Tweeting Every Drone Strike Has Revealed Possible U.S. War Crimes

The NYU Student Tweeting Every Reported US Drone Strike Has Revealed A Disturbing Trend -- Business Insider

NYU student Josh Begley is tweeting every reported U.S. drone strike since 2002, and the feed highlights a disturbing tactic employed by the U.S. that is widely considered a war crime.

Known as the "double tap," the tactic involves bombing a target multiple times in relatively quick succession, meaning that the second strike often hits first responders.

A 2007 report by the Homeland Security Institute called double taps a "favorite tactic of Hamas" and the FBI considers it a tactic employed by terrorists.

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My Comment: NYU student Josh Begle's twitter feed is here. Complaints of drone "double taps" has been coming out from Pakistan for years. But this is the first time that we can spot the trend .... and yes .... many do believe that hitting first responders in such a fashion is a war crime.

On a side note .... my father fought in the Second World War (Soviet Army) .... and he once told me that for the Nazis this was one of their favorite tactics in bombing .... 10 to 15 minutes after a bombing, a second wave would then come in and kill-off the emergency crews and survivors trying to rescue those who were caught in the first wave.

Tweeting Every Reported US Drone Strike

One Man Is Now Tweeting Every U.S. Drone Strike Known to Man -- The Atlantic

Josh Begley set out to tweet a complete history of known U.S. drone strikes Tuesday with the goal of doing it all in ten minutes. Except there were way too many strikes to tweet, so his original plan fell apart pretty quickly.

You might recognize Begley's name. He is the guy who designed the iPhone app that mapped all the U.S. drone strikes worldwide using publicly available information. Apple removed it multiple times from the App Store this summer. So Begley set out anew to tweet the entire history of drone strikes, spanning over a decade, from an account he created especially for the project, @DroneStream:

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More News On Tweeting Every Reported US Drone Strike

Josh Begley, NYU Grad Student, Tweets Every Drone Strike -- Huffington Post
Tweet history of US drone strikes lasting longer than planned -- The Guardian
Student Tweets Entire History of US Drone Strikes -- Mashable
Tweeting the US drone war -- Al Jazeera
A tweeted tale of drone strikes -- Salon

My Comment: NYU student Josh Begle's twitter feed is here. I am impress .... after a day of tweeting he now has over 8,000 followers.

Defending Drone Strikes

 

Top Pentagon Lawyer Defends Drone Killings -- Foreign Policy 

In a rare public interview, Jeh Johnson, the Pentagon’s top lawyer, argued that the U.S. is able to target terrorists “with great precision,” in a defense of drone strikes. “Now, are we perfect? No. There have been regrettable and unfortunate losses of life, but I believe we have a pretty good track record.” A clip of Johnson’s interview with BBC’s HARDtalk is posted online with the full interview to come later Thursday and Friday.  

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WNU Editor: Must be a trend .... another top U.S. official has come out in defense of drone strikes.

U.N. To Probe Drone Attacks By U.S.

MQ-1 Predator.(Reuters / Handout)

U.N. To Probe Drone Attacks By U.S., Others Resulting In Civilian Deaths -- Washington Post

NEW YORK — An independent U.N. human rights researcher on Thursday announced plans to launch an investigation into the use of drone attacks and other targeted assassinations by the United States and other governments that result in civilian deaths or injuries.

Ben Emmerson, the U.N. special rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights, said in a Harvard University law school speech that he and South African Christof Heyns, the U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, will establish an investigative unit early next year in Geneva to probe drone attacks.

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More News On the U.N. To Probe Drone Attacks

U.N. to probe errant U.S. drone attacks -- UPI
UN ready to take on US over deadly drone attacks -- The Age
U.N. team to investigate civilian drone deaths -- The Slate
United Nations to begin investigating US drone strike targeted kills -- RT
UN to probe into US drone attacks -- Voice of Russia

My Comment: To have a better understanding on what is the mindset of these UN investigators, go here. But as much as they want to have a debate .... it is probably not going to happen. In the meantime, the case against drone strikes continues to build.

The Last Moments Of Life For A U.S. Predator

Air Force officials are seeking volunteers for future training classes to produce operators of the MQ-1 Predator unmanned aircraft. (U.S. Air Force photo/Lt Col Leslie Pratt)

The Last Moments Of Predator #07-3249 -- Washington Post

The drone, armed with a single Hellfire missile, crashed on its approach to the runway next to Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti on May 17, 2011. Air Force investigators concluded that low clouds and humidity obscured the drone’s camera sensor – rendering it “blind” – and that a Global Positioning System malfunction misjudged how close the aircraft was flying to the ground.

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My Comment: There goes a few million dollars. The MQ-1B Predator fact sheet is here. More info on the predator can be found here.

U.S. Report: Drone Attacks Are Killing 50 Civilians For Each Terrorist In Pakistan

New Stanford/NYU Study Documents The Civilian Terror From Obama's Drones -- The Guardian

New research shows the terrorizing impact of drones in Pakistan, false statements from US officials, and how it increases the terror threat.

A vitally important and thoroughly documented new report on the impact of Obama's drone campaign has just been released by researchers at NYU School of Law and Stanford University Law School. Entitled "Living Under Drones: Death, Injury and Trauma to Civilians From US Drone Practices in Pakistan", the report details the terrorizing effects of Obama's drone assaults as well as the numerous, highly misleading public statements from administration officials about that campaign. The study's purpose was to conduct an "independent investigations into whether, and to what extent, drone strikes in Pakistan conformed to international law and caused harm and/or injury to civilians".

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Bombardment: More than 345 strikes have hit Pakistan's tribal areas near the border with Afghanistan in the past eight years. Daily Mail

More News On The Impact Of U.S. Drone Strikes On Civilian Populations

Drones in Pakistan traumatise civilians, US report says -- BBC
'US drone attacks are counter-productive and terrorise civilians' -- The Telegraph
Drone attacks in Pakistan are counterproductive, says report -- The Guardian
Outrage at CIA's deadly 'double tap' drone attacks -- The Independent
America's deadly double tap drone attacks are 'killing 49 people for every known terrorist in Pakistan' -- Daily Mail
Drone strikes in Pakistan have killed many civilians, study says -- L.A. Times
Pakistan Drone Study Finds 'Damaging And Counterproductive' Consequences From U.S. Policy -- Huffington Post
Why Are CIA Drones Still Causing the Death of Innocents in Pakistan? -- Clive Stafford Smith, Huffington Post

A Look At The Drone War In Afghanistan

MQ-9 Reaper. Wikipedia

The Air Force Men Who Fly Drones In Afghanistan By Remote Control -- The Telegraph

The unmanned aircraft patrolling the skies above Afghanistan are controlled by pilots sitting in front of screens as far as 7,000 miles away

Kandahar Airfield in southern Afghanistan is reckoned to be as busy as Gatwick. Every few minutes the cloudless skies are filled with the roar of a military fighter taking off – hugging the ground to avoid pot shots by the Taliban’s crude rockets before disappearing into the heat haze.

In between there is a more persistent sound: the high-pitched whirr of 'drones’ – military aircraft without a human on board – as they head out for 18-hour stints monitoring the vast empty spaces of Afghanistan. This sound, generated by the aircraft’s tail propeller, is a constant white noise for the inhabitants of Kandahar Airfield.

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My Comment: An informative and comprehensive look at the drone war in Afghanistan.