Human rights groups say civilian drone deaths violate international law

Published

October 22, 2013

Written by

Rachel Oldroyd

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

Rafeequl Rehman and his children showing a picture of Mamana Bibi, killed by a drone in Pakistan. (Image: Amnesty International)

Leading human rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have raised serious concerns about the legality of drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen.

The two organisations have conducted separate investigations into specific strikes to highlight how civilians are being killed. Such killings, they claim, are a violation of international law.

The groups say the US must investigate all drone attacks that kill civilians and those responsible for such ‘unlawful killings’ should be disciplined or prosecuted.

The reports follow calls last week by two UN experts for more disclosure of information about drone deaths.

A report by Christof Heyns, the special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, called for nations that operate armed drones to be more transparent and ‘publicly disclose’ how they use them.

This was followed by the findings of Ben Emmerson, a British barrister and UN special rapporteur on counter-terrorism, who urged the US to ‘release its own data on the level of civilian casualties’ caused by drone strikes.

Amnesty’s report focuses on drone strikes in Pakistan. Human Rights Watch has concentrated on airstrikes, including those conducted by drones, in Yemen.

The Amnesty report, Will I be next? US drone strikes in Pakistan, names a group of 18 labourers, including a 14-year-old boy, killed in a drone attack on Pakistan in July 2012. This is the first time that all victims of the strike have been identified.

The group of men had been gathered for their evening meal when the first strike hit. In July field research by the Bureau found that this strike was then followed by another attack that killed rescuers trying to retrieve bodies. This was confirmed by Amnesty’s research.

The report states: ‘Amnesty International has serious concerns that this attack violated the prohibition of the arbitrary deprivation of life and may constitute war crimes or extrajudicial executions.’

Over nine months Amnesty researchers reviewed 45 incidents from the past 18 months in North Waziristan, the area hit most frequently by recent CIA-operated drone strikes. As well as the attack on the group of labourers the report also points to another drone strike in October 2012 which killed a 68-year-old grandmother who was looking after her grandchildren. The death of Mamana Bibi in this attack had already been highlighted by the Bureau’s Naming the Dead project, which records all named casualties of US drone strikes in Pakistan. ‘Bibi’ means ‘grandmother’ in Urdu and Pashtun, and much of the earlier reporting on this case refers to her as ‘Bibi Mamana’.

Related story: Bibi Mamana

Amnesty researchers spoke to Pakistani intelligence sources who said that a local Taliban fighter had used a satellite phone on a road close to where Mamana Bibi was killed about 10 minutes before the strike. The sources said they were not aware of the reason for the old woman’s killing but assumed it was related to the Taliban fighter’s proximity to her.

However Amnesty found no other evidence of militants in the area at the time of the attack, and the site of the drone strike was nearly 1,000ft away from the nearest road.

Mustafa Qadri, who led the research said: ‘We cannot find any justification for these killings. There are genuine threats to the USA and its allies in the region, and drone strikes may be lawful in some circumstances. But it is hard to believe that a group of labourers, or an elderly woman surrounded by her grandchildren, were endangering anyone at all, let alone posing an imminent threat to the United States.’

The Human Rights Watch report, Between a Drone and Al-Qaeda, looks at attacks in Yemen and similarly highlights incidents where civilians were killed. It looks at six strikes that together killed 82 people, including at least 57 civilians.

The strikes investigated included a a drone-assisted airstrike on a passenger van which killed 12 civilians. Human Rights Watch spoke to 23-year-old Ahmad al-Sabooli, whose father, mother and 10-year-old sister was killed.

A demand for transparencyThe reports stress the need for more transparency around drone attacks, particularly in relation to the victims killed.

Amnesty’s call for transparency focuses on the difficulties faced by the families of drone victims in getting compensation. The report argues that the lack of disclosure about drone strikes means that victims are able to access neither justice nor recompense.

‘Secrecy surrounding the drones program gives the US administration a license to kill beyond the reach of the courts or basic standards of international law… What hope for redress can there be for victims of the drone attacks and their families when the USA won’t even acknowledge its responsibility for particular strikes?’ the report asks.

More than a year after the death of the grandmother Mamana Bibi, for example, her family has not received any acknowledgement that she was killed by a US drone, let alone any compensation, says Amnesty.

The human rights group also expresses concern that the Pakistan government is failing to protect and enforce the rights of victims of drone strikes. It says: ‘Pakistan has a duty to independently and impartially investigate all drone strikes in the country and ensure access to justice and reparation for victims of violations.’

A question of names

The Amnesty report highlights some of the problems faced by researchers reporting on casualties of drone strikes in Pakistan.

Amnesty International names 18 labourers whom its field researchers found were killed in a drone strike in Pakistan on July 6 2012. Previous research by legal campaign group Reprieve had already named eight of the 18 people reported to have died in this strike.

However the two organisations have been independently given different names by people they spoke to in Pakistan. Only the 14-year-old identified as Saleh Khan is named by both Reprieve and Amnesty.

Furthermore independent research by the Bureau found that those killed included alleged militants and ‘local tribesmen’, although it did not find specific claims of civilian casualties.

Amnesty’s Qadri told the Bureau: ‘Our research is based on eye witness testimony. The people we spoke to knew the people who were killed.

‘We have done the best we can. The authorities both in Pakistan and the US need to now show us what they know.’

The Bureau’s Naming the Dead project, launched last month, aims to record the names of casualties of the CIA drone campaign in Pakistan in an attempt to bring more transparency to this under-reported conflict. The data is regularly updated, even when there is confusion, or more than one name provided.

The Bureau’s data suggests at least 2,500 people have died in these attacks including more than 400 civilians, and yet only one in five of the casualties can so far be identified.

