News

News

Published

March 1, 2013

Written by

Alice Ross, Chris Woods and Jack Serle
This page is archived from original Bureau of Investigative Journalism reporting on US military actions in Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

John Brennan – leading proponent of the drone programme

and the CIA’s director-designate (C-Span).

CIA drones kill two alleged al Qaeda commanders in two strikes on Pakistan.

US operations drop to zero in Yemen a year after President Saleh was ousted from power.

No operations reported in Somalia.

Pakistan

February 2013 actions

Total CIA strikes in February: 2

Total killed in strikes in February: 9-14, of whom 0-2 were reportedly civilians

All actions 2004 – February 28 2013

Total Obama strikes: 312

Total US strikes since 2004: 364

Total reported killed: 2,534-3,573

Civilians reported killed: 411-884Children reported killed: 168-197

Total reported injured: 1,172-1,463For the Bureau’s full Pakistan databases click here.

Two CIA drone strikes hit Pakistan this month, killing at least nine people. This is a significant drop from January when six strikes reportedly killed 27-54 people.

On February 7 John Brennan, Barack Obama’s nominee for CIA director, went before the Senate Intelligence Committee for his confirmation hearing.

The two Pakistan strikes book-ended the Brennan hearing. The first hit the day beforehand, destroying a house and killing alleged Pakistan Taliban (TTP) militants. It coincided with a Pakistan Air Force raid on TTP positions in Orakzai Tribal Agency.

The second strike took place the day after the hearing finished – alleged TTP militants were reportedly targeted once again. A house was hit near the border between North and South Waziristan, killing at least six people. Abu Majid al Iraqi and Yemeni ‘bomb expert‘ Sheikh Abu Waqas (35), alleged al Qaeda commanders, were reportedly among the dead.

Not since 2009 have US drones so consistently targeted the TTP. On February 2, TTP militants targeted a Pakistan Army outpost, killing up to 35. A Taliban spokesman said the attack was ‘revenge’ on the Pakistani state which he accused of ‘co-operating with the US in its drone strikes that killed our two senior commanders, Faisal Khan (Ob306) and Toofani (aka Wali Mohammed Mehsud, Ob307)’.

Yemen

February 2013 actions

Confirmed US drone strikes: 0 Further reported/possible US strike events: 0 Total reported killed in US operations: 0Civilians reported killed in US strikes: 0Children reported killed in US strikes: 0

All actions 2002 – February 28 2013*

Total confirmed US operations: 54-64

Total confirmed US drone strikes: 42-52

Possible additional US operations: 135-157

Of which possible additional US drone strikes: 77-93

Total reported killed: 374-1,112

Total civilians killed: 72-178

Children killed: 27-37Click here for the full Yemen data.

* All but one of these actions have taken place during Obama’s presidency. Reports of incidents in Yemen often conflate individual strikes. The range in the total strikes and total drone strikes we have recorded reflects this.

There were no reported drone strikes or any other US covert actions in Yemen this month – in marked contrast to January, when up to eight US strikes killed as many as 38 people.

This is the first month without a reported US strike since early 2012. In fact the Bureau’s data shows that no US drone or airstrike has ever been reported in the month of February.

US operations peaked in spring last year but halted during protests

and political upheaval in February 2012 and 2013.

February also marked the first anniversary of the ousting of Ali Abdullah Saleh. The deal that lead to Saleh being replaced by his deputy Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi followed months of brutally repressed protests. Anniversary demonstrations were again met with violence by security services, especially in southern Yemen, and at least three people were killed in clashes.

Also in February, the New York Times finally reported that CIA drones fly over Yemen from a base in Saudi Arabia. It emerged that the paper, among other leading US media outlets, had suppressed this detail at the request of the White House, even though it was first reported by The Times of London in 2011.

Al Jazeera’s Listening Post on the CIA’s once-secret Saudi base.

A Russian-made Yemen Air Force fighter-bomber crashed in a central Sanaa neighbourhood on February 19. Buildings were set on fire and 12 people died, including two children. It was described as an incident of ‘heartrending absurdity‘ that reinforced how decrepit and unfit for purpose much of the Yemen Air Force remains.

Somalia

February 2013 actions

Total reported US operations: 0

All actions 2007 – February 28 2013

Total US operations: 10-23

Total US drone strikes: 3-9Total reported killed: 58-170Civilians reported killed: 11-57

Children reported killed: 1-3

Click here for the Bureau’s full data on Somalia.

Once again there were no reported US operations in Somalia – the sixth consecutive month without an apparent strike. It remains extremely difficult to obtain credible information regarding military actions in the country, even for intelligence agencies.

This month saw al Shabaab return to Twitter after falling foul of the website’s terms of use. New profiles replace English and Arabic predecessors that were blocked after they were used to broadcast images of dead French commandos and threats to kill Kenyan hostages.

Other news

US military expansion in Africa continues with President Obama sending 100 soldiers to Niger. The Sahel state is host to the US’ latest drone base, a response to growing militancy in the region and ongoing hostility in Mali.

John Brennan went before the Senate Intelligence Committee as the President’s nominee for director of the CIA. Brennan promised to bring greater transparency to the drone programme, saying drone strikes are ‘a last resort to save lives, when there’s no other alternative.’

Oversight and transparency of the drone programme remain prominent concerns. This has led some, including chair of the Senate Intelligence committee Dianne Feinstein and former US defence secretary Robert Gates, to suggest a secret court be formed to provide some oversight to the targeted killing programme. And officials have told reporters the administration is considering moving control of some drone strikes from the CIA to the Pentagon. However strikes in Pakistan would remain under the Agency’s control.

Bureau changes

It is now two years since the Bureau began compiling data on US covert drone strikes in Pakistan. Our work has expanded significantly to cover the conflicts in Yemen and Somalia, with more than 500 incidents now recorded across many data sets. As the Bureau embarks on its new project, Naming the Dead, we have recently completed an audit of our Pakistan drone strike data to ensure consistency across all of our work. This has led to a small fall in our minimum number of reported civilian casualties, mostly a result of our reclassifying some strikes to better reflect our sources.

We have also made more overt the sourcing for all reports of civilian casualties, and have introduced yearly tables into the data. Our Methodology also now spells out more clearly our processes when handling reports of civilian deaths.

