Getting around to making some drone rules...sort of

"The Slatest" has a piece on how the White House is finally getting around to making some rules for when it's appropriate to hunt people down with drones and kill them. It's here. The only actually heartening news out of all this is that the powers that be within the Administration are not so united as they might appear, and that the United Nations is going to set up a unit to investigate drone strikes early next year. Otherwise, we're still talking about some deep, deep denial. 

What happened to Leon Panetta?

I happened upon this rather dismaying report over at Danger Room today. Although at one point, Panetta apparently believed that the war against al Quaida was all but over, such is the case no more.

"Now, a more dour Panetta believes that it’s not enough to continue the drone strikes and commando raids in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia; they’ve got to expand “outside declared combat zones” to places like Nigeria, Mali and even Libya."

Now Secretary of Defense and previously the director of the CIA, many people also know that Panetta was Bill Clinton's Chief of Staff, and had a long and distinguished career in the House of Representatives. Not everyone, though, can say, as I can, that he was their representative, and attest that he was fondly thought of by many people on the Central Coast, which is where he was born. I can remember seeing him sitting in the outdoor dining area at Carmel Plaza once. He hosted a series of popular talks at the Instititute for for Public  Policy, which he and his wife founded at Cal State Monterey Bay.

So what happened to you, Leon? Or do you even know?

Accountability

I've got a backlog of drone material, but meanwhile, here's a lucid expostion of the anti-drone position by Barbara Lochbihler, Chair of the Subcommittee on Human Rights of the European Parliament. A small sample:

"The US drone program’s legal basis is entirely unclear, however. Given that most information about UAV activity is classified, it is impossible to know whether all drone targets directly participated in hostilities. And, while the Obama administration’s claim of zero or single-digit civilian fatalities may be true according to the official definition, it rests on the premise that any military-age male killed in a drone strike is a militant, unless intelligence posthumously proves otherwise."

Imran Khan

There are times when I am not entirely sure that it's a good thing to be so out there on my opposition to drone attacks. But at least I'm just an ordinary private citizen. Might be more difficult if you were a high level official who actually has some impact.  The news at Just Foreign Policy is that it might be quite different if you were a popular Pakistani politician, as Imran Khan, who the Guardian reports is on the Prime Minister fast track, was detained at the Canadian border while on his way to a U.S. fundraiser. He missed the fundraiser, but didn't miss out on doing some tweets about his experience.

Advice to drone prone Administration--don't underestimate the power of Twitter... 


Check out that Guardian post. It packs in a lot of information.

Israel shoots down drone

If I had time, I could probably post a new entry here every day. This entry comes from Slate. Apparently, today (Saturday), Israel shot down an unidentified drone that had strayed into their airspace. No one really knows who sent it yet, though Israel seems to think it was an Iranian drone sent in by Hezbollah. Read more about it HERE.  

Just Foreign Policy

Well, I can't leave up a positive drone post for too long, so I'll put up this LINK to a Just Foreign Policy post about why the drone strike policy will fail. An easy to read point by point analysis.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention that there is a Petition you can sign against the drone strike policy in Pakistan. Or go HERE if you just want to cut to the chase and sign it.

Drones, the positive side

I actually have a backlog of negative drone reportage, but every once in awhile I suppose it's a good idea to mention some good things that can be done with them. In any case, here's an article from the Huffinton Post about some Swiss filmmakers who are using drones to photograph a world class climber tackling Pakistan's Karakoram, "one of the world's most demanding and forbidding mountain ranges".