US must release data on civilian drone casualties, says UN report

Published

October 18, 2013

Written by

Alice Ross

Web link

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

Emmerson: Drones operate in an ‘accountability vacuum’ (Photo: United Nations)

A report by a UN expert urges the US to ‘release its own data on the level of civilian casualties’ caused by drone strikes and attacks the lack of transparency surrounding CIA and US special forces drone operations.

Ben Emmerson, a British barrister and UN special rapporteur on counter-terrorism, has released the second of two major UN reports in a week to examine the use of drones both in conflict zones and in covert settings.

In the earlier report, Christof Heyns also called for increased transparency around the use of drones. In the new report Emmerson emphasises that this is a vital step to ensuring accountability and redress for the civilian victims of drone strikes.

‘The Special Rapporteur does not accept that considerations of national security justify withholding statistical and basic methodological data’– Ben Emmerson

Emmerson says: ‘The single greatest obstacle to an evaluation of the civilian impact of drone strikes is lack of transparency, which makes it extremely difficult to assess claims of precision targeting objectively.’

Related story – UN expert calls for increased transparency over armed drones

The report says the involvement of the CIA in drone operations has created an ‘almost insurmountable obstacle to transparency’, and he is also critical of the ‘almost invariably classified’ nature of special forces drone operations in Yemen and Somalia. ‘The Special Rapporteur does not accept that considerations of national security justify withholding statistical and basic methodological data.’

Drones currently operate in an ‘accountability vacuum’, Emmerson says, adding that there is a legal obligation on states to launch a full investigation into claims from ‘any plausible source’ of civilian casualties – including those made by non-governmental organisations. The results of such investigations should be made public, ‘subject to redactions on grounds of national security’, he adds.

He notes that the current director of the CIA John Brennan has called for the release of data relating to civilian casualties. The US government is in the process of moving its drone operations from the CIA to the Department of Defense to improve transparency, he says, adding that he understands this is due to be completed ‘by the end of 2014’.

The report highlights ‘differences of view’ over who should be considered a civilian in situations where non-uniformed fighters live and operate among the civilian population. He points to ‘considerable uncertainty’ over the criteria used to identify individuals as legitimate targets and calls for further clarification.

Emmerson examines US, British and Israeli drone operations in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Iraq, Libya and Gaza.

‘Only in the most exceptional of circumstances would it be permissible under international human rights law for killing to be the sole or primary objective of an operation’– Ben Emmerson

The Pakistani government released data to Emmerson showing at least 400 civilian casualties – a number close to the Bureau’s lower-end estimate – and a further 200 were ‘regarded as probable non-combatants’. Emmerson wrote ‘those figures were likely to be an underestimate’ according to local officials. He told MSNBC there is no reason ‘on the face of it’ to question this data as it echoed independent estimates.

For Yemen drone operations, the report cites the Bureau’s estimate of 21-58 civilian casualties as the highest such figures. But the report does not provide estimates for drone operations in Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, Somalia or Gaza, pointing to a lack of official figures specifically covering civilians killed in drone strikes.

Kat Craig, Legal Director of the human rights charity Reprieve, which represents civilian victims of drone strikes, said: ‘This report highlights the US’ failure to reveal any information whatsoever about their shadowy, covert drone programme. Hiding the reality of civilian deaths is not only morally abhorrent but an affront to the sort of transparency that should be the hallmark of any democratic government. Some basic accountability is the very least people in Pakistan and Yemen should expect from the CIA as it rains down Hellfire missiles on their homes and villages.’

Related story – Pakistan government says ‘at least 400’ civilians killed in drone strikes

Emmerson also addresses the legality of drone strikes outside of military conflict areas, saying that where no official conflict exists lethal action will ‘rarely be lawful… because only in the most exceptional of circumstances would it be permissible under international human rights law for killing to be the sole or primary objective of an operation’.

The US claims it can legally carry out such lethal operations – but Emmerson says this ‘gives rise to a number of issues on which there is either no clear international consensus, or United States policy appears to challenge established norms’. The US has claimed that it carries out drone strikes in countries including Pakistan and Yemen in legitimate self-defence against imminent threats and that it is in a state of continuing war against al Qaeda and associated groups.

The report recommends that a clear international legal consensus is reached and Emmerson is currently consulting states with a view to ‘clarifying their position on these questions’.

He writes that he has identified 33 strikes that appear to have led to civilian casualties and ‘undoubtedly raise issues of accountability and transparency’. The full findings on these strikes will be published at a later stage.

A White House spokeswoman, Laura Magnuson, said: ‘We are aware that this report has been released and are reviewing it carefully.’

The reports by Heyns and Emmerson will be presented to the UN General Assembly in New York next week. Also next week on October 22 Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch will publish reports on drone operations in Pakistan and Yemen respectively.

UN expert calls for increased transparency over armed drones

Published

October 17, 2013

Written by

Alice Ross

Web link

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

Heyns warns about a ‘lack of consensus’ over the international law governing drone strikes (Photo: United Nations)

A UN expert has called for nations that operate armed drones to be more transparent and ‘publicly disclose’ how they use them.

In a report prepared for the UN, Christof Heyns, the special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, points to international secrecy surrounding who owns armed drones, how they are operated, and who they are killing.

He also warns against ‘wide and permissive interpretations’ of international law to justify lethal attacks using the capabilities offered by armed drones.

The report is the first of two major papers on drone strikes due to be presented to the UN this month. The second, by Ben Emmerson, special rapporteur on counter-terrorism, will be published next week.

Heyns highlights ‘concern that there is uncertainty about which States are developing and acquiring armed drones’ in addition to how nations use them.

He says nations have an obligation to publish details such as their targeting criteria, civilian casualties and investigations – and drone operations should not be run by institutions that are prevented from publishing such details. The CIA, which runs drone operations in Pakistan, operates under tight classification controls.

He points out that there is a ‘lack of consensus’ around the legal framework for their use. But international laws contain provisions that should regulate the use of armed drones, he adds.