Follow Chris Woods, Alice Ross and Jack Serle on Twitter.

To sign up for monthly updates from the Bureau’s Covert War project click here.

In February and March, support the Bureau’s Naming the Dead project, identifying those killed in drone strikes, through the Freedom of the Press Foundation. Click here to donate.

Published

February 27, 2013

Written by

Chris Woods
This page is archived from original Bureau of Investigative Journalism reporting on US military actions in Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Are Congressional oversight bodies really doing their ‘utmost’? (Photo L’ennnui/ Flickr)

Claims by a powerful Senate oversight committee that it is doing its ‘utmost’ to verify claims of civilian casualties from covert US drone strikes have been undermined by the discovery that it has made no contact with any group conducting field studies into civilian deaths in Pakistan.

On February 7 the CIA’s director-designate John Brennan was questioned by members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

In her opening remarks, chair Dianne Feinstein insisted that civilian deaths from US covert strikes ‘each year has typically been in the single digits’.

Feinstein also said that ‘for the past several years, this committee has done significant oversight of the government’s conduct of targeted strikes’ and had done its ‘utmost to confirm’ civilian casualty data provided by the executive branch.

However, the Bureau can find no indication that either the House or Senate intelligence committees have sought evidence from beyond the US intelligence community, when following up claims of civilian deaths.

While public estimates of civilian deaths vary, all monitoring groups report higher than ‘single digit’ fatalities for most years. The Bureau presently estimates that at least 411 civilians have been killed by the CIA in Pakistan since 2004, for example.

 

‘Never contacted’

Professor Sarah Knuckey, who co-led the recent field investigation by New York and Stanford universities into the Pakistan strikes, confirmed that her team has never been contacted by any US government official, or Congressional oversight committee member or aide.

‘US officials have stated that they have done their utmost to verify civilian casualty numbers, and that they investigate and take seriously reports of civilian harm. These public commitments are welcome,’ Knuckey told the Bureau.

‘But if the commitments are serious, why haven’t officials followed up with the organizations and journalists who investigated strikes and collected information relevant to determining any civilian harm?’

Those concerns were echoed by Sarah Holewinski, executive director of the Center for Civilians in Conflict. Thirty months after it issued its ground-breaking report into civilian deaths, Holewinski said this week that ‘we have never been contacted by Administration officials about our research and analysis on the covert drone program.’

Why haven’t officials followed up with the organizations and journalists who investigated strikes and collected information relevant to determining any civilian harm?Professor Sarah Knuckey, New York University

‘I give him further details of some other strikes that killed civilians, and without looking at what I was giving him Hoagland insisted that he checked the figure that morning and it was still in single digits,’ said Akhbar.

Associated Press, which interviewed more than 80 civilian eyewitnesses in the tribal areas for a major report in early 2012, confirmed that no US officials had ever sought follow -up.

The Bureau’s managing editor Christopher Hird also noted that ‘We have always been happy to share and discuss our findings with others researching this subject, but in the two years of our work we have never heard from either of these committees, or their staff.”

Organisation Year Findings
Center for Civilians

in Conflict (Civic)

2010 Extensive eyewitness reports of civilian deaths
Reprieve/FFR 2010 –

present

Ongoing field work and legal cases
The Bureau 2011 –

present

Three field investigations into reported deaths
Associated Press 2012 Major field study of recent high-casualty

strikes

NYU/Stanford

universities

2012 Detailed eyewitness reports of civilian deaths

and broader impact of CIA campaign

Secure RoomBoth the House of Representatives and the Senate have committees tasked with overseeing the vast US intelligence community – including the CIA, which carries out the majority of covert drone strikes.

Most oversight is carried out in secret. However, some details have recently emerged of how the two committees seek to hold the CIA to account on the drone programme.

Senator Feinstein first revealed the process in a letter to the Los Angeles Times in May 2012.

She implied that monthly oversight had begun in January 2010, a year after Obama took office, noting that her committee ‘receive notification with key details shortly after every strike’. She added that her staff  ‘has held 28 monthly in-depth oversight meetings to review strike records and question every aspect of the program including legality, effectiveness, precision, foreign policy implications and the care taken to minimize noncombatant casualties.’

Most oversight is carried out in secret. However, some details have recently emerged of how the two committees seek to hold the CIA to account on the drone programme.

more details

According to a Los Angeles Times report on the process, oversight committee staffers gathered in a secure room at CIA headquarters ‘also sometimes examine telephone intercepts and after-the-fact evidence, such as the CIA’s assessment of who was hit.’

One senior staffer told the paper: ‘I don’t know that we’ve ever seen anything that we thought was inappropriate.’

‘Blind faith’

Sarah Holewinski of the Center for Civilians in Conflict is now urging the Congressional oversight committees to be far more pro-active in their approach – and far less dependent solely on the word of the CIA.

She noted that unlike in Afghanistan, investigations into reported civilian deaths in US covert drone operations ‘are limited to overhead surveillance, not collecting witness statements and digging in the dirt for evidence of what happened or who exactly was killed.’

And Holewinski pointed to the risk of reliance on the Agency’s own definitions of those it is killing which may not accord with international law. Noting the CIA’s use of so-called signature strikes against alleged militants, whose identity is unknown and who appear to fit certain patterns of behaviour, Holewinski told the Bureau: ‘There’s every reason to want to believe claims of such low civilian casualties caused by drone strikes.’

‘But given obstacles to knowing precisely who was killed on the ground and without real evidence to back up the claims, to believe officials’ claims would be an act of blind faith that isn’t fair to the civilians suffering losses.’

At the time of writing, Senator Feinstein’s office had not responded to requests for comment. 

Follow Chris Woods on Twitter.

Published

February 27, 2013

Written by

Alice Ross and Chris Woods
This page is archived from original Bureau of Investigative Journalism reporting on US military actions in Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Passport cancelled: the Coalition government has stripped 16 people of their British citizenship. (Image: Shutterstock)

An investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and published in the Independent has established that since 2010 the Home Secretary Theresa May has revoked the passports of 16 individuals many of whom are alleged to have had links to militant or terrorist groups.

