un launches major investigation into civilian drone deaths

7/28/2019 UN Launches Major Investigation Into Civilian Drone Deaths

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UN launches major investigation into civilian drone deaths
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January 24th, 2013 | by Chris Woods and Alice K Ross | Published inAll Stories,Covert DroneWar, Top Stories | 2 Comments

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 havemistakenly killed two children.

Ben Emmerson QC, the UNs special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, told aLondon press conference that he will lead a group of international specialists who will examineCIA 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 theOccupied 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 UKs leading forensic pathologists, as well as experts from Pakistan andYemen. Also joining the team is a serving judge-advocate with the US military who is assistingthe inquiry in his personal capacity.


Emmerson told reporters: Those states using this technology and those on whose territory it isused are under an international law obligation to establish effective independent and impartialinvestigations into any drone attack in which it is plausibly alleged that civilian casualties weresustained.
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But in the absence of such investigations by the US and others, the UN would carry outinvestigations in the final resort, he said.

Related story - UN team to investigate civilian drone deaths

Early signs indicate Emmersons team may have assistance from relevant states. He toldjournalists that Britains Ministry of Defence was already co-operating, and that Susan Rice, the

USs 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 investigationafter a group of nations including Russia, China and Pakistan requested action on covert dronestrikes. Emmerson told the Bureau: Its a response to the fact that theres international concernrising exponentially, surrounding the issue of remote targeted killings through the use ofunmanned vehicles.

Related story - Obama terror drones: CIA tactics in Pakistan include targeting rescuersand funerals

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

He added: This is not of course a substitute for effective official independent investigations bythe 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 SundayTimes.

In October 2012 Emmerson said: The Bureau has alleged that since President Obama tookoffice at least 50 civilians were killed in follow-up strikes when they had gone to help victimsand more than 20 civilians have also been attacked in deliberate strikes on funerals andmourners. Christof Heyns [UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killing] has described suchattacks, 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 aidinvestigators. Whether it does or not will show whether it holds itself to the same obligation toco-operate with UN human rights investigations that it urges on other countries, said JamilDakwar, director of the ACLUs Human Rights Programme.

Whos who on the UNs team

Dr Nat Cary One of the UKs most respected forensic pathologists, Cary is the president ofthe British Association of Forensic Medicine and has worked on high-profile cases including thesecond autopsy ofIan Tomlinson and that of Joanna Yeates. He is an expert in injuries caused byexplosions.

Imtiaz Gul Gul is an eminent observer of terrorism and security in Pakistan. The executivedirector of the Islamabad-based Center for Research and Security Studies, which tracks terroristactivity and violence throughout Pakistan, he is also a prominent journalist. He has written four
http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2012/10/25/united-nations-team-to-investigate-civilian-drone-deaths/http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2012/02/04/obama-terror-drones-cia-tactics-in-pakistan-include-targeting-rescuers-and-funerals/http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2012/02/04/obama-terror-drones-cia-tactics-in-pakistan-include-targeting-rescuers-and-funerals/http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2012/02/04/obama-terror-drones-cia-tactics-in-pakistan-include-targeting-rescuers-and-funerals/http://www.channel4.com/news/g20-death-home-office-pathologist-says-dr-patel-is-wronghttp://crss.pk/beta/http://crss.pk/beta/http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2012/10/25/united-nations-team-to-investigate-civilian-drone-deaths/http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2012/02/04/obama-terror-drones-cia-tactics-in-pakistan-include-targeting-rescuers-and-funerals/http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2012/02/04/obama-terror-drones-cia-tactics-in-pakistan-include-targeting-rescuers-and-funerals/http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2012/02/04/obama-terror-drones-cia-tactics-in-pakistan-include-targeting-rescuers-and-funerals/http://www.channel4.com/news/g20-death-home-office-pathologist-says-dr-patel-is-wronghttp://crss.pk/beta/


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books on al Qaeda, the Taliban and Pakistans militants, and is a regular contributor to bothPakistani 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,formedasPresident Salehs 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 atNew York Universitys law school. Last year she co-authored a major study into the impact ofdrones on civilians, Living Under Drones, which found that the CIAs drone campaign inPakistan had a damaging and counterproductive effect on those who lived within the strikezone.