The report examines the thorniest issues in the US’s covert drone campaign – although it does not refer directly to the US. Heyns explores civilian harm, ‘double-tap’ strikes, sovereignty and the consent of other nations, accountability, and the pillars of the US’s legal justification for using armed drones in Yemen, Pakistan and Somalia, where it is not on a formal war footing.

He cautions that drone technology lowers the bar for lethal action, making it ‘easier for States to deploy deadly and targeted force on the territories of other States’.

Hina Shamsi of the American Civil Liberties Union said: ‘Once again, a top UN rights official has confirmed that the international legal framework restricting the use of lethal force is clear and doesn’t need to change, but that the ease with which lethal drones can be used threatens that framework and the right to life. Violations of law and the right to life are real under the US targeted killing program, and the precedent it is setting for other countries such as China, Russia, or Iran is a very dangerous one, which the U.S. may well come to regret.’

She added: ‘Although top US officials insist publicly that the targeted killing program is lawful, effective, and wise, the government refuses to provide the meaningful transparency Mr. Heyns’ report requires, which would allow the American public and the international community to test those claims. In response to an on-going ACLU lawsuit seeking basic information about the use of lethal drones, the government has refused to disclose even the number and identity of who it has killed, on what legal basis, and why.’

Kat Craig of legal charity Reprieve said: ‘This report rightly states that the US’ secretive drone war is a danger not only to innocent civilians on the ground but also to international security as a whole. The CIA’s campaign must be brought out of the shadows: we need to see real accountability for the hundreds of civilians who have been killed – and justice for their relatives.’

Heyns calls for strong protections for civilians, writing: ‘If there is any doubt whether a person is a civilian, the person must be considered a civilian’.

The report also addresses ‘double-tap’ strikes – a controversial tactic first exposed by the Bureau and the Sunday Times in which drones attack a site, and then return to attack again as people are carrying out rescue work. Heyns told a meeting in Geneva last year: ’Reference should be made to a study earlier this year by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism… If civilian ‘rescuers’ are indeed being intentionally targeted, there is no doubt about the law: those strikes are a war crime.’

In the new report, Heyns says attacks on rescuers could be legal if they target civilians who are ‘directly participating in hostilities’ at the time of the strike. But where the strike is carried out in order to target the wounded it ‘constitutes a war crime’.

The US case for dronesThe US has justified drone strikes using two main arguments, which were repeated by President Obama in a major speech in May: that they are part of a war against al Qaeda and its ‘affiliates’, and that they are an act of ‘self-defence’.

In order for a state of war – in this case a non-international armed conflict – to exist, Heyns argues, a threshold of ‘protracted armed violence’ at a certain level of intensity must be met. He adds: ‘It is to be questioned whether the various terrorist groups that call themselves Al-Qaida or associate themselves with Al-Qaida today possess the kind of integrated command structure that would justify considering them a single party involved in a global non-international armed conflict.’

Senior US officials including Brennan and attorney general Eric Holder have claimed that drone strikes are an act of self-defence in the face of an ‘imminent threat of violent attack’.

But a governmental memo on lethal targeting obtained by NBC News showed officials at the Department of Justice embracing a ‘broader concept’ of what might constitute an ‘imminent threat’, with no requirement for ‘clear evidence that a specific attack on U.S. persons and interests will take place in the immediate future’.

Heyns adopts a narrower definition of what constitutes legal lethal action in self-defence. ‘It may not be done pre-emptively to prevent a threat from arising in the future,’ he writes. ‘The necessity of the self-defence, in the well-known phrase, must be instant, overwhelming and leaving no choice of means, no moment of deliberation.’

The US has long claimed that its drone operations have the consent of the countries in which they operate. Yemen’s President Hadi has openly acknowledged his government’s support for US drone operations in his country, while Pakistan’s former President Musharraf has admitted to giving his private approval for some early drone strikes – and in several cases the government even claimed such attacks were Pakistani military operations.

However relations between the US and Pakistan have grown increasingly rocky and senior politicians have claimed the US no longer has consent for strikes – although rumours persist that the strikes operate with the support of Pakistan’s intelligence services.

President Sharif, who entered power in May, announced after his first cabinet meeting: ‘The policy of protesting against drone strikes for public consumption, while working behind the scenes to make them happen, is not on.’

‘Only the State’s highest government authorities’ can offer consent for strikes, writes Heyns: ‘It is not sufficient to obtain consent from… particular agencies or departments of the Government’. Such consent doesn’t have to be made public, although he recommends that nations should acknowledge such consent ‘openly and clearly’.

September 2013 Update: US covert actions in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia

Published

October 1, 2013

Written by

Jack Serle

Web link

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

Multiple drone strikes hit Pakistan, but no confirmed US attacks in Yemen

(Senior Airman Larry E. Reid Jr/US Air Force).

CIA drones strike Pakistan four times in September.

Drone attacks pause for a month in Yemen.

No strikes in Somalia. Al Shabaab violence grabs the world’s attention.

Pakistan

September 2013 actions

Total CIA strikes in September: 4

Total killed in strikes in September: 16-24, of whom 0 were reportedly civilians

All actions 2004 – September 30 2013

Total Obama strikes: 325

Total US strikes since 2004: 376

Total reported killed: 2,525-3,613

Civilians reported killed: 407-926

Children reported killed: 168-200

Total reported injured: 1,117-1,505For the Bureau’s full Pakistan databases click here.

The CIA launched four attacks this month – the second most attacks in one month so far this year. At least 16 people were killed in these attacks – none of them reportedly a civilian. This was the ninth consecutive month without a confirmed civilian casualty.

Six killed in the first strike of the month on September 6 were named (Ob322). Among them was Mullah Sangeen Zadran – an alleged commander in the Haqqani Network and reportedly the Afghan Taliban’s ‘shadow governor’ in Afghanistan’s Paktika province.