Critics of the programme warn that it also allows ministers to ‘wash their hands’ of British nationals suspected of terrorism who could be subject to torture and illegal detention abroad.

They add that it also allows those stripped of their citizenship to be killed or ‘rendered’ without any onus on the British government to intervene.

At least five of those deprived of their UK nationality by the Coalition government were born in Britain, and one man had lived in the country for almost 50 years.

Those affected have their passports cancelled, and lose their right to enter the UK – making it very difficult to appeal the Home Secretary’s decision.

Last night the Liberal Democrat’s deputy leader Simon Hughes said he was writing to the Home Secretary to call for an urgent review into how the law was being implemented.

The leading human rights lawyer Gareth Peirce said the present situation ‘smacked of medieval exile, just as cruel and just as arbitrary’.

Ian Macdonald QC, president of the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association, described the citizenship orders as ‘sinister’.

‘They’re using executive powers and I think they’re using them quite wrongly,’ he said.

‘It’s not open government, it’s closed, and it needs to be exposed because in my view it’s a real overriding of open government and the rule of law.’

Laws were passed in 2002 enabling the Home Secretary to remove the citizenship of any dual nationals who had done something ‘seriously prejudicial’ to the UK, but the power had rarely been used before the current government.

The Bureau’s investigations have established the identities of all but four of the 21 British passport holders who have lost their citizenship, and their subsequent fates. Only two have successfully appealed – one of whom has since been extradited to the US.

Related story – Graphic detail: How the government used its powers of banishment

In many cases those involved cannot be named because of ongoing legal action.

It’s not open government, it’s closed, and it needs to be exposed because in my view it’s a real overriding of open government and the rule of law.Ian Macdonald QC

The Bureau has also found evidence that government officials act when people are out of the country – on two occasions while on holiday – cancelling passports and revoking citizenships.

Those targeted include Bilal al-Berjawi, a British-Lebanese citizen who came to the UK as a baby and grew up in London, but left for Somalia in 2009 with his close friend British-born Mohamed Sakr, who also held Egyptian nationality.

Both had been the subject of extensive surveillance by British intelligence, with the security services concerned they were involved in terrorist activities.

Once in Somalia, the two reportedly became involved with al Shabaab, an Islamist militant group with links to al Qaeda. Berjawi was said to have risen to a senior position in the organisation, with Sakr his ‘right hand man’.

In 2010, Theresa May stripped both men of their British nationalities and they soon became targets in an ultimately lethal US manhunt.

In June 2011 Berjawi was wounded in the first known US drone strike in Somalia and last year he was killed by a drone strike – within hours of calling his wife in London to congratulate her on the birth of their first son.

Sakr, too, was killed in a US airstrike in February 2012, although his British origins have not been revealed until now.

Sakr’s former UK solicitor said there appeared to be a link between the Home Secretary removing citizenships, and subsequent US actions.

‘It appears that the process of deprivation of citizenship made it easier for the US to then designate Sakr as an enemy combatant, to whom the UK owes no responsibility whatsoever,’  Saghir Hussain told the Bureau.

Macdonald added that depriving people of their citizenship ‘means that the British government can completely wash their hands if the security services give information to the Americans who use their drones to track someone and kill them.’

Campaign group CagePrisoners is in touch with many families of those affected. Executive director Asim Qureshi said the Bureau’s findings were deeply troubling for Britons from an ethnic minority background.

‘We all feel just as British as everybody else, and yet just because our parents came from another country, we can be subjected to an arbitrary process where we are no longer members of this country any more,’ he said.

‘I think that’s extremely dangerous because it will speak to people’s fears about how they’re viewed by their own government, especially when they come from certain areas of the world.’

Related story: When being born British isn’t enough

Liberal Democrat Hughes said that while he accepted there were often real security concerns, he was worried that those who were innocent of Home Office charges against them and were trying to appeal risked finding themselves in a ‘political and constitutional limbo’.

‘There was clearly always a risk when the law was changed seven years ago that the executive could act to take a citizenship away in circumstances that were more frequent or more extensive than those envisaged by ministers at the time,’ he said.

‘I’m concerned at the growing number of people who appear to have lost their right to citizenship in recent years. I plan to write to the Home Secretary and the Home Affairs Select Committee to ask for their assessment of the situation, the policy both in general and in detail, and for a review of whether the act working as intended.’

Gareth Peirce said the present situation ‘smacked of medieval exile’.

‘British citizens are being banished from their own country, being stripped of a core part of their identity yet without a single word of explanation of why they have been singled out and dubbed a risk,’ she said.

Families are sometimes affected by the Home Secretary’s decisions. Parents may have to choose whether their British children remain in the UK, or join their father in exile abroad.

In a case known only as L1, a Sudanese-British man took his four British children on summer holiday to Sudan, along with his wife, who had limited leave to remain in the UK. Four days after his departure, Theresa May decided to strip him of his citizenship.

Appeals are heard at Siac, a semi-secret court held at the Royal Courts of Justice (Photo: Shutterstock)

With their father excluded from the UK and their mother’s lack of permanent right to remain, the order effectively blocks the children from growing up in Britain.At the time of the order the children were aged eight to 13 months.The judge, despite recognising their right to be brought up in Britain, ruled that the grounds on which their father’s citizenship was revoked ‘outweighed’ the rights of the children.

Mr Justice Mitting, sitting in the semi-secret Special Immigration Appeals Commission, said: ‘We accept that it is unlikely to be in the best interests of the Appellant’s children that he should be deprived of his British citizenship… They are British citizens, with a right of abode in the United Kingdom.

‘They are of an age when that right cannot, in practice, be enjoyed if both of their parents cannot return to the United Kingdom.’

Yet he added that Theresa May was ‘unlikely to have made that decision without substantial and plausible grounds’.

In another case, a man born in Newcastle in 1963 and three of his London-born sons all lost their citizenship two years ago while in Pakistan.

An expert witness told Siac, the semi-secretive court which hears deprivation appeals, that those in the family’s situation may be at risk  from the country’s government agencies and militant groups. Yet Siac recently ruled that the UK ‘owed no obligation’ to those at risk of ‘any subsequent act of the Pakistani state or of non-state actors [militant groups] in Pakistan’.

