blackascoal
The Force is With Me
Predator Drone 'Double-Taps' Highlight Possible War Crimes By Obama
excerpt --
These "double-tap" attacks end up hitting "first responders" to the rubble and ashes that are left over after the initial strike, and Begley's tweets reveal that the U.S. has been intentionally targeting funerals and civilian rescuers.
While these tactics, when discussed at all (Obama's drone program is shrouded in an intense level of secrecy), are justified under the rubric of "national security," even the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI have classified "double-taps" as staples of terrorists, not the repertoire of supposed constitutional republics.
So while the "double-tap" method may please the likes of Hamas and the abortion clinic bomber Eric Rudolph, these attacks, even by the most broad definitions of international law, are blatant war crimes.
According to UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings Christof Heyns, "secondary strikes on rescuers who are helping (the injured) after an initial drone attack, those further attacks are a war crime." Clive Stafford-Smith, the lawyer who heads the Anglo-US legal charity Reprieve, believes that such strikes “are like attacking the Red Cross on the battlefield. It’s not legitimate to attack anyone who is not a combatant.”
Not only has the Obama administration adopted the use of "double-taps" in its already hyper-aggressive drone warfare, the U.S. military now officially says that children are legitimate targets in the war in Afghanistan because the Taliban "may be recruiting children." While this may or may not be the case, President Obama's drone strikes have killed at least 178 children so far, proving that this may be yet another attempt to cloak the innocent deaths caused by drone strikes — and the anticipation of many, many more — in some type of legalese justification.
A study, however, from Columbia Law School’s Human Rights Institute finds that the number of Pakistani civilians killed in drone strikes are “significantly and consistently underestimated" and that as many as 98% of those killed by drone strikes are civilians.
more
http://www.policymic.com/articles/2...e-taps-highlight-possible-war-crimes-by-obama
America's deadly double tap drone attacks are 'killing 49 people for every known terrorist in Pakistan'
Just one in 50 victims of America’s deadly drone strikes in Pakistan are terrorists – while the rest are innocent civilians, a new report claimed today.
The authoritative joint study, by Stanford and New York Universities, concludes that men, women and children are being terrorised by the operations ’24 hours-a-day’.
And the authors lay much of the blame on the use of the ‘double-tap’ strike where a drone fires one missile – and then a second as rescuers try to drag victims from the rubble. One aid agency said they had a six-hour delay before going to the scene.
The tactic has cast such a shadow of fear over strike zones that people often wait for hours before daring to visit the scene of an attack. Investigators also discovered that communities living in fear of the drones were suffering severe stress and related illnesses. Many parents had taken their children out of school because they were so afraid of a missile-strike.
more
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...e-known-terrorist-Pakistan.html#ixzz2IiTGDPNe
Blow up those who come to help .. perhaps to save their children.
excerpt --
These "double-tap" attacks end up hitting "first responders" to the rubble and ashes that are left over after the initial strike, and Begley's tweets reveal that the U.S. has been intentionally targeting funerals and civilian rescuers.
While these tactics, when discussed at all (Obama's drone program is shrouded in an intense level of secrecy), are justified under the rubric of "national security," even the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI have classified "double-taps" as staples of terrorists, not the repertoire of supposed constitutional republics.
So while the "double-tap" method may please the likes of Hamas and the abortion clinic bomber Eric Rudolph, these attacks, even by the most broad definitions of international law, are blatant war crimes.
According to UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings Christof Heyns, "secondary strikes on rescuers who are helping (the injured) after an initial drone attack, those further attacks are a war crime." Clive Stafford-Smith, the lawyer who heads the Anglo-US legal charity Reprieve, believes that such strikes “are like attacking the Red Cross on the battlefield. It’s not legitimate to attack anyone who is not a combatant.”
Not only has the Obama administration adopted the use of "double-taps" in its already hyper-aggressive drone warfare, the U.S. military now officially says that children are legitimate targets in the war in Afghanistan because the Taliban "may be recruiting children." While this may or may not be the case, President Obama's drone strikes have killed at least 178 children so far, proving that this may be yet another attempt to cloak the innocent deaths caused by drone strikes — and the anticipation of many, many more — in some type of legalese justification.
A study, however, from Columbia Law School’s Human Rights Institute finds that the number of Pakistani civilians killed in drone strikes are “significantly and consistently underestimated" and that as many as 98% of those killed by drone strikes are civilians.
more
http://www.policymic.com/articles/2...e-taps-highlight-possible-war-crimes-by-obama
America's deadly double tap drone attacks are 'killing 49 people for every known terrorist in Pakistan'
Just one in 50 victims of America’s deadly drone strikes in Pakistan are terrorists – while the rest are innocent civilians, a new report claimed today.
The authoritative joint study, by Stanford and New York Universities, concludes that men, women and children are being terrorised by the operations ’24 hours-a-day’.
And the authors lay much of the blame on the use of the ‘double-tap’ strike where a drone fires one missile – and then a second as rescuers try to drag victims from the rubble. One aid agency said they had a six-hour delay before going to the scene.
The tactic has cast such a shadow of fear over strike zones that people often wait for hours before daring to visit the scene of an attack. Investigators also discovered that communities living in fear of the drones were suffering severe stress and related illnesses. Many parents had taken their children out of school because they were so afraid of a missile-strike.
more
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...e-known-terrorist-Pakistan.html#ixzz2IiTGDPNe
Blow up those who come to help .. perhaps to save their children.