Analyst Saifullah Mahsud said the US had ‘scored really big’ by killing Zadran. Though he was second-in-command to Haqqani patriarch Sirajuddin Haqqani, he ‘was running the show, practically’.

The final two strikes came less than 24 hours apart. The first, on September 29, hit two days after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif told the UN General Assembly drone strikes violate his country’s borders. He added that the civilian casualties from the strikes are ‘detrimental to our resolve and efforts to eliminate extremism and terrorism from Pakistan’.

The leading political parties demonstrated that resolve on September 9 by endorsing Sharif’s plan to start peace talks with the Pakistan Taliban, the TTP. But a series of bloody attacks in the following weeks may threaten that unanimity. A week after the announcement Major General Sanaullah Khan, Pakistan Army commander in Swat, was killed by a roadside bomb. The TTP claimed responsibility.

On September 22 an horrific suicide bombing killed more than 80 people. They were worshiping in a church in Peshawar when two bombers detonated inside the building. An armed group, Jundallah, claimed the attack as revenge for US drone strikes. The TTP, an alliance of armed groups, disowned the attack three days later. It declared Jundallah was not a member group.

The church attack was a significant blow to Sharif’s hopes for talks with the Taliban. According to US news wire McClatchy, Sharif said: ‘We had proposed peace talks with the Taliban in good faith but . . . because of this attack, the government is unable to move forward with what it planned and envisaged.’

On September 27 an Ansarul Mujahideen attack killed as many as 20 people on a bus in Peshawar. The group emerged earlier this year with the stated aim of avenging civilians killed in drone strikes, The News reported. And Peshawar was hit for a third time on September 29 when a TTP car bomb detonated in one of the city’s markets. The blast killed as many as 42 men women and children, 17 reportedly from one family.

Yemen

September 2013 actions

Confirmed US drone strikes: 0 Further reported/possible US strike events: 1 Total reported killed in US operations: 0-2Civilians reported killed in US strikes: 0

All actions 2002 – September 30 2013*

Confirmed US drone strikes: 54-64

Total reported killed: 268-397Civilians reported killed: 21-58Children reported killed: 5Reported injured: 65-147

Possible extra US drone strikes: 82-101

Total reported killed: 289-467

Civilians reported killed: 23-48

Children reported killed: 6-9

Reported injured: 83-109

All other US covert operations: 12-77Total reported killed: 148-377Civilians reported killed: 60-88Children reported killed: 25-26Reported injured: 22-111Click 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 confirmed US drone strikes reported in September, although a single source reported an attack on a car as a drone strike on September 7.

The pause in attacks came after a barrage of at least six strikes in August. These strikes followed the report of a potential major al Qaeda attack. The strikes reportedly killed more than 22 people, six were claimed to be civilians of whom three were children.

Eleven of the dead have been named – two of them children. Two others featured on Yemen’s list of top 25 most wanted militants and a third was reportedly a leading al Qaeda member and a leader of a tribe violently at odds with Sanaa.

Al Qaeda has reportedly continued attacking Yemeni security forces this month. On September 21, three coordinated attacks on military and security positions in southern Yemen left as many as 56 people dead. A single attack on an army base, in which 38 soldiers were killed, was the army’s biggest loss in one assault since 2012, Associated Press reported. In the following week two senior officers were reportedly assassinated. And on September 30 armed men stormed an army base in southeastern Mukalla.

Somalia

September 2013 actions

Total reported US operations: 0

All actions 2007 – September 30 2013

US drone strikes: 3-9Total reported killed: 7-27Civilians reported killed: 0-15Children reported killed: 0Reported injured: 2-24

All other US covert operations: 7-14Total reported killed: 47-143Civilians reported killed: 7-42Children reported killed: 1-3Reported injured: 12-20Click here for the Bureau’s full data on Somalia.

Once again there were no reported US strikes in Somalia. However the brutal attack on a Kenyan shopping mall put the militant group al Shabaab into the spotlight.

A team of militants stormed the Westgate shopping complex in Nairobi armed with rifles and grenades. They moved from shop to shop and floor to floor killing some and taking others hostage. The Kenyan security forces encircled the mall and took control of the area the following day. As many as 61 civilians, six security officers and five militants were reportedly killed.

Also this month, it emerged the US has had to move its African drone base from a sprawling military complex at the international airport in Djibouti’s capital. The Washington Post revealed several drones had crashed during landing and take off from what was reportedly the busiest drone base outside Afghanistan. It was reported that the Djiboutian government asked the US to move its drones to an isolated airbase away from a civilian population.

Naming The Dead

The Bureau launched a new initiative this month: Naming the Dead. The aim is to record the names of those killed in nine years of CIA drone strikes in Pakistan. The work revealed that of the minimum 2,500 people reportedly killed in drone strikes in Pakistan, only one in five have been named. Just two women have been identified. The Bureau has published those 568 names in a filterable online database.

Of those names 295 are civilians. However little more than the name is known. The Bureau has managed to piece together biographical information for just a handful of them, including adolescent Tariq Aziz. There is more known about the top tier of militant commanders killed by drones, like Pakistan Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud. The Bureau will continue to publish names and biographies of the dead in the coming months.

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August 2013 Update: US covert actions in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia

Published

September 2, 2013

Written by

Alice Ross and Jack Serle

Web link

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

Secretary of State John Kerry meets President Asif Ali Zardari in Pakistan.(State Department photo/Public Domain).

One strike in Pakistan ends 34-day stretch without an attack.

Yemen sees more strikes in a month than any time since March 2012.

Medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières pulls out of Somalia.

Pakistan

August 2013 actions

Total CIA strikes in August: 1

Total killed in strikes in August: 3-4, of whom 0 were reportedly civilians

All actions 2004 – August 31 2013

Total Obama strikes: 321

Total US strikes since 2004: 372

Total reported killed: 2,508-3,588

Civilians reported killed: 407-926

Children reported killed: 168-200

Total reported injured: 1,112-1,494For the Bureau’s full Pakistan databases click here.

