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ACLU Sues Over Legality of "Targeted Killing" By Drones
MacAndrew writes "The ACLU has sued the United States Government to enforce a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for 'the release of records relating to the use of unmanned aerial vehicles — commonly known as 'drones' — for the purpose of targeting and killing individuals since September 11, 2001.' (Complaint.) The information sought includes the legal basis for use of the drones, how the program is managed, and the number of civilian deaths in areas of operation such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Yemen. The ACLU further claims that 'Recent reports, including public statements from the director of national intelligence, indicate that US citizens have been placed on the list of targets who can be hunted and killed with drones.' Aside from one's view of the wisdom, effectiveness, and morality of these military operations, the inclusion of US citizens suggests that summary remote-control executions are becoming routine. Especially given the difficulty in locating and targeting individuals from aircraft, risks of human and machine error are obvious, and these likely increase as the robots become increasingly autonomous (please no Skynet jokes). This must give pause to anyone who's ever spent time coding or debugging or even driving certain willful late model automobiles, and the US government evidently doesn't want to discuss it."
I'm not entirely sure they can sue this due to jurisdiction issues.
Plus they are the American Civil Liberties Union, Not only are the targets NOT american, the dont really have Civil Liberties either.
Im assuming the pilots behind the UAVs have target criteria, and need to provide evidence of said criteria to receive permission to eliminate the target.
Excuse me for the muslims to not respect the geneva convention, not be uniformed, and the fact they take pleasure in hiding behind their families or neighbors, sick, injured or children. When a few individuals fire at you from a crowded market, you want me to just sit there and deal with being shot at and possibly die, FU ACLU.
Also, whats the word we can take from those countries that they were actually civilians? Someone carrying a gun is militia, someone who died carrying a gun was a soldier, but in the time it takes to get a team in there to confirm kills, those guns disappear and now proof of militia is gone and so they are just civilians now. I doubt the Civilian casualties are actually as high as they are perceived. I think it usually is militia, but someone else picks up the gun and takes their place.
Im a troll because I disagree with you.
Which is what these devices do, if I follow the news from the past few years. These missiles just explode, and anyone near enough gets killed or injured also. This is not any different from a car bomb, which that same government would most probably call terrorism. When it is a missile instead of a car, it is obviously terrorism also, but I bet that the government won't call it that.
For the victims, it is just a bomb like any other. Is it really that difficult that you fight a war on on terrorism with intelligence, and a war on terra with military force?
Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
However, that is not what is going on here. Specifically, those targeted are enemy combatants. They are not being targeted "merely because the president says so", but rather because they are engaged in combat operations against the United States.
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
Don't worry once Pelosi and Obama use a bunch of extra constitutional tricker to pass this healthcare bill, you can be assured the RFID chips are but a few short years away.
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
How do you have an above TS clearance? Do you mean to say that you had TS clearance with additional classifications? Because there is nothing above TS and of course at all levels there is the "need to know" rule.
It's funny. One would think that when presented with such abuse of power, the person abusing those powers would be stripped of said powers.
Oh, wait...no such abuse has yet presented.
My bad...
Don't fret. I have no fear of Airplanes or Helicopters. Not even Black SUVs. You see, unlike others, I tend *not* to let emotional rhetoric affect my ability to utilize logic and common sense. :)
Yeah .. that's it. We'll just ask for ID cards proving citizenship before we shoot back at someone.
If you are specifically targeting someone, you already have identified them. Targeting isn't a case of getting into a gunfight with someone, killing him, then finding out he's John Doe, US Citizen. It's saying "John Doe, US Citizen, must die. Let's send in the drones to blow up his car."
I am not a crackpot.
In the battlefield of the kind US soldiers face in the Middle East, I think it would be a tad cumbersome to verify the combatant down your gun sight isn't a citizen before pulling the trigger.
First rule of firearm use: Don't point the barrel end at anything you're not ready to kill.
'Tad cumbersome' indeed. If you're fighting a war where you cannot tell the good guys from the bad guys from the innocents, maybe you should stop killing people until you figure it out?
Likewise, if a US citizen defects or otherwise joins the 'enemy' in the fight against US forces, then there is no distinction between the citizen and non-citizens in the target zone.
How it differs from an extrajudicial killing is dubious though, I agree.
Here's a hint, if he's shooting at you, shoot back. If he's on TV making you look bad, don't shoot.
You can take it from there, I'm sure.
It's a serious question. I want to know what an above top secret clearance is and what one has to do to qualify. Why is there no public record of any clearance higher than top secret?
There is easy way to find out if they are guilty of the terrorist acts. Just fire the judgement missile using the freedom drone. If the target dies, then he/she was a terrorist and mission was a great success.