The British government can completely wash their hands if the security services give information to the Americans who use their drones to track someone and kill them.Ian Macdonald QC

The mother, herself a naturalised British citizen, now wants to return here in the interests of her youngest son, who has developmental needs. Although 15, he is said to be ‘dependent upon [his mother and father] for emotional and practical support’. His mother claimed he ‘has no hope of education in Pakistan’. But the mother has diabetes and mobility problems that mean she ‘does not feel able to return on her own, with or without [her son].’

Mr Justice Mitting ruled that the deprivation of citizenship of the family’s father had ‘undoubtedly had an impact on the private and family life of his wife and youngest son, both of whom remain British citizens’.

But he added that the father posed such a threat to national security that the ‘unavoidable incidental impact’ on his wife and youngest son was ‘justifiable’, and dismissed the appeal.

A Home Office spokeswoman said: ‘Citizenship is a privilege not a right. The Home Secretary has the power to remove citizenship from individuals where she considers it is conducive to the public good. An individual subject to deprivation can appeal to the courts.’

She added: ‘We don’t routinely comment on individual deprivation cases.’

Asked whether intelligence was provided to foreign governments, she said: ‘We don’t comment on intelligence issues. Drone strikes are a matter for the states concerned.’

A law unto herself: How the Home Secretary has the power to strip British citizenship

The Home Secretary has sole power to remove an individual’s British citizenship. The decision does not have to be referred through the courts.

From the moment the Home Secretary signs a deprivation of citizenship order, the individual ceases to be a British subject – their passport is cancelled, they lose the diplomatic protections Britain extends to its citizens, and they must apply for a visa to re-enter the country.

The Home Secretary can only deprive an individual of their citizenship if they are dual nationals. The power cannot be used if by removing British citizenship it renders an individual stateless.

The Home Secretary, Theresa May can use the power whenever she deems it ‘conducive to the public good’. She can act based on what she believes someone might do, rather than based on past acts.

The only way to challenge an order is through retrospective appeal. Where the deprivation is on national-security grounds, as in almost every known case, appeals go to the semi-secret Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac).

Siac hears sensitive, intelligence-based evidence in ‘closed’ proceedings – where an individual and their legal team cannot learn the detail of the evidence against them. Instead, a special advocate – a carefully vetted barrister – challenges the government’s account.  But once they have seen the secret material they cannot speak with the defendant without the court’s permission, making cross-examination ‘pretty useless’, in the words of former special advocate Ian Macdonald.

Related article: The Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) explained

The government has long been able to remove the citizenship of those who acquired it in cases such as treason, but the power to do so to British-born individuals was introduced after 9/11 in the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002. This allowed the Home Secretary to strip the nationality of those who had ‘done anything seriously prejudicial’ to the country. At that point, no deprivation order had been issued since 1973.

Following the July 7 bombings, the law changed again, so citizenship could be stripped if it is deemed ‘conducive to the public good’. Conservative MPs called this a ‘watered-down test’ – but the Conservative-led coalition government has embraced the power, issuing over three times as many orders as under Labour.

Follow Chris Woods and Alice K Ross on Twitter.

** In February and March, support the Bureau’s Naming the Dead project, which aims to identify those killed in drone strikes. Click here to donate. **

Published

February 8, 2013

Written by

Alice Ross
This page is archived from original Bureau of Investigative Journalism reporting on US military actions in Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Brennan talks with Obama in the president’s private dining room, 2010 (Photo: White House)

John Brennan, the incoming director of the Central Intelligence Agency, told US senators last night that the CIA does not carry out covert drone strikes ‘to punish terrorists for past transgressions’. He insisted instead that they are only used ‘as a last resort to save lives’.

In a lengthy confirmation hearing before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), Brennan answered questions on topics ranging from torture and classified leaks to an abortive attempt in 1998 to kill Osama bin Laden.

Dianne Feinstein, chair of the SSCI, also used the nomination hearings to claim the tally of civilians killed by drones was typically in the ‘single digits’ for every year of the covert campaign. Brennan accused those of suggesting otherwise as spreading ‘falsehoods’.

Brennan is viewed as one of the chief architects of the rapid expansion of the drone programme under President Obama.

Focus on dronesThe opening of the three-hour hearing was repeatedly interrupted by activists from peace group Code Pink, protesting against the administration’s use of unmanned strikes, before Feinstein ordered the chamber to be cleared.

As each senator had a chance to question Brennan, the focus returned frequently to the controversial covert drone campaign.

In her opening remarks, Democrat Feinstein called for ‘increased transparency around targeted killing’ but said few civilians were killed in strikes.

‘The figures we have obtained from the executive branch, which we have done our utmost to verify, confirm that the number of civilian casualties that have resulted from such strikes each year has typically been in the single digits,’ she said.

In 2012 reported civilian casualties dropped significantly in Pakistan, with the Bureau recording a minimum of seven civilians killed. However, in almost all other years the reported civilian death toll has been significantly higher.

Feinstein’s claim only appears reconcilable with what is publicly known of drone strike casualties if all adult males are considered combatants. This is a definition used by the White House according to a report in the New York Times in May 2012, which revealed that under Obama the term militant was used for all adult males in a strike zone unless intelligence posthumously proved them innocent.

‘Falsehoods’Brennan used the hearing to mount a robust defence of drone usage, saying: ‘I think there is a misimpression on the part of some American people who believe that we take strikes to punish terrorists for past transgressions. Nothing could be further from the truth. We only take such actions as a last resort to save lives when there’s no other alternative to taking an action that’s going to mitigate that threat.’

He said opposition to the programme was based on ‘a misunderstanding of what we do as a government, and the care that we take and the agony that we go through to make sure that we do not have any collateral injuries or deaths’.

Activists were reacting to ‘a lot of falsehoods’ about civilian drone casualties, he added. ‘I do see it as part of my obligation… to make sure the truth is known to the American public and to the world.’

But critics rejected Feinstein’s claim of ‘single digit’ civilian casualties. Jennifer Gibson, who oversees the Pakistan drones project of legal charity Reprieve, said: ‘Last night, Brennan made repeated pledges to make the US drone programme more transparent. He can start by releasing the evidence upon which senator Feinstein repeatedly made claims of single-digit civilian deaths.

