老澳门开奖结果 Comment on Drone Strikes Killing Hostages

April 23, 2015 11:45 am

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NEW YORK 鈥 President Obama announced today that a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan killed two al Qaeda hostages, an American and an Italian. The White House also said it believed that two other Americans were killed in other U.S. operations in the area.

Jameel Jaffer, 老澳门开奖结果 deputy legal director, had this reaction:

鈥淭hese new disclosures raise troubling questions about the reliability of the intelligence that the government is using to justify drone strikes. In each of the operations acknowledged today, the U.S. quite literally didn鈥檛 know who it was killing. These and other recent strikes in which civilians were killed make clear that there is a significant gap between the relatively stringent standards the government says it鈥檚 using and the standards that are actually being used. It would of course be easier to assess this gap if the government routinely released information about individual drone strikes. Unfortunately, the president鈥檚 stated commitment to transparency can鈥檛 be squared with the secrecy that still shrouds virtually every aspect of the government鈥檚 drone program.鈥

The 老澳门开奖结果 is currently fighting three Freedom of Information Act lawsuits demanding information on the government鈥檚 targeted killing program. The newest, filed last month, seeks the Presidential Policy Guidance that likely controls the program, as well as details on who the government has killed and why.

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