‘Unlawful and dangerous’
Robert Grenier, the head of the CIA’s counterterrorism center during the Bush administration, said last week that “we have been seduced” by drones, and that drone killings “are creating more enemies than we are removing from the battlefield.” He’s right. When our nation violates the law in the name of our national security, it gives propaganda tools to our enemies and alienates our allies. That is why the government’s targeted killing program, which has resulted in hundreds of civilian deaths, is both unlawful and dangerous.
To be sure, targeted killing is not always illegal, nor is the use of drones. Under international law and our Constitution, the government can use lethal force when, for example, an individual takes up arms against the United States in an actual war, or against a person who poses an imminent threat to life and no means other than killing will prevent the threat. These are not the rules the government is following.
Today, our government is killing people in countries in which the United States is not at war. It reportedly adds suspected terrorists — including U.S. citizens — to “kill lists” for months at a time, which by definition cannot be limited to genuinely imminent threats. The New York Times disclosed that the government “counts all military-age males in a strike zone as combatants” unless intelligence proves them innocent — but only after they are dead.
When mistakes are made, our nation refuses to acknowledge them and does not compensate victims. The first Yemeni missile strike President Obama authorized, in December 2009, targeted alleged militants but killed 21 children and 14 women. WikiLeaks revealed a secret agreement by Yemen to accept responsibility for the U.S. killing. Yemenis were enraged, but most Americans probably never heard about it.
White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan admits that the U.S. targeted killing program sets a precedent. Russia, China or Iran may claim tomorrow, as our government does today, the power to declare individuals enemies of the state and kill them far from any battlefield, based on secret legal criteria, secret evidence and a secret process. That is the world we are unleashing unless the program is stopped.