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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDrone Pilots' Bank Accounts & Credit Cards Frozen by Feds for Exposing Murder
By reliable estimates, ninety percent of those killed in drone strikes are entirely harmless people, making the program a singularly effective method of producing anti-American terrorism. We kill four and create ten, Bryant said during a November 19 press conference, referring to potential terrorists. If you kill someones father, uncle or brother who had nothing to do with anything, their families are going to want revenge.
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Investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill has produced evidence suggesting that the White House-approved killing of Anwar al-Awlakis son may have been carried out as retaliation against the family for refusing to cooperate in the search for the cleric. There are indications that the government has tried to intimidate the whistleblowers by intimidating their families.
In October, while Brandon Bryant was preparing to testify about the drone program before a German parliamentary committee, his mother LanAnn received a visit in her Missoula, Montana home from two representatives of the Air Forces Office of Special Investigations. The men claimed that her personal information was in the hands of the Islamic State, which had placed her name on a hit list. She was also told not to share that disclosure with anyone a directive she promptly ignored by informing Ms. Radack, who represents Brandon and the other whistleblowers.
More at the link.
randys1
(16,286 posts)just how wrong they are could come home to haunt us.
In their minds the USA is the Empire like in Star Wars, we are the BAD GUYS in their minds and in their minds that is all that matters if we care about not creating new terrorists.
think
(11,641 posts)ruffburr
(1,190 posts)Not going to turn out well for these guys, They in all probability will be crucified by the M.I.C. for Exposing the truth to the world, True Heroes, Who have put everything on the line.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)Whistleblowers have problems with what Uncle Sam is doing. In the old days, when the US taxpayer found out, there'd be holy hell to pay. Now, it's all secret -- from the beneficiaries of secret drone kills to the companies cashing in on all the death, except for one thing: who gets to pay the bill.
elehhhhna
(32,076 posts)lpbk2713
(42,766 posts)And the Pentagon sees no problem here.
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)Guaranteed jobs program for military contractors and their paid stooges in Congress. The only people not getting a taste and kept in the dark about all this are the people funding it through their taxes. So, you know, win-win-win.
erronis
(15,326 posts)w0nderer
(1,937 posts)hifiguy
(33,688 posts)We, as a society, deserve exactly the comeuppance karma surely has waiting for us.
valerief
(53,235 posts)Just the PTB have that. Well, except for the people who serve up their kids to join the military.
erronis
(15,326 posts)Unless they join the Dark Side.
valerief
(53,235 posts)they just encourage them.
I realize our govt makes it difficult for people with no options to avoid the military. Sometimes I wonder if drug dealing is safer than the military.
LiberalArkie
(15,727 posts)applied for whistle blower protection? That is what is available for everyone like Manning and Snowden isn't it?
OxQQme
(2,550 posts)Have you been in the dark about the fate of those that speak up about the injustices?
Name one or two who have not been been harassed and persecuted.
The "channels" lead to a dark hole.
LiberalArkie
(15,727 posts)that ever made it were financial ones. I think that a Manning or one of these guys would have just disappeared in the system somewhere. Snowden was a contractor so he was never eligible in the first place.
erronis
(15,326 posts)Does someone hold their personal jewels over a toaster?
Rahm's failures in the Windy City are reflective on BO, right?
How many WS thieves have spent time in federal prison?
snot
(10,530 posts)Here's hoping Obama's balls get bigger before he dies; and not just from holding it all in.
Yallow
(1,926 posts)This is insanity.
gordyfl
(598 posts)Mamana Bibi, a 68-year old grandmother, was killed in October 2012 as she picked vegetables in her family's fields. The US government has not acknowledged her death nor spoken to her grandchildren, some of whom watched the Hellfire missiles hit their grandmother while standing nearby.