{"id":94326,"date":"2013-11-26T17:30:44","date_gmt":"2013-11-26T17:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/report-more-drone-strike-deaths-since-obama-announced-new-constraint\/"},"modified":"2013-11-26T18:34:39","modified_gmt":"2013-11-26T18:34:39","slug":"report-more-drone-strike-deaths-since-obama-announced-new-constraint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/report-more-drone-strike-deaths-since-obama-announced-new-constraint\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: More Drone Strike Deaths Since Obama Announced New \u201cConstraint\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Each drone strike now kills more people on average in Yemen, Pakistan<\/strong><\/p>\n

Steve Watson<\/strong><\/p>\n

A new report from a leading watchdog on drone missile use concludes that there have been more deaths from strikes in the six months AFTER president Obama announced a new \u201cconstraint\u201d on use of the technology than there were in the six months before.<\/p>\n

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism<\/a> in London says that their new analysis calls into question the promise by Obama to limit the use of drones in targeted killings of suspected terrorists overseas.<\/p>\n

Obama made the remarks in an address at the National Defense University back in May<\/a>, stating that \u201cThe same human progress that gives us the technology to strike half a world away also demands the discipline to constrain that power \u2014 or risk abusing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The president even called into question the morality of drone missile use, and briefed the media<\/a> on a potential overhaul of targeted killing policy and so called \u2018signature strikes’.<\/p>\n

The headlines<\/a> that followed suggested that there was to be \u201cimportant shifts in the policy of using unmanned drones to kill citizens of other countries.\u201d The Mainstream media reported that the US military would be exclusively handed responsibility for all drone strikes outside of Afghanistan, and that deaths from the attacks would likely be significantly reduced.<\/p>\n

None of that has happened.<\/p>\n

Indeed, as the Bureau reports, While the number of covert strikes fell in Yemen and Pakistan in the six months after the speech, \u201cthe overall death toll has increased.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Yemen, civilians have reportedly been killed in drone strikes after the speech.\u201d the report notes. \u201cBetween six and seven civilians were reported killed, two of whom were said to be children.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt also emerged this month that the US knew it had killed civilians in strikes after the speech.\u201d the report continues.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe LA Times reported<\/a> that the CIA briefed Congress about civilian casualties, including a child aged 6-13 who had been riding in a car with his older brother, an alleged militant, when the drones attacked. The CIA reportedly did not know he was in the car at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bureau notes<\/a> that every single drone strike in Yemen in the six months since Obama’s speech came during one intense two week period in late July and August. Eight strikes were carried out in response, we were told, to intelligence that a Yemeni terrorist plot was about to go live.<\/p>\n

In the same period, the US temporarily closed over 20 embassies and consulates in Africa and the Middle East, fearing a repeat of the Benghazi attack of 2012.<\/p>\n

It is thought that at least 29 people were killed by the drone strikes, \u201cbut only three of them were described in reports as significant leaders in the group.\u201d the Bureau notes.<\/p>\n

In Pakistan, the prevailing trend of fewer deaths from drone strikes since 2009 has been reversed since Obama promised more restraint. \u201cIn the six months before the speech, an average of 3.5 people were killed in each strike. Since the speech this has risen to almost five.\u201d the report notes.<\/p>\n

Many of the strikes in Pakistan were thought to have targeted Hakimullah Mehsud, leader of the Pakistan Taliban, who is now reported to have been killed three times already.<\/p>\n

Amnesty International has declared that the drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen are responsible for unlawful killings, some of which could amount to war crimes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In October, a 97-page report by Human Rights Watch came to the conclusion that drone strikes against suspected members of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in Yemen are killing more civilians than suspected terrorists<\/a>. The report noted that out of 82 people killed in 6 HRW case study attacks, 57 were civilians.<\/p>\n

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Steve Watson<\/strong> is the London based writer and editor for Alex Jones’ Infowars.com<\/a>, and Prisonplanet.com<\/a>. He has a Masters Degree in International Relations from the School of Politics at The University of Nottingham, and a Bachelor Of Arts Degree in Literature and Creative Writing from Nottingham Trent University.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Published with permission
\nSource: Infowars<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Each drone strike now kills more people on average in Yemen, Pakistan Steve Watson A new report from a leading watchdog on drone missile use concludes that there have been more deaths from strikes in the six months AFTER president Obama announced a new \u201cconstraint\u201d on use of the technology than there were in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1213,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-94326","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1213"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94326\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}