does the U.S. pay families when drones kill innocent Yemenis?

[xchrom]

http://www.nationofchange.org/does-us-pay-families-when-drones-kill-innocent-yemenis-1376401011



***SNIP

In response to a Freedom of Information Act request, U.S. Central Command told ProPublica it has 33 pages somehow related to condolence payments in Yemen – but it won’t release any of them, or detail what they are.

The military’s letter rejecting our FOIA cites a series of reasons, including classified national security information. (Here’s the letter.)

There’s no way to know what the military is withholding. A Pentagon spokesman told us they haven’t actually made condolence payments in Yemen. But CIA director John Brennan said during his confirmation process in February that the U.S. does offer condolence payments to the families of civilians killed in U.S. strikes. (Both the military and CIA fly drones over Yemen.)

In May, the White House released new guidelines for targeted killing, saying that there must be a “near certainty that non-combatants will not be injured or killed.” But the administration has said little about how civilian deaths are assessed or handled when they do occur. It has refused to address the U.S. role in almost any particular death – including that of a 10-year-old boy, killed a few weeks after Obama’s promise of increased transparency.

[newfie11]

1. Blood money

We will never know how many innocent people our drones have slaughtered.
But it's ok cause we bought the dead ya know!

[chimpymustgo]

2. They're all MILITANTS! Or FUTURE militants. Or militants' associates. Or militants' families...

Right.

Isn't this information Americans should be allowed to know??? Who is killed, and how much blood money is paid?

[newfie11]

3. Yep

But it's highly classified ya know. Not for us no bodies to see, after all we might be secret Terrorists.

[Caretha]

5. The Government

realized after Viet Nam that when Americans were allowed to see the "carnage" that war reeks, citizens were apt to rise up and protest in large numbers.

Hence, the wars since then have all been "sanitized" for American consumption.

This drone killing must be stopped - where oh where are the enforcers of the Geneva Convention?

[xchrom]

4. ...

[Mnemosyne]

6. $1985.77 - link:

http://bgoodscience.wordpress.com/2011/03/21/body-for-sale-how-are-your-chemical-components-worth/

As little as possible, sadly.

[marmar]

7. k/r