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, whereEmmerson also practices. He has authored a majorreview of governmental counter-terrorismpolicy. He is chairof legal charity Reprieves 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 thatprosecuted Slobodan Milosevic. Many of his cases still centre on international law and warcrimes and last year he caused controversy by questioningwhether Sudans President Bashirwas responsible for genocide in Darfur.

Captain Jason Wright The US Army lawyer who defended Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in histrial for plotting the September 11 attacks, Wright spoke out about his clients torture inGuantanamo Bay. He is now a judge-advocate with the US military and is assisting the inquiry ina personal capacity, Emmerson noted at the investigations launch.

Justice Shah Jehan Khan Yousafzai - Yousafzai has spent two decades as senior judgein thecircuit of Peshawar high court, working in towns and cities adjacent to the Pakistani tribalregions that have been the epicentre of covert drone warfare. Peshawar high court has heard

high-profile legal challengesto the drone campaign.Jasmine Zerini A former diplomat, Zerini is a specialist in Pakistan and Afghanistan, havingworked as deputy director for South Asia for the French foreign ministry.

Related links:

October 2012 update: US covert actions in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia

Drones causing mass trauma among civilians, major study finds

US drone strikes undermine Pakistani democracy says top diplomat

UN expert labels CIA tactic exposed by Bureau a war crime

The uphill fight against Obamas drones: Code Pinks Medea Benjamin

CIA Drone Strikes in Pakistan 20042013

Total US strikes: 364Obama strikes: 312

Total reported killed: 2,640-3,474

Civilians reported killed: 473-893

Children reported killed: 176

Total reported injured: 1,270-1,433

US Covert Action in Yemen 20022013
http://tribune.com.pk/author/1127/imtiaz-gul/http://afpak.foreignpolicy.com/node/42775http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Abdul-Ghani+al-Iryanihttp://nationalyemen.com/2011/11/02/tawq-a-new-political-movement-starts-strong/http://nationalyemen.com/2011/11/02/tawq-a-new-political-movement-starts-strong/http://nationalyemen.com/2011/11/02/tawq-a-new-political-movement-starts-strong/http://livingunderdrones.org/http://livingunderdrones.org/http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/interactive/2011/jan/28/control-orders-criminal-justicehttp://www.reprieve.org.uk/kenmacdonaldqc/http://www.reprieve.org.uk/kenmacdonaldqc/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/hardtalk/9747719.stmhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/hardtalk/9747719.stmhttp://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/special-report-this-is-not-a-trial-it-is-an-attempt-to-legitimise-a-death-threat-8046781.htmlhttp://www.reprieve.org.uk/press/2012_12_21_drone_victim_appeal_ruling_uk_cia_strik/http://www.reprieve.org.uk/press/2012_12_21_drone_victim_appeal_ruling_uk_cia_strik/https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:UkinlMfEGuEJ:www.reprieve.org.uk/media/downloads/2012_04_19_PUB_petition_Noor_Khan_17th_March_drone_attack_Pakistan.pdf+&hl=en&gl=uk&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEEShiUc7IKPSZ5Akfjdd6H-_eZkEv4NCSg9-87izjaPeQWyTeJm3kFzrTKXD2z2JUaOgKOt9H-ZBzOLYTzXrOaViEHtILzBXZH3jVydVVSm71s_7iq0_S6ts-EO5hJ_qYdN-rLhmB&sig=AHIEtbTAmfRAP632etL1hiDLLNRQ5QVidQhttps://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:UkinlMfEGuEJ:www.reprieve.org.uk/media/downloads/2012_04_19_PUB_petition_Noor_Khan_17th_March_drone_attack_Pakistan.pdf+&hl=en&gl=uk&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEEShiUc7IKPSZ5Akfjdd6H-_eZkEv4NCSg9-87izjaPeQWyTeJm3kFzrTKXD2z2JUaOgKOt9H-ZBzOLYTzXrOaViEHtILzBXZH3jVydVVSm71s_7iq0_S6ts-EO5hJ_qYdN-rLhmB&sig=AHIEtbTAmfRAP632etL1hiDLLNRQ5QVidQhttp://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2012/11/01/october-2012-update-us-covert-actions-in-pakistan