A Bureau investigation appears to confirm the CIA briefly revived its controversial tactic of deliberately targeting rescuers. The Bureau first exposed these so-called ‘double-tap‘ strikes in February 2012. The new study focussed mainly on strikes around a single village in early summer of 2012, aimed at one of the last remaining senior al Qaeda figures, Yahya al Libi.

US Secretary of State John Kerry started the month with a visit to Islamabad in which he said drone strikes in Pakistan would end ‘very, very soon’. This statement was quickly taken back by the Department of State. A spokesman said: ‘In no way would we ever deprive ourselves of a tool to fight a threat if it arises.’

On August 31 CIA drones killed four alleged militants from the Islamic Movement of Turkmenistan. Locals said they were foreigners affiliated with militant commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur. It was the only strike in the month.

The lull in strikes this month in Pakistan came as an international security alert centred on Yemen led to a reported shift in focus from Pakistan’s tribal areas to the Middle East. Yemeni officials claimed a Pakistani bomb-maker had been killed in the sudden surge of Yemen strikes after crossing into the country.

Also in August, the Pakistan government said there had been a tacit understanding between Washington and Islamabad over drone strikes, not a written agreement – although it did not say when the understanding had started, or whether it was still in place. This came in response to questions in the National Assembly. The Pakistan government also came under pressure in the Punjab assembly, which adopted a resolution condemning drone strikes.

Yemen

August 2013 actions

Confirmed US drone strikes: 6 Further reported/possible US strike events: 2 Total reported killed in US operations: 22-43Civilians reported killed in US strikes: 6

All actions 2002 – August 31 2013*

Confirmed US drone strikes: 54-64

Total reported killed: 268-393Civilians reported killed: 21-58Children reported killed: 5Reported injured: 65-147

Possible extra US drone strikes: 82-101

Total reported killed: 289-467

Civilians reported killed: 23-48

Children reported killed: 6-9

Reported injured: 83-109

All other US covert operations: 12-77Total reported killed: 148-377Civilians reported killed: 60-88Children reported killed: 25-26Reported injured: 22-111Click here for the full Yemen data.

A terror alert centred on Yemen gripped the US in August leading to six confirmed drone strikes. The US closed 21 diplomatic missions in the Middle East and east Africa in a move that one counter-terrorism expert called ‘crazy pants‘.

August saw the highest number of confirmed drone strikes since March 2012 when the Sanaa-based government, with considerable US air support, drove al Qaeda out of its southern and central provinces.

Of the 22-43 people killed, three were said to be senior militants. Alleged commanders of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) Saleh al Tays al Waeli and Saleh Ali Guti (aka Saleh Jouti) reportedly died on August 6, while Qaid Ahmad Nasser al Dhahab, described as AQAP’s ‘spiritual leader’ was killed in a night-time precision attack that was likely to be a drone strike on August 30.

Six civilians were reportedly killed, three children among them: two were adolescents, Hussain, 16, and Hassan, 17. The name and age of the third child is not known.

The unusual intensity of the drone strikes appears to support reports suggesting that restrictive new targeting rules, introduced at the time of President Obama’s major speech on drones in May, were relaxed in the face of the ‘elevated threat‘. A senior US official told the New York Times the list of people who could be targeted was increased: ‘Before, we couldn’t necessarily go after a driver for the organization; it’d have to be an operations director. Now that driver becomes fair game because he’s providing direct support to the plot.’

The exact details of the plot – believed to be the work of AQAP – are unknown. However President Hadi told Yemeni police cadets that it involved two huge car bombs, one intended for an oil terminal and the other a target in the capital.

Somalia

August 2013 actions

Total reported US operations: 0

All actions 2007 – August 31 2013

US drone strikes: 3-9Total reported killed: 7-27Civilians reported killed: 0-15Children reported killed: 0Reported injured: 2-24

All other US covert operations: 7-14Total reported killed: 47-143Civilians reported killed: 7-42Children reported killed: 1-3Reported injured: 12-20Click here for the Bureau’s full data on Somalia.

There were again no recorded US attacks in Somalia this month.

Médecins Sans Frontières announced it was ending all operations in the country after over 20 years of continuous work.

The medical charity said it was pulling out because of ‘extreme attacks on its staff in an environment where armed groups and civilian leaders increasingly support, tolerate, or condone the killing, assaulting, and abducting of humanitarian aid workers.’ Sixteen MSF workers have been killed in Somalia since 1991 and just last month two kidnapped MSF staff were released after 21 months in captivity.

It also emerged that six major British financial institutions are evaluating their investments with BT following allegations by legal charity Reprieve that the telecoms giant had supplied communications infrastructure that was used to target drone strikes in Somalia and Yemen. BT has the $23m (£15m) contract to provide telecommunications between RAF Croughton and Camp Lemonnier, the US base in Djibouti from which drone strikes in the countries are flown.

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July 2013 Update: US covert actions in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia

Published

August 2, 2013

Written by

Alice Ross and Jack Serle

Web link

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

A US Air Force Predator on patrol (US Air Force Photo/Lt Col Leslie Pratt).

The CIA killed more people in Pakistan per strike than at any point since July 2012.

US drones return to Yemen‘s skies and al Qaeda confirms the death of its deputy leader.

UN report finds indications of increased US and UK involvement in Somalia.

Pakistan

July 2013 actions

Total CIA strikes in July: 3

Total killed in strikes in July: 23-29, of whom 0 were reportedly civilians

All actions 2004 – July 31 2013

Total Obama strikes: 320

Total US strikes since 2004: 371

Total reported killed: 2,514-3,584

Civilians reported killed: 410-928

Children reported killed: 164-195

Total reported injured: 1,112-1,493For the Bureau’s full Pakistan databases click here.

