Drone Papers Reveal Inner Workings of America’s Assassination Program

A whistleblower has leaked a series of top-secret US military documents that expose the way America conducts its drone strikes.

The Intercept obtained the classified reports from an anonymous source, whose bravery in their commitment to the public interest compares to that of Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning.

The documents provide insight into US drone activity between 2011-2013 – a key period in the era of drone warfare – and include key points on how & why the United States conducts its unmanned killings.

According to journalist Jeremy Scahill, the source claimed: “The public has a right to understand the process by which people are placed on kill lists and ultimately assassinated.”

Some of the most fascinating disclosures include:

THE KILL CHAIN:

A messed-up, military edition of Top Trumps, in which suspects destined for the kill list had their personal information and threat level condensed into a small character profile, unofficially known as a ‘baseball card.’ The ‘baseball cards’ were then shown to Obama, who had 60 days to approve a strike on the target.

Also exposed is how the Obama administration planned strikes. A flow chart shows the structure through which Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) had to obtain authorisation for an attack. This essentially reveals that although Obama signed off each kill, he wasn’t specific intelligence on the risk to civilians. There appears to be no strict mandate for usage of the term ‘near certainty’ of a successful strike; the only criteria the plan had to meet was that the loss of innocent life was ‘unlikely.’

These specific leaks derail the government’s consistent rhetoric that drone strikes precisely kill the intended targets whilst minimalizing civilian casualties.

MANHUNTING IN THE HINDU KISH:

That rhetoric is hampered more by the stark fact that between January 2012 – February 2013, only 35 out of more than 200 drone-induced deaths were the intended targets.

Until these leaks, there were only independent voices that raised the issue of unintended deaths from airstrikes. These actual government documents add some necessary fuel to the debate on ‘accidental’ killing.

FIRING BLIND:

Back in 2013 we had the Snowden files, which exposed the use of metadata for domestic surveillance. Now we have the flipside, with details of how metadata was used in foreign surveillance. The limited, highly flawed capability of Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) played a key role in identifying terror suspects in Yemen and Somalia.

THE LIFE AND DEATH OF OBJECTIVE PECKHAM:

The military strategists also showed an undeniable preference to kill people rather than capture them. This is evident in the case of Bilal el-Berjawi, a former British citizen of Lebanese descent.

Having been accused of having ties to al Qaeda, he was stripped of his British citizenship, and subsequently placed on America’s kill list. He was killed by an American drone in January 2012.

Although the files did not name him specifically, (the report identified the target as ‘Objective Peckham’), The Intercept claims there were enough details in the reports to match the alias with the movements of Berjawi; confirming his identity beyond any reasonable doubt.

Furthermore, evidence suggests he had been on under both UK and US surveillance since at least 2007, when counterterrorism agents at an airport in Lebanon first questioned him.

Between then and the time of his death, more than enough evidence could have been compiled against Berjawi – including details of his visits to training camps affiliated with al Qaeda – which would more than hold up in court.

But there was no trial, no jury, only an assassination.

The White House has unsurprisingly refused to comment on the leaks; a standard position for it to hold, regarding classified information. Well, it used to be classified information.

The Drone Papers are another blow to America’s approach to the war on terror — one of ‘shoot first, ask questions later.’ It’s only now, however, that those questions are really beginning to be asked.

The full leaks, as well as more exposes on Western government transparency, can be found at www.theintercept.com

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