‘These are claims the administration has made before, claims which several independent sources, including two leading US universities, have found false.’

Reprieve supported the UK court case of Noor Khan, a Pakistani tribesman whose father was among an estimated 31-42 civilians killed in one strike alone, on Datta Khel, Pakistan on March 17, 2011.

Due process

Brennan acknowledged concerns expressed by independent senator Angus King about the lack of due process surrounding drone strikes that kill US citizens, but argued the US’s ‘judicial tradition’ was distinct from ‘decisions made on the battlefield’. He added that the decision to strike was not based on past guilt. Instead, he said, ‘we take action to prevent further action’.

‘The CIA should not be doing traditional military activities and operations’

– John Brennan

The judicial basis for drone strikes was a major focus in advance of the hearing. On the morning of the hearing, senators on the committee – though not their staff – were permitted for the first time to see the full 50-page classified legal opinions justifying drone strikes that kill US citizens.

Previously senators had only seen a 16-page Justice Department white paper, despite being responsible for holding the CIA to account. The white paper was leaked by NBC News on Monday and drew criticism for what the memo itself referred to as a ‘broader concept’ of the type of imminent threat that could justify killing US citizens without judicial approval.

Obama’s decision to release the legal opinions followed a letter on Monday from 11 members of the US Senate, who demanded to see the documents with the barely veiled threat: ‘The executive branch’s co-operation on this matter will help avoid an unnecessary confrontation that could affect the Senate’s consideration of nominees for national security positions.’

But in the hearing senators were largely muted on the legal ramifications of the drone programme.

Chris Coles, of campaign group Drone Wars UK, said: ‘Once the Code Pink protesters were ejected, the lack of any serious challenge to the notion that drones were a precise tool, carefully and legally used, was shocking.

‘Here was an opportunity to hold the CIA to account for its flagrant violation of international law – including the killing of hundreds of Pakistani civilians – but time and again, Brennan, one of the chief architects of drone warfare was merely thanked for his “valuable service”.’

Aberration

Brennan used the hearing to hint at a shift in the role of the CIA away from its increasingly paramilitary role. In response to concerns from Democratic senator Barbara Mikulski that the agency had seen ‘mission creep’ towards functions that more properly belonged to military special operations, Brennan appeared to agree: ‘There are things the agency has been involved in since 9/11 that in fact have been a bit of an aberration from the traditional role,’ he said, pledging to re-examine the role of the CIA if approved. ‘The CIA should not be doing traditional military activities and operations,’ he added.

Although the session saw some tough questioning, particularly around Brennan’s discussions of security matters with the press, it ended with endorsements of the prospective CIA director from Feinstein and others. The committee will make its formal decision after a closed hearing on February 12.

Support Naming the Dead, the Bureau’s major new investigation, by donating to the Freedom of the Press Foundation.

Published

February 1, 2013

Written by

Alice Ross, Chris Woods and Jack Serle
This page is archived from original Bureau of Investigative Journalism reporting on US military actions in Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

A fully armed Reaper taxis before a mission (US Air Force – Sgt Brian Ferguson).

In Pakistan a heavy CIA drone campaign targeted both so-called ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Taliban. Three senior militants were among the dead.

Yemen was hit by the highest number of airstrikes in one month since June 2012, though none have been formally confirmed as US operations.

No US operations were reported in Somalia.

The United Nations also launched a major investigation into the legality and casualties of drone strikes by the United States, Britain and Israel.

Pakistan

January 2013 actions

Total CIA strikes in January: 6

Total killed in strikes in January: 27-54, of whom 0-2 were reportedly civilians

All actions 2004 – January 31 2013

Total Obama strikes: 310

Total US strikes since 2004: 362

Total reported killed: 2,629-3,461

Civilians reported killed: 475-891

Children reported killed: 176

Total reported injured: 1,267-1,431For the Bureau’s full Pakistan databases click here.

The CIA began 2013 with six drone strikes in nine days – more in any single month since August 2012.

With double the strikes hitting Pakistan this month compared with January last year, 2013 could see renewed intensity in the CIA drone programme.

The month’s first strike killed powerful Taliban commander Maulvi (or Mullah) Nazir, ‘perhaps the most prized feather in [the] cap’ of the drone programme to date, according to one commentator. Nazir co-ordinated attacks on Nato and Afghan forces in Afghanistan and had long been a target of the CIA.

However his group refrained from terrorist attacks within Pakistan, earning the label ‘good’ Taliban. Brigadier Asad Munir, a retired commander of the ISI, told the Bureau his death could cause serious problems for Islamabad. He said peace with Nazir was essential since Pakistan’s army cannot simultaneously fight both Nazir’s militants and the TTP – the so-called ‘bad’ Taliban behind numerous lethal attacks in Pakistani cities.

Despite this, Pakistan’s response to the strikes in January was muted – notably so, according to Associated Press, as loud protestations had followed almost every strike in 2012.

This could indicate that relations between the allies have improved from their 2012 nadir. The CIA may also have tried to mollify Islamabad by killing senior TTP commander Wali Muhammad Mahsud and announcing that Maulana Fazlullah, commander of the Swat Taliban, is now high on its kill list. The Swat Taliban shot schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai and launches attacks on Pakistan from its bases in Afghanistan. Islamabad has repeatedly called on Nato and Afghan forces to crack down on the group.

A third high-value target death in January was of senior al Qaeda paramilitary commander Sheikh Yaseen al Kuwaiti, reportedly killed at home with his wife and daughter by eight missiles.

Yemen

January 2013 actions

Confirmed US drone strikes: 0 Further reported/possible US strike events: 8 Total reported killed in US operations: 0-38Civilians reported killed in US strikes: 0-7Children reported killed in US strikes: 0-2

All actions 2002 – January 31 2013*

Total confirmed US operations: 54-64

Total confirmed US drone strikes: 42-52

Possible additional US operations: 135-157

Of which possible additional US drone strikes: 77-93

Total reported killed: 374-1,112

Total civilians killed: 72-178

Children killed:  27-37Click here for the full Yemen data.

* All but one of these actions have taken place during Obama’s presidency. Reports of incidents in Yemen often conflate individual strikes. The range in the total strikes and total drone strikes we have recorded reflects this.