-yemen-and-somalia/http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2012/09/25/drones-causing-mass-trauma-among-civilians-major-study-finds/http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2012/08/03/us-drone-strikes-undermine-pakistani-democracy-says-top-diplomat/http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2012/06/21/un-expert-labels-cia-tactic-exposed-by-bureau-a-war-crime/http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2012/05/24/the-uphill-fight-against-obamas-drones-an-interview-with-code-pinks-medea-benjamin/http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2013/01/03/obama-2013-pakistan-drone-strikeshttp://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2013/01/03/yemen-reported-us-covert-actions-2013/http://tribune.com.pk/author/1127/imtiaz-gul/http://afpak.foreignpolicy.com/node/42775http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Abdul-Ghani+al-Iryanihttp://nationalyemen.com/2011/11/02/tawq-a-new-political-movement-starts-strong/http://livingunderdrones.org/http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/interactive/2011/jan/28/control-orders-criminal-justicehttp://www.reprieve.org.uk/kenmacdonaldqc/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/hardtalk/9747719.stmhttp://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/special-report-this-is-not-a-trial-it-is-an-attempt-to-legitimise-a-death-threat-8046781.htmlhttp://www.reprieve.org.uk/press/2012_12_21_drone_victim_appeal_ruling_uk_cia_strik/https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:UkinlMfEGuEJ:www.reprieve.org.uk/media/downloads/2012_04_19_PUB_petition_Noor_Khan_17th_March_drone_attack_Pakistan.pdf+&hl=en&gl=uk&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEEShiUc7IKPSZ5Akfjdd6H-_eZkEv4NCSg9-87izjaPeQWyTeJm3kFzrTKXD2z2JUaOgKOt9H-ZBzOLYTzXrOaViEHtILzBXZH3jVydVVSm71s_7iq0_S6ts-EO5hJ_qYdN-rLhmB&sig=AHIEtbTAmfRAP632etL1hiDLLNRQ5QVidQhttp://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2012/11/01/october-2012-update-us-covert-actions-in-pakistan-yemen-and-somalia/http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2012/09/25/drones-causing-mass-trauma-among-civilians-major-study-finds/http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2012/08/03/us-drone-strikes-undermine-pakistani-democracy-says-top-diplomat/http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2012/06/21/un-expert-labels-cia-tactic-exposed-by-bureau-a-war-crime/http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2012/05/24/the-uphill-fight-against-obamas-drones-an-interview-with-code-pinks-medea-benjamin/http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2013/01/03/obama-2013-pakistan-drone-strikeshttp://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2013/01/03/yemen-reported-us-covert-actions-2013/


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Total confirmed US operations (all): 54-64

Total confirmed US drone strikes: 42-52

Possible extra US operations: 135-157

Possible extra US drone strikes: 77-93

Total reported killed (all): 374-1,112

Total civilians killed (all): 72-178Children killed (all): 27-37

US Covert Action in Somalia 20072013

Total US strikes: 10-23

Total US drone strikes: 3-9

Total reported killed: 58-170

Civilians reported killed: 11-57

Children reported killed: 1-3

A Rather cynical response but one I could find little to counter.

1. Phillip Bolstersays:

January 24th, 2013 at 11:51 pm (#)

IF the result of this investigation is not something which can be summed up in a quote ina bold header on an Op Ed or in 3 simple paragraphs which the average adult reader canunderstand without being a lawyer then there will be no resulting affect on anything.Public opinion, trending memes is what speaks to power not just truth. When youcreate the game arbitrarily i.e. The G.W.O.T. you can bend the rules and control thelogic Its a fabulous device you have to admit it. Oh and remember what happened thelast time a S.R. for the UN spoke too loudly about drones and targeted killings?

