Drones in Yemen: "it's like being in a state of waiting endlessly for execution."

[Luminous Animal]

Last year, Ibrahim Mothana, a Yemeni writer and activis wrote and Op-Ed for the NY Times about the devastation of Obama's drone policy in his country. Ibrahim wanted to testify in front of Congress last week in front of the Committee that held a hearing about the legality of said policy. He couldn't make it but prepared opening remarks that he sent to Glenn Greenwald. The Committee has stated that they will enter those remarks into the Congressional Record.

I wish I could post those remarks in full here on DU because they are powerful and heartbreaking. I urge every to go here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/01/ibrahim-mothana-yemen-drones-obama to read them in full.

The Impact on Yemen and its People of the US Targeted Killing Policy

In the past few years, I have visited and worked in areas of Yemen that are the forefront of what the United States views as a global conflict against Al-Qaeda and associated forces. I have witnessed how the US use of armed drones and botched air strikes against alleged militant targets has increased anti-American sentiment in my country, prompting some Yemenis to join violent militant groups, motivated more by a desire for revenge than by ideological beliefs.

We Yemenis got our first experience with targeted killings under the Obama administration on December 17, 2009, with a cruise missile strike in al-Majala, a hamlet in a remote area of southern Yemen. This attack killed 44 people including 21 women and 14 children, according to Yemeni and international rights groups including Amnesty International. The lethal impact of that strike on innocents lasted long after it took place. On August 9, 2010, two locals were killed and 15 were injured from an explosion of one remaining cluster bomb from that strike.

After that tragic event in 2009, both Yemeni and US officials continued a policy of denial that ultimately damaged the credibility and legitimacy of the Yemeni government. According to a leaked US diplomatic cable, in a meeting on January 2, 2010, Deputy Prime Minister Rashad al-Alimi joked about how he had just "lied" by telling the Yemeni parliament the bombs in the al-Majala attack were dropped by the Yemenis, and then-President Ali Abdullah Saleh made a promise to General Petreaus, then the then head of US central command, saying: "We'll continue saying the bombs are ours, not yours." Such collusion added insult to injury to Yemenis.

Animosity has been heightened by the US use of so-called "signature strikes" that target military-age males and groups by secret, remote analysis of lifestyle patterns. In Yemen, we fear that the signature strike approach allows the Obama administration to falsely claim that civilian casualties are non-existent. In the eye of a signature strike, it could be that someone innocent like me is seen as a militant until proven otherwise. How can a dead person prove his innocence? For the many labeled as militants when they are killed, it's difficult to verify if they really were active members of groups like AQAP, let alone whether they deserved to die.

[Luminous Animal]

1. Kick.

[Fumesucker]

2. We have to kill them over there before they swim to America and we have to kill them here n/t

[Luminous Animal]

3. His remarks and the fact that I am reading "Dirty Wars"

is putting me in a very bad mood.

[whatchamacallit]

4. Someone should be along soon to suggest they all had it coming

including the children.

[Luminous Animal]

5. It appears that the pro-drone folks prefer to not say anything.

The silence is revealing.

[bluestate10]

9. I have no issue with killing a person that carries out acts of terror or advocate for

acts of terror. If Drones are the most efficient tools for sending them to hell, then so be it.

[Luminous Animal]

17. While terrorizing millions of innocents.

Do you feel like your are living in a state of waiting endlessly for execution? By the way, advocating for terror is still 1st Amendment protected speech which is why Ann Coulter can get away with advocating the destruction of the NY Times.

[Luminous Animal]

6. Kick.

[bluestate10]

7. Well. Tell terrorists to stop killing and maiming innocent people.

Is an innocent person killed by a terrorist of any less value than an innocent person killed by a Drone? The difference is that the latter isn't purposely targeted.

[Fumesucker]

10. It doesn't feel that way to the folks on the receiving end

They have no idea what's going on for the most part, America is not something people around the world spend a great deal of time thinking about until we drop bombs on them and kill their friends, families and neighbors.

There's two ways to rid yourself of an enemy, one way is to kill them, the other way is to make them your friend.

We aren't making friends with the drone strikes or any other kind of strikes for that matter, we are making very bitter enemies with memories far longer than our remarkably short attention span.

[Luminous Animal]

11. Yep. Hundredes of millions of folks who have nothing to do with terrorism

living under constant threat of being put to death with drone terrorism.

[JanMichael]

12. "purpose" is not the issue. The results are. Collateral damage is a terror tool. nt.

[woo me with science]

8. K&R

[Luminous Animal]

13. Kick!

[HiPointDem]

14. kr

[Solly Mack]

15. K&R

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

16. Ingrates! Don't they realize we're murdering them for their own good?

[Luminous Animal]

18. And terrorizing them for their own good.

[quaker bill]

19. While you and I are appalled

I think this reaction is a sign of success for those who believe in the program. I think the concern has been that the terrorists could effectively hide behind failed governments because we in the west could only approach them via land war as we did in Iraq and Afghanistan. In that we really do not like land wars, and in that they are quite expensive in lives and treasure, these groups could effectively hide.

The intent of the drone war, to the extent I can intuit it, is to prove that we can go anywhere on any day, without the major costs of open surface warfare, without giving them a lot of targets to shoot at, and finally without taking out and replacing the failed government they are hiding behind. In short that we can be bigger terrorists than they can ever hope to achieve.

We object to being the world's biggest terrorist, and reasonably so. Others have worked pretty diligently to put us here and probably read this news as a major win. In a bizarre moment of a different life, I suffered through a couple of "happy hours" with weapons programs designers, and I am pretty sure this is how they think.

[Luminous Animal]

20. Kick