July was the busiest month since January for the CIA’s drones with three strikes and at least 23 dead, eight of them identified by name. This was the highest ratio of people killed in each strike in Pakistan since July 2012 when when four operations reportedly killed at least 38 people.

The first strike on July 3 (Ob318) skewed the kill ratio – it was the bloodiest attack in nine months with 16-18 people reported dead. This bucked a trend identified by the Bureau for low-casualty strikes: there has been a decline in the number of reported killed in each strike since the peak in 2009.

The death toll was unusually high: US drones have reportedly killed 16 or more people in a strike only three times in the past two years, most recently on October 11 2012.

Three weeks after the strike, anonymous US officials said Washington had cut the rate of attacks and tightened its targeting policy as a concession to the Pakistan army. The unnamed sources told the Associated Press the July 3 strike was based on ‘hugely detailed’ intelligence ‘laid out in a 32-page PowerPoint presentation’ that apparently indicated the targets were Haqqani Network militants gathering to plan an attack on the Ariana Hotel in Kabul.

On July 28 a further strike killed at least five people. Three were reportedly al Qaeda training experts. An unnamed Taliban source claimed the three had trained the team that attacked a Pakistani prison on July 29. At least 250 militants escaped in the assault, including several senior operatives. Reuters named the three alleged trainers as: Abu Rashid, from Saudi Arabia; Muhammed Ilyas Kuwaiti, from Kuwait; and Muhammed Sajid Yamani, from Yemen.

Also in July, the Bureau released an internal Pakistani record of drone strike casualties showing officials found CIA drone strikes have killed a significant number of civilians. Of 746 people listed as killed in the drone strikes outlined in the document, at least 147 of the dead are clearly stated to be civilian victims, 94 of those are said to be children.

Yemen

July 2013 actions

Confirmed US drone strikes: 1 Further reported/possible US strike events: 1 Total reported killed in US operations: 4-12Civilians reported killed in US strikes: 0

All actions 2002 – July 31 2013*

Confirmed US drone strikes: 47-57

Total reported killed: 243-358

Civilians reported killed: 15-52

Children reported killed: 2

Reported injured: 62-144

Possible extra US drone strikes: 81-100

Total reported killed: 286-460

Civilians reported killed: 23-48

Children reported killed: 6-9

Reported injured: 81-106

All other US covert operations: 12-77Total reported killed: 148-377Civilians reported killed: 60-88Children reported killed: 25-26Reported injured: 22-111Click here for the full Yemen data.

Reported US drones killed at least seven people in Yemen this month in the first air strikes since a suspected US drone killed a 10-year-old boy and as many as six others.

July’s strikes came as President Hadi was visiting the US and days before a scheduled meeting at the White House on August 1 to discuss counter-terrorism policies and political reform.

In July AQAP’s chief theologian Ibrahim al Robaish confirmed the group’s deputy commander Said al Shehri‘s death by video eulogy. Al Shehri has been reported killed on several occasions since co-founding AQAP in January 2009.

Al Robaish revealed al Shehri was killed by a drone while talking on his phone in Saada province. However it was not clear exactly when al Shehri died. The only strike in Saada in 2012 recorded by the Bureau is YEM121, which killed at least three people on October 28.

A US court held preliminary hearings in a lawsuit brought by relatives of US citizens killed in drone strikes abroad, including Anwar and Abdulrahman al Awlaki. District court judge Rosemary Collyer asked government lawyers who were attempting to get the case dismissed, ‘How broadly are you asserting the right of the United States to target an American citizen?’ She added that she was ‘troubled‘ by the US administration’s view it can kill US citizens abroad without judicial oversight. ‘The executive is not an effective check on the executive,’ she added.

And the UK Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) has reportedly opened an investigation into UK telecoms company BT, though BIS refused to confirm or deny this to the Bureau. The British legal charity Reprieve has brought a complaint against BT over a contract to service and maintain a fibre-optic link between the US drone base at Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti and a US base in England. Reprieve believes the link is used as part of US drone operations in Yemen and Somalia.

Somalia

July 2013 actions

Total reported US operations: 0

All actions 2007 – July 31 2013

US drone strikes: 3-9

Total reported killed: 7-27

Civilians reported killed: 0-15

Children reported killed: 0

Reported injured: 2-24

All other US covert operations: 7-14

Total reported killed: 47-143

Civilians reported killed: 7-42

Children reported killed: 1-3

Reported injured: 12-20Click here for the Bureau’s full data on Somalia.

For the eleventh consecutive month there were no reported drone strikes in Somalia. A UN report found that al Shabaab retains control of ‘most of southern and central Somalia’ and is the country’s main threat to security.

According to the report, al Shabaab has steered clear of direct conflict, sticking to asymmetrical fighting. The group’s supplies and fighting force of 5,000 have been largely preserved. Al Shabaab attacks have risen from the end of 2012 into 2013, despite losing the key southern port of Kismayo in September 2012 to African Union forces. This month militants struck in the capital once again, killing a Turkish official and a Somali in a bomb attack on the Turkish consulate.

Al Shabaab continued presence is despite a reported increase in Western support for Somali counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency forces. ‘Multiple diplomatic and military sources’ told the UN monitors both the US and UK ‘are increasingly involved in directly supporting intelligence services in “Somaliland”, “Puntland” and Mogadishu.’ Some of this support is in violation of the UN arms embargo on the country, the investigators said.

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Is Congressional oversight tough enough on drones?

Published

August 1, 2013

Written by

Alice Ross

Web link

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

Dianne Feinstein (centre) and members of the Senate intelligence committee grill John Brennan (Photo: SenRockefeller via Flickr)

In the Bureau’s latest investigation into the tactic of ‘double-tap’ strikes on rescuers, our field researcher’s findings appear to directly contradict an account of a strike attributed to staffers of the Congressional bodies charged with overseeing CIA drone strikes.

