dagblog - Comments for "Drones!"

UN investigator: U.S. dodging

artappraiser — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 03:17:35 +0000

In reply to Drones!

UN investigator: U.S. dodging questions on drones

Associated Press, June 20, 2012

GENEVA - A U.N. human rights expert accused the U.S. government Wednesday of sidestepping his questions on its use of armed drones to carry out targeted killings overseas.

Christof Heyns, the U.N.'s independent investigator on extrajudicial killings, had asked the United States to lay out the legal basis and accountability procedures for the use of armed drones. He also wanted the U.S. to publish figures on the number of civilians killed in drone strikes against suspected terror leaders in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere.

After a two-day "interactive dialogue" with U.S. officials at the United Nations in Geneva, Heyns said he was still waiting for a satisfactory reply [....]

An Embassy Asks, Drones or

artappraiser — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 03:13:58 +0000

In reply to Drones!

An Embassy Asks, Drones or Diplomacy?

By David Ignatius, Washington Post Op-Ed, June 20, 2012

As America’s relationship with Pakistan has unraveled over the past 18 months, an important debate has been going on within the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad over the proper scope of CIA covert actions and their effect on diplomatic interests.

The principals in this policy debate have been Cameron Munter, the U.S. ambassador since October 2010, and several CIA station chiefs who served with him. The technical issue was whether the ambassador, as chief of mission, had the authority to veto CIA operations he thought would harm long-term relations. Munter appears to have lost this fight [....]

Drone strikes: activists seek

artappraiser — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 05:55:27 +0000

In reply to Drones!

Drone strikes: activists seek to lift lid on open secret of targeted killings
Court deadline arrives in freedom of information campaign to make Obama administration provide details of programme

By Karen McVeigh, guardian.co.uk, 19 June 2012

[...] The federal lawsuit is part of a three-year battle by lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union for details of the drone programme, one of the US government's most important security operations in the war against al-Qaida.

Under a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed in 2010, ACLU seeks the legal memo underlying the killing programme, the basis for drone strikes that have killed American citizens and the process by which individuals are placed on a kill list.

The administration has until Wednesday to produce papers in the suit, filed in New York, to either hand over the requested documents or to explain why they are being held. ACLU hopes it will be the first formal acknowledgment of the programme. If so the CIA would then have to respond to ACLU's FOIA request [...]

Love the tweet. Never wanted

EmmaZahn — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 00:05:47 +0000

In reply to Soon drones will not only be

Love the tweet.

Never wanted a jet pack myself -- too accident prone. Always wanted a replicator and a holodeck to live in, but that's just a big replicator. I did worry though that I might accidentally turn the thing off while I was in it.

Still digesting the article from Baffler. Thanks.

You're right. I misread you.

Flavius — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 12:46:58 +0000

In reply to Wow, great misread: 1) I

You're right. I misread you. So you don't disparage Obama because you're a pacifist but for some other personal reason. Your historical examples speak for themselves.

I just wanted the space-age

PeraclesPlease — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 10:23:29 +0000

In reply to Soon drones will not only be

I just wanted the space-age pitcher of martinis waiting when I got home. Okay, the glass bubble hovercraft was cool too.

By serendipity I just ran

artappraiser — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 10:21:34 +0000

In reply to Soon drones will not only be

By serendipity I just ran across this, which is related to my comment, but I have a feeling after skimming the first pages that it may interest you much more than my comment:

Of Flying Cars and the Declining Rate of Profit
by David Graeber for The Baffler

Soon drones will not only be

artappraiser — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 10:01:28 +0000

In reply to I really do not get the

Soon drones will not only be able to kill you w/ impunity but also harass you about getting into shape

A lot of the sci-fi crap from our youth is becoming reality, but just where the fuck are the jet packs we were promised?!!!

Declaring war on terror was a

EmmaZahn — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 04:58:03 +0000

In reply to The problem is, they allow us

Declaring war on terror was a foolish thing to do. As for cute word play, remember all the adjectives beside terrorist used to make Al Qaeda et al sound like some new kind of enemy? Transnational, stateless terrorists should have been treated like outlaws from the start of it all, 9/11, and policing is exactly what should have happened. Declaring a criminal act an act of war was just an excuse for the PTB to do exactly what they wanted. It will be a long time and there will be a lot of grief before we get through it.

No, that's not what I would

PeraclesPlease — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 04:13:22 +0000

In reply to so you would like all those

No, that's not what I would "like".

Go misinterpret someone else's posts a while.

I'm finished.