Eight strikes hit Yemen in January, the most in a month since June 2012 when US attacks on al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) began to slow from their May peak.

News reports named 12 alleged militants killed in the strikes. Up to two children also reportedly died when a wayward airstrike missed its intended target, hitting Abdu Mohammed al-Jarrah‘s house. This is the first credible report of child casualties since a US strike killed 12 civilians, three of them children, on September 2, 2012.

It remains unclear who is behind the recent strikes. September was the last time the Bureau noted a confirmed US operation in Yemen, although Yemen’s state media appears to have stopped claiming that the ‘barely functional‘ Yemen Air Force is responsible for every strike. Attacks are now officially described simply as airstrikes.

There were more allegations that the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) is striking AQAP. A report claimed the RSAF targeted an AQAP training camp on January 22, right on the Saudi-Yemeni border. But it was also reported that US drones launched the strike, with help from Saudi intelligence.

An anonymous US intelligence official told the Times that Saudi jets have been striking other targets in Yemen in support of US operations – an allegation promptly denied by the Saudis. The paper reported that Saudi jets may have carried out a botched strike on May 15 2012 that killed 12-26 civilians. There were also questions raised regarding a September 2 strike by an unidentified aircraft that killed 12 civilians – three of them children. However, it emerged on Christmas Day that US drones or jets had carried out that attack.

In a rare display of opposition to the drone programme, Yemeni human rights minister Hooria Mashhour told Reuters the country should change its counter-terrorism strategy. Without directly mentioning drones, she advocated moving away from air strikes to ground operations to target AQAP ‘without harming civilians and without leading to human rights violations’.

On January 28 Sanaa sent up to 7,000 troops with tanks to drive AQAP-linked militants out of the central province of al Bayda and to free hostages including two Finnish and one Austrian. AQAP countered, sending ‘several hundred’ reinforcements to the province. At least 2,500 civilians have reportedly been displaced.

Somalia

January 2013 actions

Total reported US operations: 0

All actions 2007 – January 31 2013

Total US operations: 10-23

Total US drone strikes: 3-9Total reported killed: 58-170Civilians reported killed: 11-57

Children reported killed: 1-3

Click here for the Bureau’s full data on Somalia.

 

January was the fifth consecutive month without a reported US strike. But al Shabaab showed it remains a threat to Mogadishu, launching a suicide attack on the presidential palace. The bomber was reportedly ‘an al Shabaab defector‘ with a gate pass and a National Security Force identity card. He detonated his suicide vest, killing two soldiers, after it was uncovered in a routine search.

The US provided ‘limited technical support‘ to a failed French attempt to rescue a spy held hostage by al Shabaab since 2009. Five French helicopters carried 50 commandos into Somalia. US Air Force jets entered Somali airspace in support, although they did not fire their weapons. The French operation was reportedly timed to coincide with the French air and ground offensive in northern Mali, though Paris denied the two operations were linked.

France said militants executed the captured secret service officer, known by his alias Denis Allex, during the assault. Seventeen alleged militants, including their commander Sheikh Ahmed were reportedly killed.

But in the course of the night assault, French commandos also reportedly killed eight civilians, including a child and both his parents. One French commando was also killed and another wounded. Al Shabaab said the injured soldier subsequently died of his wounds in their custody, and posted pictures on Twitter of the dead commando as proof.

After al Shabaab also tweeted an image of the dead French spy, and threatened to kill two Kenyan hostages its account was suspended.

UN investigation

UN special rapporteur Ben Emmerson QC announced that the UN will investigate covert CIA and Pentagon strikes in Yemen, Pakistan and Somalia. He will also look at strikes by the UK and US in Afghanistan, and by Israel in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Emmerson has assembled a team of experts to scrutinise some 25 strikes, examining the legal framework for targeted killings and claims of civilian deaths. One area they are expected to explore is the deliberate targeting of rescuers and funeral-goers by the CIA in Pakistan, a tactic revealed in an investigation by the Bureau for the Sunday Times.

The UN’s Human Rights Council asked its special rapporteurs to investigate drone strikes after nations including Russia, China and Pakistan called for action last June. Emmerson will present his recommendations to the General Assembly in October.

Follow Chris Woods, Alice Ross and Jack Serle on Twitter.

To sign up for monthly updates from the Bureau’s Covert War project click here.

Published

January 24, 2013

Written by

Alice Ross and Chris Woods
This page is archived from original Bureau of Investigative Journalism reporting on US military actions in Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Ben Emmerson QC addresses reporters in London (Photo: TBIJ)

A UN investigation into the legality and casualties of drone strikes has been formally launched, with a leading human rights lawyer revealing the team that will carry out the inquiry.

The announcement came as the latest reported US drone strike in Yemen was said to have mistakenly killed two children.

Ben Emmerson QC, the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, told a London press conference that he will lead a group of international specialists who will examine CIA and Pentagon covert drone attacks in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.

The team will also look at drone strikes by US and UK forces in Afghanistan, and by Israel in the Occupied Territories. In total some 25 strikes are expected to be examined in detail.

The senior British barrister will work alongside international criminal lawyers, a senior Pakistani judge and one of the UK’s leading forensic pathologists, as well as experts from Pakistan and Yemen. Also joining the team is a serving judge-advocate with the US military ‘who is assisting the inquiry in his personal capacity.’

Emmerson told reporters: ‘Those states using this technology and those on whose territory it is used are under an international law obligation to establish effective independent and impartial investigations into any drone attack in which it is plausibly alleged that civilian casualties were sustained.’

But in the absence of such investigations by the US and others, the UN would carry out investigations ‘in the final resort’, he said.

Related story – UN team to investigate civilian drone deaths

Early signs indicate Emmerson’s team may have assistance from relevant states. He told journalists that Britain’s Ministry of Defence was already co-operating, and that Susan Rice, the US’s ambassador to the United Nations, had indicated that Washington ‘has not ruled out full co-operation.’

Those states using this technology and those on whose territory it is used are under an international law obligation to establish effective independent and impartial investigations into any drone attack in which it is plausibly alleged that civilian casualties were sustained.’Ben Emmerson QC

The UN Human Rights Council last year asked its special rapporteurs to begin an investigation after a group of nations including Russia, China and Pakistan requested action on covert drone strikes. Emmerson told the Bureau: ‘It’s a response to the fact that there’s international concern rising exponentially, surrounding the issue of remote targeted killings through the use of unmanned vehicles.’

