A nation that pretends to be a God-fearing nation should at least keep up appearances a lot better. Killing women and children using the tired, outdated cover of "national security" and "targeted killings" is anathema to Christianity. Human Rights Watch has documented international law violations committed by Obama and his puppet masters that the U.S. Citizen should be very alarmed by!
When United States President Barack Obama made a major speech last May on US lethal airstrikes against alleged terrorists, he said one aim was to “facilitate transparency and debate” about their use. Observers would be hard pressed, however, to find commitment to either transparency or debate in the obstructive US response to a draft resolution on targeted killings that is expected to be approved by the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.
The draft resolution urges states to “ensure transparency” on remotely piloted aircraft known as drones, which have become Washington’s preferred weapon for targeted killings. It urges “prompt, independent and impartial investigations whenever there are indications of any violation to human rights” caused by armed drone operations. It instructs the council to convene an expert panel on drone strikes.
The resolution is not perfect. For one thing, it focuses narrowly on drones rather than on targeted killings as a whole. But it would send an important signal that no government—including the US—can shroud deadly drone strikes in an unreasonable level of secrecy. The US has carried out at least 400 drone strikes since Obama took office, reportedly killing upwards of 2,600 people, according to independent research groups. Obama has referred to claims of significant unlawful civilian casualties as “outlandish”. But his administration will not confirm any casualty figures, much less individual strikes or the number of its targeted killing operations.
Human Rights Watch has serious concerns that some if not many US targeted killings may violate international law and Obama’s own policies including his assertion that the US strikes only when it has “near-certainty” that no civilians will be harmed. In examinations of seven US targeted killing operations by drones and other weapons systems since 2009 in Yemen that had killed and wounded civilians, we found clear violations of international humanitarian law—the laws of war—in two attacks.
One unlawful attack killed 14 alleged militants but also 42 sleeping Bedouins, two-thirds of them women and children. The other killed 12 civilians–eight farmers, a mother and three children—coming home from market. We found potential laws-of-war violations in the other five attacks including a strike on cars in a wedding procession that killed 12 men, wounded 15 others and slightly injured the bride.
Read the rest at:
http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/03/24/truth-about-united-states-drone-program
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