Jane Mayer: The Risks Of A Remote-Controlled War

[phantom power]

I caught most of this on NPR the other day. Very good. I'd like to read her New Yorker article too.

Jane Mayer, a political journalist based in Washington, D.C., is a staff writer for The New Yorker, where she covers politics for the weekly magazine. In the October 26 issue, Mayer examines the ethics and controversies surrounding the CIA's covert drone program, in which remotely controlled, unmanned planes target terror suspects in Pakistan and elsewhere.

Mayer writes that unlike the military's publicly acknowledged drone program in Afghanistan and Iraq — both official war zones — the CIA's campaign doesn't operate in support of U.S. troops on the ground. Instead it's a secret program, run partly by private contractors, that amounts to "targeted international killings by the state," in the words of one human-rights lawyer. Because of its covert status, there's "no visible system of accountability in place," Mayer writes, and a sharp increase in the number of reported drone strikes has raised questions about whether the moral costs and the political consequences have been adequately considered.

Before joining The New Yorker, Mayer worked at the Wall Street Journal, where she served as the publication's first female White House correspondent. She is also the author of the best-selling 2008 book The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals.

Listen to the NPR program here:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113978637

[phantom power]

1. Link to New Yorker article

On August 5th, officials at the C.I.A., in Langley, VA, watched a live video feed relaying closeup footage of one of the most wanted terrorists in Pakistan, Baitullah Mehsud, on the rooftop of his father-in-law’s house. The video was captured by the infrared camera of a Predator drone—a remotely controlled, unmanned plane that had been hovering, undetected, two miles or so above the house. The C.I.A. remotely launched two Hellfire missiles from the Predator, and Mehsud and eleven others died.

There was no controversy when, a few days after the missile strike, CNN reported that President Barack Obama had authorized it. However, there was widespread anger after the Wall Street Journal revealed, at about the same time, that during the Bush Administration the C.I.A. had considered setting up hit squads to capture or kill Al Qaeda operatives around the world.

Hina Shamsi, a human-rights lawyer at the New York University School of Law, was struck by the inconsistency of the public’s responses. She said of the Predator program, “These are targeted international killings by the state.” The Predator program, as it happens, also uses private contractors for a variety of tasks, including “flying” the drones.

The U.S. government runs two drone programs. The military’s version, which is publicly acknowledged, operates in the recognized war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq, and targets combatants in support of U.S. troops stationed there. The C.I.A.’s program is aimed at terror suspects around the world, including in places where U.S. troops are not based. The program is classified as covert, and the C.I.A. declines to provide any information to the public about where it operates, how it selects targets, who is in charge, or how many people have been killed.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/10/26/091026fa_fact_mayer

[guitar man]

2. Hmmm

Could we be headed for A Taste of Armageddon?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4Wn2wlOwSU

[FiveGoodMen]

3. Might as well if we aren't going to get any smarter than this

[phantom power]

4. I feel sure that we aren't making any friends with this program.

Or, not the right kind of friends, anyway. Two of the most disturbing things that Mayer reported on are

1) the CIA is now broadening its "target list" to include people suggested by Pakistan. In other words, they are beginning to act like hired killers for other govts.

2) private contractors are actually running some of these drones.


So people are being remotely killed for foreign governments, by 21st-century hessians, and it is being done in our name.

Not good.