B.RAMAN
The use of the Drone (unmanned aircraft) strikes to
kill Al Qaeda suspects in the Wazirisan area of Pakistan and in Yemen started
under former President George Bush. These strikes are carried out by the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Mr.Bush
carefully maintained the deniability of any role that he might be playing from
the White House in ordering these strikes.
2. Under the CIA’s charter as revised in the 1970s,
the CIA cannot undertake any operation to kill an individual without a written
directive from the President. Keeping this view, the Bush Administration kept
the circumstances surrounding the Drone strikes vague and unclear.
3. After coming to office, President Barack Obama
has ordered a dramatic escalation of Drone strikes in the Waziristan area as
well as in Yemen to neutralise identified suspects of Al Qaeda. These strikes
have killed many important operatives of Al Qaeda. At the same time, they have also killed many
innocent Pakistanis adding to anti-US anger in Pakistan.
4. To give a heroic image to Mr.Obama, his advisers
have been projecting the Drone strikes as carefully chosen and decided by Mr.Obama
himself, thereby weakening the deniability of his role.
5. This is now threatening to boomerang by raising
two issues: Firstly, is it legal for the US President to knowingly order a Drone strike meant to kill a US
citizen? Secondly, is it legal for the US to knowingly undertake Drone strikes
despite the knowledge that they might kill innocent civilians? The first
question has been raised in the US itself and the second before the UN Human
Rights Council in Geneva.
6. The relevance of the first question in the US
arises from the fact that Anwar al-Awlaki, the chief of Al Qaeda in Yemen, who
was allegedly killed in a US Drone strike, was stated to have been a US citizen
before he fled from the US to Yemen and took over the leadership of the local
Al Qaeda. Those who have raised this issue in the US suspect that Mr.Obama
might have ordered other Drone strikes against US citizens knowing them to be
US citizens.
7. The US Civil Liberties Union and “The New York
Times” have filed separate petitions before a US federal court requesting for
access to Government documents relating to the Drone strikes. The Obama
Administration has strongly opposed their petitions on grounds of national
security and urged the court to reject their petitions outright. After having
boasted that Mr.Obama personally orders the Drone strikes, the Government is
now refusing even to confirm whether any documents on the subject exist.
8. In a counter filed before a district court in
New York on June 20,2012, the Government said: “Whether or not the CIA has the
authority to be, or is in fact, directly involved in targeted lethal operations
remains classified.”
9.The American Civil Liberties Union and “The New
York Times” have requested for access to
the documents explaining the legal basis for the raids and the killing of
terror suspects who are US citizens. The Government has asked the court for a summary judgement to
dismiss their petitions.
10.The Government’s counter-petition said: “Even to
describe the numbers and details of most of these documents would reveal
information that could damage the government’s counterterrorism efforts.”
11. Describing the Government’s argument as
“absurd”, the ACLU said the Drone strikes
were an open secret that Government officials had boasted about to reporters.
12. “Senior
officials have discussed it, both on the record and off. They have taken credit
for its putative successes, professed it to be legal and dismissed concerns
about civilian casualties,” ACLU Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer said in a
statement.
13.“The public is entitled to know more about the
legal authority the administration is claiming and the way that the
administration is using it.”
14.The ACLU called on the Obama administration to reveal information
“about the process by which individuals, including American citizens, are added
to government kill lists”.
15. The White House has simultaneously organised a
series of speeches and briefings by officials, including Mr. Obama’s chief
counterterrorism adviser John Brennan, to explain to the American people “the
legal analysis and process involved.”
16. In the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva,
Mr.Ben Emmerson, a Special Rapporteur, urged the US on June 21 to demonstrate that its Drone strikes are
legal. Otherwise, he warned that the Council
may be called on to investigate. He added: “Each and every US attack will be
investigated. Somebody needs to do right by these victims. The international
community is extremely concerned about the use of targeted killings”. (
22-6-12)
( The writer is Additional Secretary (retd),
Cabinet Secretariat, Govt of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director,
Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate, Chennai Centre For China
Studies. E-Mail: seventyone2@gmail.com . Twitter: @SORBONNE75 )