Related story – Obama terror drones: CIA tactics in Pakistan include targeting rescuers and funerals

Emmerson said he expects to make recommendations to the UN general assembly by this autumn. His team will also call for further UN action ‘if that proves to be justified by the findings of my inquiry’.

He added: ‘This is not of course a substitute for effective official independent investigations by the states concerned.’

One area the inquiry is expected to examine is the deliberate targeting of rescuers and funeral-goers by the CIA in Pakistan, as revealed in an investigation by the Bureau for the Sunday Times.

In October 2012 Emmerson said: ‘The Bureau has alleged that since President Obama took office at least 50 civilians were killed in follow-up strikes when they had gone to help victims and more than 20 civilians have also been attacked in deliberate strikes on funerals and mourners. Christof Heyns [UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killing] … has described such attacks, if they prove to have happened, as war crimes. I would endorse that view.’

The American Civil Liberties Union welcomed the UN inquiry, and called on the US to aid investigators. ‘Whether it does or not will show whether it holds itself to the same obligation to co-operate with UN human rights investigations that it urges on other countries,” said Jamil Dakwar, director of the ACLU’s Human Rights Programme.

Who’s who on the UN’s team

Dr Nat Cary – One of the UK’s most respected forensic pathologists, Cary is the president of the British Association of Forensic Medicine and has worked on high-profile cases including the second autopsy of Ian Tomlinson and that of Joanna Yeates. He is an expert in injuries caused by explosions.

Imtiaz Gul – Gul is an eminent observer of terrorism and security in Pakistan. The executive director of the Islamabad-based Center for Research and Security Studies, which tracks terrorist activity and violence throughout Pakistan, he is also a prominent journalist. He has written four books on al Qaeda, the Taliban and Pakistan’s militants, and is a regular contributor to both Pakistani and international titles.

Abdul-Ghani Al-Iryani – A long-established analyst of and commentator on Yemeni politics, Iryani also leads the Democratic Awakening Movement. This campaign group, formed as President Saleh’s regime weakened during the Arab Spring, campaigns for human rights, strong civil society and the rule of law in Yemen.

Professor Sarah Knuckey – Human rights lawyer Knuckey runs the Global Justice Clinic at New York University’s law school. Last year she co-authored a major study into the impact of drones on civilians, Living Under Drones, which found that the CIA’s drone campaign in Pakistan had a ‘damaging and counterproductive’ effect on those who lived within the strike zone.

Lord Macdonald QC – A former director of public prosecutions for the UK government, Liberal Democrat peer Ken Macdonald is a leading defence barrister at Matrix Chambers, where Emmerson also practices. He has authored a major review of governmental counter-terrorism policy. He is chair of legal charity Reprieve’s board of trustees.

Sir Geoffrey Nice QC – A war crimes specialist, Nice spent eight years as a prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, culminating in leading the team that prosecuted Slobodan Milosevic. Many of his cases still centre on international law and war crimes – and last year he caused controversy by questioning whether Sudan’s President Bashir was responsible for genocide in Darfur.

Captain Jason Wright – The US Army lawyer who defended Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in his trial for plotting the September 11 attacks, Wright spoke out about his client’s torture in Guantanamo Bay. He is now a judge-advocate with the US military and is assisting the inquiry in a personal capacity, Emmerson noted at the investigation’s launch.

Justice Shah Jehan Khan Yousafzai – Yousafzai has spent two decades as senior judge in the circuit of Peshawar high court, working in towns and cities adjacent to the Pakistani tribal regions that have been the epicentre of covert drone warfare. Peshawar high court has heard high-profile legal challenges to the drone campaign.

Jasmine Zerini – A former diplomat, Zerini is a specialist in Pakistan and Afghanistan, having worked as deputy director for South Asia for the French foreign ministry.

[/stextbox]

Incident Code

USYEM144-C

Incident date

January 19, 2013

Location

وادي عبيدة, Wadi Obeida, Marib, Yemen

Geolocation

15.515556, 45.395278 Note: The accuracy of this location is to Neighbourhood/area level. Continue to map

Airwars assessment

A suspected US drone strike in Wadi Obeida, Ma’rib governorate on January 19th 2013 between 11 o’clock at night and midnight killed up to four civilians, with conflicting reports that in fact up to six Al Qaeda militants were killed. According to Mareb Press, the strike hit and destroyed a vehicle that Al Qaeda seized during clashes with the Yemeni army in the previous month. The air raid was the last of a series of three separate strikes in the same area that day.

AFP initially reported that the strike killed four people from the ‘al Haytak clan, part of the Abida tribe’ without specifying if they were al Qaeda militants or civilians. However the agency subsequently reported five alleged al Qaeda militants perished in the strike, including Hamad Hassan Ghreib (aka Amhed Bin Hassan Ali Gahreib). According to a ‘local source’ his brother Ali Bin Hassan Bin Ghurayib was a non-combatant who was killed, along with a group of militants, in a drone strike in August 2012. Angry tribesmen blocked the main road from Marib to Sanaa in protest the morning after the strike.

The only other source to mention civilian casualties was a Twitter account (Kevin Goztola), reported that four civilians were killed in US drone strikes “yesterday” (posted on January 21, 2023 local time). It is unclear which of the strikes between January 19-20 the tweet is referring to, and have therefore been recorded in this incident.  No other sources mention civilian casualties resulting from this strike. Mareb Press, Almanar, and Almasdar Online corroborated the number of five deaths as well as the killing of Hamad Hassan Ghreib. However, Almasdar Online and Mareb Press did not specify whether the four other victims were militants, saying that the identities are unknown “as a result of the charred corpses.” In contrast, Almanar claimed that two of the passengers were Saudi militants while the majority of sources attribute the two Saudi nationals to another strike earlier that day. Xinhua and Twitter account @news_yemen reported the killing of a total of six people. Xinhua thereby claimed that all six were Al Qaeda operatives.