This game is long term and bigger than all of you. The interests at play here are varied

and complex and all of them committed in their own little way to defending future droneuse. Between the companies who build them (GA, Lockeed etc), the Congressmen fromthe states who benefit, the FAA lobbying/pandering, the war-weary US public, thedefense orientated red meat republican base who hear patriotism when they hear dronesand terrorists its a big mt of crap and another report is not going to change anything.Youre late to the party and youre outgunned and out-marketed but it needs to be donebecause a hand full of you people are passionate about it? or because you want to changesomething?

Signature strikes will be reduced. Micah Zenko and those who shouted before him havealmost guaranteed that fact. Nobody will ever pay for the crimes done to innocentPakistanis. But unlike the Phoenix program this will not go away like a bad smell or bad

idea the air force quad review has already guaranteed drones are the future as you allknow well. replacing a couple of fighter wings every year going forward and with thenext gen X-47b and the British counterparts rolling out in the next 4 years this train hasleft the station. Money has been committed and the public doesnt care about drones orwhat they do. or where they do it. THAT IS THE CENTRAL POINT TO ALL OFTHIS IF YOU DONT GET THAT YOU WONT MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

Self-defense will remain the unreasonable reason given by the US. You will need to shoutvery very loud in all the right ways and morally and emotionally challenge the right
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demographic with the findings of your report to have any REAL influence. Unless thewhole thing is merely perfunctory by a group of guys who are from within the fog of it alltoo long and cant see the woods for the trees.

Reports try to find truths truths need simplifying for the masses and the masses willonly care when they can relate challenge their idea of heroism, of terror, of the

importance of legal reasoning and mostly of the anti-productive nature of the wholeconcept of these 450 drones strikes since 2004 which have blown up between 3000 and4000 people without due process no matter what legal spells Holder or Koh try to weave!MAKE IT MATTER. In reality there are files somewhere deep in Langley in some boxwhich shows drone war crimes and there is an entire web of cross agency people fromJSOC to SOCOM to USAF to Creech to Langley to the Exec branch to Justice toAdvisers to Obama and Bush form the bottom to the very top all intermingled withevidence of torture and a bureaucratized sub quality network of Intel right form Iran toPakistan with so many conflicts of interest from GPS beacons being handed out willynilly to give politician short term strikes in number, an out of control leashless dronearmy with a very narrow decision tree all at the whim of a small number of pro-drone Al

Qaeda killer idealists who think that hate can be squashed with a boot and try ever sohard to realize this mistaken policy in everything they do.

Too many people stand to lose too much and the most dangerous between them all arethose who stand to shown to be wrong that their idealist view of dealing with so calledterror is wrong their whole world view. These are the guys who will use the wholeweight of the admin and everything and everyone and every technique at their disposal toneutralize any efforts you make no matter what truths you think you find. There wasnever any arguing with the Paul Wolfowitzs of this world there never will be theyinvest too much in their view and theyre always the smartest guys in the room. Obama isnot one of these guys he has merely taken on the role as SIN EATER he is a moralman and he knows exactly what is morally wrong with so many of the drone strikes

which have been carried out in his name at his command as his purposefully chosen roadforward even before he sat in the Oval office chair for the first time. HOMELANDpurposefully uses a drone strike narrative and makes no bones about which strike it wasreferring to The Chenagai Drone Strike was very major war crime and somebody maysome day whistle blow on that event. If they did it tomorrow it would have a major effecton the status of the drone policy, but they wont and the evidence may not be anywhere tohold anyone responsible. 80 kids in a madras.

If that can happen and no single investigative journalist takes on the mission ofuncovering what happened that day when they unsuccessfully tried for Zawiri then whatdoes that say about you chances for changing anything? Any codified new laws ofconflict which specifically cite drone use will be controlled by US influence and do you

think that China or Russia want to limit the future use of their drones which they arecurrently rigorously developing???? Conflicting interests. The only target for yourfindings should be journalists and appropriate platforms. Find some truth and thenpresent it for the average non-legal reader and more importantly watcher. IQ squared,Dateline, GPS, CNN, BBC in English with pictures please. If Fareed Zakaria (an ultracentrist as you know and one of the brains on policy debate on TV) is not sitting downwith one of you guys Probably Chris Heynes going by his quotes then this report willmake as much impact as a mouses fart. Just some thoughts.


