Secret documents reveal UK ‘complicit’ in US drone wars
SPECIAL INVESTIGATION
BY JUDITH DUFFY
SECRET documents have revealed the UK is complicit in the controversial covert “drone war” being carried out by the US, it has been claimed. Classified documents from US whistleblower Edward Snowden have provided documentary evidence for the first time of the role of a American spy base within the UK.
Programmes to pinpoint the locations of terrorist suspects for “targeted killing” drone strikes by tracking where they access the internet, were developed at RAF Menwith Hill in North Yorkshire, which is largely staffed by personnel from the US National Security Agency (NSA).
The US drone strikes have provoked huge controversy due to the secrecy surrounding the operations and because they have taken place in countries such as Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia – nations with which the US is not at war.
Ryan Gallagher, a journalist with online investigative magazine The Intercept, which obtained the documents, said they revealed how programmes with names such as Ghosthunter were pioneered at Menwith Hill.
“There is obviously a uniquely British role here that has never really been understood or disclosed before,” he said.
“There has been more of a British role through the base on our territory that people didn’t know about. Technically speaking it is a US base on British territory, but that doesn’t exempt it from British laws and British policies. It is widely considered that drone strikes in places like Yemen outside of war zones constitute breaches of international law.
“If the UK Government is involved through surveillance programmes operated on British soil, there are some very serious questions to be asked.”
Documents reveal how Ghosthunter was developed in 2006 to locate targets when they log on to the internet, which enabled a “significant number of capture-kill operations against terrorists”.
Another internal NSA report, shows how a new initiative was launched at Menwith Hill in 2010 to identify targets at 40 different internet cafés in Yemen. It was linked to a programme called Ghostwolf to capture or eliminate “key nodes” in terrorist networks. The RAF website states Menwith Hill is owned by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and made available to the US Department of Defense. It states government ministers are fully briefed on activities carried out there.
Gallagher raised concerns over secrecy surrounding the UK’s involvement, pointing out it had never been open to public scrutiny or debate.
“Obviously some things have to be kept secret for good reasons, but when you are talking about the British Government’s involvement in covert operations and drone strikes across the world, then that is something we have a right to know about,” he said.
US attorney Jennifer Gibson, a drones specialist with human rights organisation Reprieve, said there had been increasing evidence of the UK’s involvement in US drone strikes.
“What this does is confirm with actual documentation that all that mounting evidence is absolutely true – that the UK is heavily involved in the US covert drone war in places like Yemen,” she said. “The US drone programme has been exceptionally controversial, with accusations that it has caused the deaths of hundreds of civilians.” A 2014 Reprieve report estimated attempts to kill 41 men by US drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen resulted in the deaths of 1,147 people.
Gibson pointed out in the case of drone strikes, it was intelligence agencies who decides “who lives or dies” without any accountability. “What we found in the US covert drone programme is that despite US claims this is a precise weapon, it turns out the intelligence is pretty poor and not that precise at all,” she said.
“Strikes have left hundreds, if not thousands, of civilians dead without any recourse. The reality is that as much as the UK Government wants to say it is a matter for the states involved, they are now one of the states involved and they need to reveal what that involvement is, how far it has gone and what the damage has been.”
The Ministry of Defence said US forces maintain robust “civilian and military co-operation” with the UK and manage all base activities in accordance with agreements made between the two. An MoD spokesman said: “RAF Menwith Hill is part of a US Defense communications network. It wouldn’t be appropriate to comment on the specifics of a US location.”