The House and Senate intelligence committees are responsible for scrutinising the highly classified CIA drone programme. Details of CIA drone strikes are withheld from all other members of Congress.

Dianne Feinstein, chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) has said her committee devotes ‘significant time and attention to the drone programme’ and since 2010 has met each month to ‘review strike records and question every aspect of the program including legality, effectiveness, precision, foreign policy implications and the care taken to minimise noncombatant casualties.’

By law, the President is required to ensure that the committee is kept “fully and currently informed” of intelligence activities.’Senate intelligence committee

But committee members have complained about being denied information – and a source with knowledge of the committees’ functioning told the Bureau: ‘It’s a serious question as to how much any elected official could possibly understand about what’s going on inside’ the intelligence agencies.

In 2012 the Los Angeles Times published what it said was a detailed account of these meetings – based on anonymous briefings – outlining how committee members and aides from the House and Senate committees go to the CIA headquarters each month to watch video footage of recent drone strikes.

But new findings from the Bureau’s field research differ sharply from the account of what was reportedly shown to the committees on one occasion.

The LA Times reported that anonymous aides described seeing footage of a strike that took place on June 4 2012. The attack represented a major success for the agency, killing Yahya al-Libi, al Qaeda’s second-in-command. Aides reported seeing footage showing al-Libi alone being killed by a missile.

But Bureau field research and multiple credible reports tell a different story, in which the day’s events appear to be significantly more complex. The BBC, CNN and other international news outlets were among those reporting that the missile that killed al-Libi was the final part of a sequence of attacks that killed between 14 and 18 people. Sources including the Washington Post reported that after an initial strike, drones returned to attack those carrying out rescue work.

Related story – Bureau investigation finds fresh evidence of CIA drone strikes on rescuers

If the report of what was shown to the oversight committees is accurate – and if the Bureau and other news agencies are correct – then it appears that committee members were only shown video covering the final part of the incident, giving a misleading impression that concealed over a dozen deaths.

The SSCI’s website states: ‘By law, the President is required to ensure that the committee is kept “fully and currently informed” of intelligence activities.’

CIA spokesman Edward Price told the Bureau: ‘The CIA takes its commitment to Congressional oversight with the utmost seriousness. The Agency provides accurate and timely information consistent with our obligation to the oversight Committees. Any accusation alleging otherwise is baseless.’

Neither the House nor the Senate committee would comment, despite repeated requests from the Bureau. But Feinstein’s office did point the Bureau towards a five-month-old statement by the senator on oversight of the drone campaign, made shortly after the public nomination hearings for CIA director John Brennan, of which drones were a major focus.

The statement briefly outlined the review process for drone strikes. But it added the Obama administration had refused to provide the committee with memos outlining the legal justifications for drone strikes, despite repeated requests from senior committee members.

I’ve been on this Committee for more than 10 years, and with the exception of Mr. Panetta, I feel I’ve been jerked around by every CIA Director’Senator Barbara Mikulski

‘I have sent three letters [between 2010 and 2013]… requesting these opinions,’ Feinstein said. ‘Last week, senators on the committee were finally allowed to review two OLC [Office of Legal Counsel] opinions on the legal authority to strike US citizens. We have reiterated our request for all nine OLC opinions – and any other relevant documents – in order to fully evaluate the executive branch’s legal reasoning, and to broaden access to the opinions to appropriate members of the committee staff.’

The challenges of oversight

The Bureau has previously questioned the effectiveness of the intelligence committees’ oversight of drone strikes. In February 2013. Feinstein used opening remarks at John Brennan’s nomination hearings to claim her committee had done its ‘utmost to confirm’ low civilian casualties in CIA drone strikes.

The Bureau contacted four fellow independent organisations which had carried out field investigations looking at civilian casualties in Pakistan. Each had published evidence of civilian casualties – yet none had ever been contacted by committee members or their staff in response to their findings, raising concerns the committee is too dependent on the intelligence community’s assessments.

Related story – No evidence Congress does ‘utmost’ to follow up drone civilian death claims

Current committee members have complained about being blocked from robust scrutiny. At Brennan’s nomination hearings, Senator Barbara Mikulski said: ‘I’ve been on this Committee for more than 10 years, and with the exception of Mr. Panetta, I feel I’ve been jerked around by every CIA Director. I’ve either been misled, misrepresented, had to pull information out – often at the most minimal kind of way… And quite frankly, during those questions, they were evaded; they were distorted, et cetera.’

Such evasions are not limited to CIA directors. In June the director of national intelligence, James Clapper, admitted he had given the SSCI a ‘clearly erroneous’ response earlier in the year when he told an open hearing that the National Security Agency (NSA) did not ‘wittingly’ collect data on millions of Americans. The public retraction came only after former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden leaked documents indicating that such mass surveillance programmes were in operation.

If you wanted to find out what’s really going on, you had to say, “Cut the crap. If you lie to me, I will have your head on a plate”Washington source

Even where members can access information, Feinstein has said the committee can be blocked from acting on it. Following Brennan’s hearing, Feinstein told political blog The Hill: ‘Right now it is very hard [to oversee the drone programme] because it is regarded as a covert activity, so when you see something that is wrong and you ask to be able to address it, you are told no.’

The present scrutiny system evolved in the wake of the Watergate affair. A series of controversial intelligence practices emerged, including attempted assassinations of overseas political leaders and illegal intelligence-gathering on US citizens.

Amid a growing sense that the intelligence services had been allowed to run amok, a series of inquiries – the most well-known of which was the Church Commission, headed by Senator Frank Church – combed through the activities of the CIA, FBI and NSA, identifying multiple abuses and overreachings. The Senate and House intelligence committees were established to provide the kind of scrutiny that might prevent such abuses happening again.