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Drones causing mass trauma among civilians, major study finds

September 25th, 2012 | by Chris Woods | Published in Bureau Stories, Covert Drone War, Dronestrikes in Pakistan | 15 Comments

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An armed US Reaper drone over Afghanistan(U.S. Air Force/Lt Col Leslie Pratt/ Flickr)The near constant presence of CIA drones terrorises much of the civilian population ofPakistans tribal areas according to a new report.

Men, women and children are subjected to almost constant trauma including fear of attack,severe anxiety, powerlessness, insomnia and high levels of stress says a nine monthinvestigation into CIA drone strikes in Pakistan by two top US university law schools. More than130 victims, witnesses and experts were interviewed in Pakistan for the study.

A number of those eyewitnesses corroborated the Bureaus own recent findings that rescuershave been deliberately targeted by the CIA in the tribal areas.

The new study heavily challenges US government claims that few civilians have died in CIAdrone strikes, saying that there is significant evidence to the contrary.

As the report notes in its executive summary: In the United States, the dominant narrative aboutthe use of drones in Pakistan is of a surgically precise and effective tool that makes the US saferby enabling targeted killing of terrorists, with minimal downsides or collateral impacts. Thisnarrative is false.

A film accompanying the report has been placed on YouTube.
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Impact on civiliansThe joint report,Living Under Drones, is by Stanford Universitys International Human Rightsand Conflict Resolution Clinic, and New York University School of Laws Global Justice Clinic.The 165-page study looks at key aspects of the CIAs drone programme its legal basis, howstrikes are reported, their strategic implications and how civilians are affected.

Psychiatrists and doctors report a deeply stressed population in parts of the tribal areas. In theirninth year of bombing, US drones now fly almost constantly over towns such as Mir Ali andMiranshah.

One psychiatrist told researchers that many of his patients experience anticipatory anxiety, aconstant fear that they might come under attack. The report goes on to note that:

Interviewees described emotional breakdowns, running indoors or hiding when drones appearabove, fainting, nightmares and other intrusive thoughts, hyper startled reactions to loud noises,outbursts of anger or irritability, and loss of appetite and other physical symptoms. Intervieweesalso reported suffering from insomnia and other sleep disturbances, which medical healthprofessionals in Pakistan stated were prevalent.

Pakistani MP Akhunzada Chitan reported that when he visits Waziristan to see his family, people

often complain that they wake up in the middle of the night screaming because of the drones.In the United States, the dominant narrative about the use of drones in Pakistan is of a

surgically precise and effective tool that makes the US safer by enabling targeted killing of

terrorists, with minimal downsides or collateral impacts. This narrative is false.Living With Drones: Stanford & New York University Law Schools

The Stanford/ NYU report also examines in detail three Obama administration drone strikes.Multiple eye-witness reports of civilian deaths are accompanied by corroborating evidence fromother independent investigations, media accounts, and submissions to the United Nations, andcourts in the UK and Pakistan.

In total, more than 50 civilians are likely to have died in these three strikes alone, the reportconcludes. Anonymous US officials were still claiming recently that civilian deaths have only

been in single digits during Obamas entire four years in office.Attacks on rescuers corroboratedThe NYU/ Stanford report also independently corroborates a major Bureau investigation with theSunday Times, which found that multiple CIA strikes between 2009 and summer 2011 haddeliberately targeted rescuers and funeral-goers. Citing a number of eyewitness accounts, thestudy notes:

Secondary strikes have discouraged average civilians from coming to one anothers rescue, andeven inhibited the provision of emergency medical assistance from humanitarian workers.

Hayatullah Ayoub Khan was driving in North Waziristan when the car ahead of him wasdamaged in a drone strike. The report says that as Khan approached on foot to see if he couldhelp someone inside yelled that he should leave immediately because another missile wouldlikely strike. As he returned to his car, a second missile killed whoever had been inside.

