The U.N. is taking the first steps in a process which inevitably will lead to various U.N. agencies and international N.G.O.s claiming that the drone strikes ordered by the U.S. government constitute war crimes, as reported by The New York Times:
A senior United Nations official is expected to call on the United States next week to stop Central Intelligence Agency drone strikes against people suspected of belonging to Al Qaeda, complicating the Obama administration’s growing reliance on that tactic in Pakistan.
Philip Alston, the United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said Thursday that he would deliver a report on June 3 to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva declaring that the “life and death power” of drones should be entrusted to regular armed forces, not intelligence agencies. He contrasted how the military and the C.I.A. responded to allegations that strikes had killed civilians by mistake.
While the U.N. has not taken the position yet that such attacks constitute war crimes, the U.S. government is concerned with where this process may lead:
In recent months, top lawyers for the State Department and the Defense Department have tried to square the idea that the C.I.A.’s drone program is lawful with the United States’ efforts to prosecute Guantánamo Bay detainees accused of killing American soldiers in combat, according to interviews and a review of military documents….
Mr. Alston, the United Nations official, said he agreed with the Obama legal team that “it is not per se illegal” under the laws of war for C.I.A. operatives to fire drone missiles “because anyone can stand up and start to act as a belligerent.” Still, he emphasized, they would not be entitled to battlefield immunity like soldiers.
I warned about this previously in Drone Strikes Put Obama Admin Officials At Risk, noting how the same Mr. Alston previously raised the issue of drone strikes constituting human rights violations:
“My concern is that drones/Predators are being operated in a framework which may well violate international humanitarian law and international human rights law,” he said.
The use of human rights laws against democracies defending themselves against terrorists is a favorite tactic, and Israel is the usual target. The goal is to tie the hands of civil societies through false moral equivalencies, in which the terrorist trying to kill civilians is equated to the people trying to stop the terrorist.
Expect more of this, as the world becomes less enthralled with Obama, and seeks to give him some small measure of the attention given George W. Bush.
What goes around comes around, and it will come around for Obama and those in his administration who were so quick to accuse Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld of violating international and domestic law as they struggled to find a means of stopping al–Qaeda.
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Comments
What did Obama expect when you coddle Isalmic fascists, ignorant oligarchs, third world tyrants and their mouth pieces at the UN. Instead of standing up for freedom and democracy by backing Israel he made it illegal for us to defend ourselves against evil. Whether they charge him with war crimes or not, the porblme is that he, as I have said before, is going to get our children killed.
But then again maybe this is the excuse he wants in order to override the Pentagon and stop the drone attacks. This way he can continue to disarm, denigrate and destroy this country.
It's easy to throw around these types of allegations when you yourself are unwilling to take responsibility for the protection of your own people and instead rely upon the powers of those you seek to demonize.
They would rather endure collateral damage from bunker bombs – a little carpeting the area to make sure we got whomever?
Obama will cave the minute someone breathes "profiling."
I guess the new PC is that you have to address your enemy before you shoot him – as in a duel. Gentlemen. Choose your weapons.
War is messy. It is not at all nice. It is not for the faint-hearted. But it beats the hell out of having these dudes here with suitcases that go off and kill innocent civilians. Did I not read the other day where a terrorist said it was OK to kill civilians because they have elected Obama,etc.? Take that to the UN and have them catch up with this US-born terrorist and read him his global miranda rights.
Now the UN is trying to run the US. Mexico and China have succeeded at it. So world government has begun at Obama's request. Obama, stop the oil. Obama stop the drones. Obama you're such a good boy.
From the Nobel Peace Prize to War Crimes. The guy's got range.
PS – these weapons have proliferated and are in the hands of many armies. Israel has them and I think Iran as well. We can't ban the bomb. How can we ban drones? I would never sign a non-drone proliferation treaty if I were Prez but what do I know.
"…ignorant oligarchs…."
Describes the Obama-Reid-Pelosi team perfectly!
The UN has been angling for a way to get to the US for decades. Putting Iran and Libya on panels for Human Rights and Commission of Women's Rights show their warped, lunatic worldview. They need to be dis-banded. Their corruption and misguided efforts over the last 2 or 3 decades show that they are power-hungry and corrupt beyond any repair.
One can only hope! 🙂
"I would never sign a non-drone proliferation treaty if I were Prez but what do I know" –SAMHENRY
A whole lot more than this crowd, especially POTUS! Hah!
Oh, my support system just arrived. Thanks DINORightMarie!