Local sources referred to the drone strikes as being carried out by the US. The Yemen defence ministry reportedly confirmed the strikes hit Mareb province but would not confirm if the Yemen Air Force or US forces carried out the attacks. The Yemen Air Force has been shown to lack the technical capacity to launch precision strikes, or fly at night.

The incident occured between 11:00 pm and 12:00 am local time.

Summary

  • Strike status
    Likely strike
  • Strike type
    Airstrike, Drone Strike
  • Civilian harm reported
    Yes
  • Civilians reported killed
    0 – 4
  • Cause of injury / death
    Heavy weapons and explosive munitions
  • Airwars civilian harm grading
    Weak
    Single source claim, though sometimes featuring significant information.
  • Suspected attacker
    US Forces
  • Suspected target
    Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)
  • Belligerents reported killed
    4–6

Sources (51) [ collapse]

Geolocation notes

Reports of the incident mention a vehicle being struck in the Wadi Obeida (وادي عبيدة) area, east of Mar’ib (مأرب) city. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further. The generic coordinates for Wadi Obeida are: 15.515556, 45.395278.

US Forces Assessment:

  • Suspected belligerent
    US Forces
  • US Forces position on incident
    Not yet assessed

Summary

  • Strike status
    Likely strike
  • Strike type
    Airstrike, Drone Strike
  • Civilian harm reported
    Yes
  • Civilians reported killed
    0 – 4
  • Cause of injury / death
    Heavy weapons and explosive munitions
  • Airwars civilian harm grading
    Weak
    Single source claim, though sometimes featuring significant information.
  • Suspected attacker
    US Forces
  • Suspected target
    Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)
  • Belligerents reported killed
    4–6

Sources (51) [ collapse]

Incident Code

USYEM143-B

Incident date

January 19, 2013

Location

وادي عبيدة, Wadi Abida, Marib, Yemen

Geolocation

15.515556, 45.395278 Note: The accuracy of this location is to Neighbourhood/area level. Continue to map

Airwars assessment

On January 19th 2013, before 11pm, the second of three alleged US drone strikes hit the  Al Shabwan Wadi Abidah region of the Marib governorate, killing as many as three militants.

Marib Press, Yemen Observer, and Enduring American World View corroborated that one of the reported militants killed was Ismaeel Bin Saeed Bin Jameel and referred to Ismaeel as a local AQAP chief, while Al Masdar Online reported that Ismaeel belonged to the valley tribes and that his brother, a leader in Al Qaeda, Ali Saeed Jamil, was also killed in clashes between Government forces and Al Qaeda fighters in July 2011 in Abyan Governorate. However, local man Raed Fad Abdullah said he was not a senior militant.

Long War Journal linked the other two bodies to two Saudi nationals called Abu Ali Abdullah al-Suweed and Abu al-Zubeir al-Qassimi as per a “Jihadist biography”.AQAP declared a low level Saudi fighter was killed in a US strike in Marib. Abdullah al Ali al Suweed was killed ‘with a group of his brothers in the month of Safar 1434’. According to the Long War Journal this corresponds to December 2012 to January 2013.

AQAP also announced the death of a senior militant from Saudi Arabia. Abu al Zubeir al Qassimi was an inmate in the al Safra prison in Saudi Arabia before moving to Yemen for training. He commanded militants in Abyan province before taking command of fighters in Marib province. According to the Long War Journal al Qassimi was killed in Abyan province in an unspecified strike. However SITE Intelligence in a March 6 post said he died in Marib on an unspecified date (link unavailable). SITE also gave al Qassimi’s alias as Walid al Harbi. A Walid Jarbou’ Al-Harbi – a failed student of Qassim University – was reportedly arrested in connection to an April 2005 gun battle with Saudi security forces. He was jailed for over a year before fleeing to Yemen in 2009. He has been listed as a wanted terrorist by the Saudi ministry of interior.

Other sources claimed that the two other bodies could not be identified as they were charred.

The suspected AQAP militants were allegedly traveling in a Vitara car between 2 km (Marib press) and 8 km in the Ghodaigah area (Yemen Observer) away from the first strike in Al-Masil which hit an orange farm. Xinhua however reported that the same drone fired a second strike and killed two militants inspecting the car that was hit by the first strike. A witness quoted in multiple news sources said that the car was engulfed in flames. Yemen Observer referenced an earlier strike that missed the car and allowed the passengers to flee.

Local sources referred to the drone strikes as being carried out by the US. The Yemen defence ministry reportedly confirmed the strikes hit Mareb province but would not confirm if the Yemen Air Force or US forces carried out the attacks. The Yemen Air Force has been shown to lack the technical capacity to launch precision strikes, or fly at night.

The local time of the incident is unknown.

Summary

  • Strike status
    Likely strike
  • Strike type
    Airstrike, Drone Strike
  • Civilian harm reported
    No
  • Civilians reported killed
    Unknown
  • Cause of injury / death
    Heavy weapons and explosive munitions
  • Suspected attacker
    US Forces
  • Suspected target
    Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)
  • Belligerents reported killed
    2–3

Sources (57) [ collapse]

Media
from sources (2) [ collapse]

  • Two Saudi operatives, Abdullah al Ali al Suweed (left) and Abu al Zubeir al Qassimi (right), died in suspected U.S drone attacks on Wadi Abadi, January 19th (via Long War Journal)
  • A Saudi man, Walid Jarbou Eid Al-Jaleedi Al-Harbi, was documented as killed in suspected U.S drone strikes on Wadi Abadi January 19th. The Saudi Gazette alleged he was part of a terrorist network. (via Saudi Ministry of Interior)

Geolocation notes

Reports of the incident mention a vehicle being struck in the Wadi Obeida (وادي عبيدة) area, east of Mar’ib (مأرب) city. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further. The generic coordinates for Wadi Obeida are: 15.515556, 45.395278.

US Forces Assessment:

  • Suspected belligerent
    US Forces
  • US Forces position on incident
    Not yet assessed

Summary

  • Strike status
    Likely strike
  • Strike type
    Airstrike, Drone Strike
  • Civilian harm reported
    No
  • Civilians reported killed
    Unknown
  • Cause of injury / death
    Heavy weapons and explosive munitions
  • Suspected attacker
    US Forces
  • Suspected target
    Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)
  • Belligerents reported killed
    2–3

Sources (57) [ collapse]