A second anonymised man told researchers of an attack on the home of his in-laws: Otherpeople came to check what had happened, they were looking for the children in the beds and thena second drone strike hit those people.
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Noting that all three databases are susceptible to bias because of reporting restrictions in thetribal areas, the report nevertheless concluded that one source was far more dependable. BothLWJ and NAF are heavily criticised for their poor sourcing of strikes, and for their insistence ondefining those killed as militants, even when their source materials often say no such thing.

In contrast the Bureaus Pakistan data is praised as the most reliable available source.

Click here for more on the reports data coverageThe report notes that TBIJ maintains a much more dynamic database than either New AmericaFoundation or The Long War Journal, updating its strike information frequently to reflect newinformation as it comes to light.

And it notes that the Bureau links to 344 unique sources for the first 27 strikes of 2012. Incontrast NAF links to 107.

No responseThe joint report by two of the USs biggest university law schools came after legal campaigninggroup Reprieve suggested a study into the impact of drones on civilians. It also assisted inputting researchers in touch with some of those affected in Pakistan although Reprieve has hadno editorial input, according to the report.

Professor Sarah Knuckey of NYUs Global Justice Clinic co-authored the study with ProfessorJames Cavallaro at Stanford. The pair visited Pakistan twice with a team of young lawyers,interviewing more than 130 people in connection with the CIAs bombing programme.

Knuckey, who has previously investigated killings by the Taliban in Afghanistan, told the Bureaushe had been surprised at the high levels of civilian trauma described by health professionals inthe tribal areas. Incidence levels more closely resembled those found in higher intensityconflicts, she said.

Asked what she thought the study would achieve, Knuckey said that she hoped that thoseresponsible in the US for covert drone strikes look at this and say there are extremely welldocumented and serious concerns, both about the impact of our policies on Pakistani civilians,and also on the USs own interests, and we need to consider this very seriously.

The Obama administration has so far not engaged with the authors. A July 18 request for ameeting with the US National Security Council has yet to be answered.

A question of legality

February 4th, 2012 | by Chris Woods | Published in Bureau Stories, Covert Drone War, DroneWar | 4 Comments

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A fully armed US military Reaper drone in Afghanistan

Attacks by the CIA on rescuers and funeral-goers may be morally questionable. But are suchattacks legal?

It is a war crime under the Geneva Conventionsto attack rescuers wearing emblems of the Red

Cross or Red Crescent. But what if rescuers wear no emblems, or if civilians are mixed in withmilitants, as the Bureaus investigation into drone attacks in Waziristan has repeatedly found?

Speaking publicly for the first time on the controversial CIA drone strikes, President Obamaclaimed last weekthat they are used strictly to target terrorists, rejecting what he called thisperception were just sending in a whole bunch of strikes willy-nilly. He also claimed that thestrikes have not caused a huge number of civilian casualties.

Despite such assertions, some international legal experts continue to question the covert dronecampaign, arguing that the strikes amount to little more than state-sanctioned extra-judicialexecutions.

JustificationSurprisingly, after almost a decade of drone attacks outside the battlefield, the question of their

legality has never been tested in a US or international court, even when US citizens have beentargeted.

The Obama administration has however sought to present some legal justification for its actions.

Harold Koh, a legal adviser at the State Department, became the first senior US official toengage with the question in a March 2010 speech. He told an audience of lawyers that UStargeting practices, including lethal operations conducted with the use of unmanned aerialvehicles, comply with all applicable law, including the laws of war.
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US drone strikes, Koh claimed, were only aimed at military objectives. And they also followedthe principle of proportionality, which prohibits attacks that may be expected to cause incidentalloss of civilian life, injury to civilians, damage to civilian objects, or a combination thereof, thatwould be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated.

The CIA and Pentagon which has its own covert drone fleet also consult with lawyers before

each strike. In a frank interview withNewsweeklast year, former CIA legal counsel John Rizzodiscussed his role in overseeing the agencys hit list, at timesreferred to drone killings asmurder. (Rizzo is currently under investigation forleaking classified information.)

Not to mince words here, if it is not in a situation of armed conflict, unless it falls into this

very narrow area of imminent threat then it is an extra-judicial execution.Naz Modirzadeh, Harvard

ContentiousDo the administrations claims of legality add up? And what of the specific instances of attackson rescuers and mourners uncovered by the Bureau?

