only further incites violence and breeds next generation’s terrorist. And we know that when it comes to “making the call” using drone strikes in areas like Pakistan, Yemen etc … Obama is responsible for the deaths of more people under his presidency than Bush. But we also now know thanks to great reporting by ProPublica that the Obama administration has not been consistent about what it purports to be the results of these drone strikes.
You can find Propublica’s interactive timeline HERE.
Propublica tracks the Obama administration’s claims with drone strikes; they say there is no consistency HERE:
So we decided to narrow it down to just one issue: have the administration’s own claims been consistent?
We collected claims by the administration about deaths from drone strikes in Pakistan and compared each one not to local reports but rather to other administration claims. The numbers sometimes do not add up. (Check out our interactive graphic to explore the claims.)
Even setting aside the discrepancy between official and outside estimates of civilian deaths, our analysis shows that the administration’s own figures quoted over the years raise questions about their credibility.
Meanwhile – at the UN … lots of talk and no action HERE:
The Permanent Representative of Pakistan reiterated the position of the Government of Pakistan that drone strikes were contrary to international law and a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty, and were counter-productive.
He called upon the international community to pay heed to the concerns expressed by the High Commissioner and the Special Procedures with regard to drone attacks.
The prominent human rights organisation, Amnesty International, in its statement, also said that the drone attacks “disregard human rights law” and that “the carrying out of killings …. represents a fundamental challenge to the whole international system for the protection of human rights.”
