Thursday, July 04, 2013

New report documents the human cost of U.S. drone strikes in Yemen...

There are more than 80 names at the end of a human rights report published online this week. Each one is said to belong to a civilian killed or maimed as a result of U.S. missile strikes in Yemen since 2009. They were mothers, fathers, children and grandparents – and they stand in contrast to claims that the United States does not launch missiles into Yemen unless there is a "near-certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured," as President Obama told the nation in May.

The names are preceded by 25 pages of detailed descriptions of U.S. airstrikes in Yemen and their consequences, offering a rare level of information on specific attacks and their physical, psychological and financial impacts on individual Yemeni civilians.

"For me, its power is in the totality," says Gregory D. Johnsen, a former Fulbright Fellow in Yemen and author of the book The Last Refuge: Yemen, Al Qaeda, and America's War in Arabia. "We tend to hear about these strikes in drips and drabs over the course of months and years, but the report is the most comprehensive one I've seen on U.S. strikes in Yemen."

The report has been turned over to Ben Emmerson, the United Nations' special rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism, who is in the midst of an investigation into the civilian impacts of U.S. targeted killings and drone strikes abroad. The interviews contained within – collected by Alkarama, a Swiss-based human rights organization, and HOOD, an organization of lawyers and activists in Yemen – paint a violent picture of life on the receiving end of U.S. counterterrorism policy in the Arabian Peninsula. Full story...

Related posts:
  1. Yemen: The innocent victims of the Obama drone wars...
  2. Chorus grows in Pakistan for strike against US assassination drones...
  3. Angry Pakistan summons envoy after U.S. drone strike kills nine...
  4. CIA didn't always know who it was killing in drone strikes...
  5. Disgusted drone pilot quits air force...
  6. Cowardice redefined, the new face of American serial killers...
  7. Drones cause ‘growing hatred of America’
  8. Obama lied about targets of drone strikes...
  9. Naming the dead: five stories of drone victims...
  10. Hey, hey, Barack! What do you say? How many kids have you killed today?

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