According to a wide range of international law experts consulted by the Bureau, for the CIAsdrone attacks in Pakistan and Yemen to be legal they would at the very least need to be covered

by the Laws of Armed Conflict (LOAC).Professor Dapo Akande, who heads Oxford Universitys Institute for Ethics, Law and ArmedConflict, believes that under LOAC the killing of civilian rescuers is problematic: The questionis, can rescuing be regarded as taking part in hostilities, to which for me the answer is clearlyNo. That rescuing is not taking part in hostilities.

If LOAC does not apply as some respected lawyers believe is the case then the far morerestrictive international human rights law (IHRL) applies. This explicitly forbids attacks exceptin the most restricted circumstances, namely when the possibility of being attacked is absolutelyimminent.

Not to mince words here, if it is not in a situation of armed conflict, unless it falls into this verynarrow area of imminent threat then it is an extra-judicial execution. This is absolutely unlawful

under IHRL and of course under domestic law in any place in which such an attack might occur.And illegal under US law, says Naz Modirzadeh, Associate Director of the Program onHumanitarian Policy and Conflict Research (HPCR) at Harvard University.

So then we dont even need to get to the nuance of whos who, and are people there for rescueor not. Because each death is illegal. Each death is a murder in that case.

The concept of imminent threat may now be in jeopardy. Obamas chief counter-terrorismadviser, John Brennan, told arecent gathering at Harvard Law School that We are findingincreasing recognition in the international community that a more flexible understanding ofimminence may be appropriate when dealing with terrorist groups.

Brennan also continues to claim that no civilians have been killed in CIA drone strikes sincemid-2010, despite a Bureau investigation which hasproved the contrary.

Clive Stafford-Smith believes that Obama, like Bush before him, is seeking to undermineinternational law in order to achieve US military objectives: Theyre trying to say that theGeneva Conventions are quaint and outmoded. What they really mean is theyre inconvenient.

Funeral attacksThe Bureau has also identified a number of CIA attacks on mourners and funeral goers, resultingin at least 23 civilian casualties.
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Reprieves Stafford-Smith is blunt: Imagine the outrage if the IRA had followed up itsassassination of Lord Mountbatten [in 1979] by attacking his funeral. This amounts to trying tocower people into not showing respect for the dead.

But Harvards Modirzadeh points out that if the CIAs drone strikes are covered by LOAC, thenan attack on a funeral might be permitted. LOAC specifically provides for proportionality. The

greater the threat a target represents, the higher the collateral damage allowed for.If it is excessive then the attack should not be carried out at that time, it should not be carriedout at the funeral. But of course the arguments can also be made about timing; about the potentialthtat the target may be lost if they were not hit at a certain time when there is clear intelligencethat the target is present. And of course there can be mistakes: a mistake is not a war crime.

Within reach of defeating al QaedaDespite concerns about its campaign, the US shows little sign of letting up. There have been 312CIA drone strikes in Pakistan since 2004. Of more than 2,300 people killed, most are allegedmilitants according to the Bureau. But at least 464 civilians also appear to have died.

If US policy assumes that those who live with or assist combatants are also necessarily

combatants, what about the wife of the drone pilot who drives him to work in the morning? How

is that person any different from the people in the house that the Taleban combatant is living in?Professor Dapo Akande, Oxford University

The strikes cause outrage in Pakistan where political leaders seek to outdo each other in publiccondemnation. Yet Islamabad has almost certainly signed secret deals permitting the Americansto attack deals it so far dare not dismantle.

And the US believes it it close to some form of victory. US Defense Secretary (and former CIAchief) Leon Panetta spoke for the Administration when he said in July: Were within reach ofstrategically defeating al Qaeda. Officials fear any letup in attacks will allow al Qaeda and theTaliban to recover from the CIAs brutal assaults.

Yet some fear that in its pursuit of victory the USs changing definitions of who it may attack and what it views as a conflict may yet come back to haunt it.

If US policy assumes that those who live with or assist combatants are also necessarilycombatants, that would be problematic if applied to US combatants and operatives.says OxfordUniversitys Professor Dapo Akande.