A source with knowledge of the intelligence committees under previous administrations pointed the Bureau to the significant challenges of overseeing operations that are by their very nature secret.

They pointed out that the committee has the power to request access to any information it requires. But this requires members or staffers to know such information exists. ‘It’s a serious question as to how much any elected official could possibly understand about what’s going on inside,’ the source said. Politicians had to ask themselves: ‘Do I know enough to ask the right questions, and how can I count on really being given the full picture?,’ they added.

‘If you wanted to find out what’s really going on, you had to get really tough – you had to talk to people and say, cut the crap. If you lie to me, I will have your head on a plate,’ the source told the Bureau.

Regarding the current committee’s oversight of the drone programme, they said, ‘Did somebody really do a tough job there and put the necessary pressure on people to get a result?’

While elected members might struggle to find the time to delve into complex matters of national security, the close links between committee staffers and the intelligence community can further hamper scrutiny, the source added.

‘You can’t get a job on one of these committees if you don’t have high-level security clearance – so you can’t get a job without being part of the system. This automatically puts you inside a circle of people who all can talk to each other, but in the knowledge that if they step out of line when the job’s finished, they will be finished.

‘There’s a huge risk for any staff member who crosses people inside the system,’ they said.

‘This is the problem of the netherworld and its interaction with democratic institutions… It really is a very difficult problem and the solution that Frank Church came up with wasn’t enough,’ said the source.

US officials attack ‘far from authoritative’ leaked drone report

Published

July 25, 2013

Written by

Chris Woods

Web link

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

A Pakistani soldier in FATA, where there have been 370 CIA drone strikes. (Photo: Chris Woods)

US officials are claiming that an internal Pakistani assessment of civilian deaths from US drone strikes – obtained and published in full by the Bureau – is ‘far from authoritative.’

The secret document was obtained by the Bureau from three independent sources. It provides details of more than 70 CIA drone strikes between 2006 and 2009, and was compiled by civilian officials throughout Pakistan’s tribal areas.

They noted that at least 147 of 746 people listed as killed in CIA drone strikes between 2006 and 2009 were said to be civilians. That number could be as high as 220 civilian dead, the leaked report indicates.

Related article: Exclusive – Leaked Pakistani report confirms high civilian death toll in CIA drone

Now unnamed US officials are questioning the contents of the leaked report. A written statement has been provided to news organisations including the Bureau.

At least 147 of 746 people listed as killed in CIA drone strikes between 2006 and 2009 were said to be civilians. That number could be as high as 220 civilian dead, the leaked report indicates.’

The statement notes that the leaked document was based on ‘indirect input from a loose network of Pakistani government and tribal contacts’. As such, an official indicated, ‘the result is a report whose findings are far from authoritative’.

The same statement added: ‘The notion that the United States has undertaken operations in Pakistan that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of innocent Pakistanis is ludicrous. There is no credible information whatsoever to substantiate the report’s distorted figures.’

Voice of America also reported receiving a written statement from US officials. Its version cited one as saying that the leaked document is not credible since it relies ‘in part on erroneous media reporting’.

Pakistan estimates

There seems little gap between Pakistan’s official position on civilian casualties, and the contents of the leaked report obtained by the Bureau.

Earlier this year Ben Emmerson QC, the UN’s special rapporteur on counter-terrorism, was officially informed by Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs that CIA drones had so far killed at least 2,200 people in the country, including at least 400 civilians.

The figures were disclosed to Emmerson as he made a three-day visit to the country. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which compiled the figures, said a further 200 of the total dead were also likely to be civilians.

And reporting on leaked US intelligence documents obtained by news agency McClatchy suggests that US records privately indicate civilian deaths where publicly the administration denies them.

Those documents, which have not yet been published, are said to cover two periods: 2006 to 2008, and January 2010 to September 2011, and indicate that what US officials say publicly about drone strikes does not always match intelligence reports.

The notion that the United States has undertaken operations in Pakistan that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of innocent Pakistanis is ludicrous.’

US official

Pakistan’s government has so far refused to confirm the authenticity of the latest leaked document obtained by the Bureau – though it is not contesting the report’s claims of high civilian deaths.

‘I am not in a position to authenticate the veracity of this report, but the facts that are being revealed are something which is not new,’ Foreign Ministry spokesman Aizaz Ahmed Choudhry told Voice of America. ‘ We have always said that drone strikes cause civilian casualties.’

Lawyer Shahzad Akbar of legal charity Reprieve has brought a number of legal cases in Pakistan and Europe trying to force greater clarity on the issue of civilian deaths. He told the Bureau he found it troubling that the US appears to be claiming that only it can accurately assess civilian deaths in Pakistan.

‘How is it possible for the US to determine who has been killed, when they often do not know to start with who they are targeting?’ Akbar emailed from Islamabad.

‘Drone surveillance alone cannot determine who is militant and who is not.’

Related article: Get the Data – The Pakistan government’s secret document

‘Poor US intelligence’

In a fresh development, a retired military figure once responsible for security in Waziristan now says that historically, poor US practice may have contributed to higher non-combatant casualties.

Brigadier Mahmood Shah claimed to Voice of America that CIA drone strikes in the early days of the campaign were based on poor US ground intelligence:

‘They [the US] gave us 28 places that here are militants, then we had full recce [reconnaissance] of the area and we visited the places and we found that 27 out of 28 were incorrect, and one was correct,’ Shah told VoA.

‘So this was the amount of accuracy and if they had the permission to shoot at that time, which we never thought would be possible, you can imagine how many people, civilian people that would have killed.’

The Bureau presently estimates that 410-928 civilians are among 2,509-3,576 people killed in CIA drone strikes in Pakistan since 2004. This is based on a two-year analysis of news reports, court documents, field investigations, leaked intelligence papers and other credible sources.

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