What about the wife of the drone pilot who drives him to work in the morning? And shes gotthe kids in the back, so she drives the person whos piloting the drone strikes into work, dropshim off, takes the kids into school. How is that person any different from the people in the housethat the Taleban combatant is living in? It becomes very difficult, I think, to maintain thesedistinctions when we turn it around and look at it from our point of view.

Christof Heyns, the UN Special Rapporteur on Extra-Judicial Executions, agrees that aninternational legal framework is urgently needed to govern their use.

Our concern is how far does it go will the whole world be a theatre of war? he asked. Dronesin principle allow collateral damage to be minimised but because they can be used withoutdanger to a countrys own troops they tend to be used more widely. One doesnt want to use theterm ticking bomb but its extremely seductive.

Fresh evidence of CIA civilian deaths in Pakistan revealed

February 27th, 2012 | by Chris Woods | Published in Bureau Stories, Covert Drone War, Dronestrikes in Pakistan,Top Stories | 3 Comments
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Two major investigations have provided fresh evidence that civilians are continuing to be killedin Pakistans tribal areas by CIA drones despite aggressive Agency denials.

In a study of ten major drone strikes in Pakistan since 2010, global news agency AssociatedPress deployed a field reporter to Waziristan and questioned more than 80 local people about ten

CIA attacks. The results generally confirm the accuracy of original credible media reports andin two cases identify previously unrecorded civilian deaths.

In a further case, in which an anonymous US official had previously attacked the Bureausfindings of six civilian deaths in a 2011 strike, APs report has confirmed the Bureaus work.

Anglo-American legal charity Reprieve has alsofiled a case with the United Nations HumanRights Council, based on sworn affidavits by 18 family members of civilians killed in CIAattacks many of them children. Reprieve is calling on the UNHRC to condemn the attacks asillegal human rights violations.

New casualtiesThe Associated Press investigation, authored by the agencys Islamabad chief Sebastian Abbot,represents one of the largest field studies yet into casualties of CIA drone strikes.

APs field reporter interviewed more than 80 local civilians in Waziristan in connection with 10major CIA strikes since 2010. It found that of 194 people killed in the strikes, 138 wereconfirmed as militants:

The remaining 56 were either civilians or tribal police, and 38 of them were killed in a single

attack on March 17, 2011. Excluding that strike, which inflicted one of the worst civilian deathtolls since the drone program started in Pakistan, nearly 90 percent of the people killed were

militants, villagers said.

In two of the ten cases AP has turned up previously-unreported civilian casualties.
http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-02-26-AS-Pakistan-Drones'-Human-Cost/id-2da4d269c49441d5b80d67f1d5c5b8e4http://reprieve.org.uk/media/downloads/2012_02_22_PUB_drones_UN_HRC_complaint.pdf?utm_source=Press+mailing+list&utm_campaign=89f3db0a75-2012_02_23_drones_UN_complaint&utm_medium=emailhttp://reprieve.org.uk/media/downloads/2012_02_22_PUB_drones_UN_HRC_complaint.pdf?utm_source=Press+mailing+list&utm_campaign=89f3db0a75-2012_02_23_drones_UN_complaint&utm_medium=emailhttp://reprieve.org.uk/media/downloads/2012_02_22_PUB_drones_UN_HRC_complaint.pdf?utm_source=Press+mailing+list&utm_campaign=89f3db0a75-2012_02_23_drones_UN_complaint&utm_medium=emailhttp://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_PAKISTAN_DRONES_HUMAN_COST_GLANCE?SITE=VARIT&SECTION=STATE&TEMPLATE=DEFAULThttp://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_PAKISTAN_DRONES_HUMAN_COST_GLANCE?SITE=VARIT&SECTION=STATE&TEMPLATE=DEFAULThttp://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-02-26-AS-Pakistan-Drones'-Human-Cost/id-2da4d269c49441d5b80d67f1d5c5b8e4http://reprieve.org.uk/media/downloads/2012_02_22_PUB_drones_UN_HRC_complaint.pdf?utm_source=Press+mailing+list&utm_campaign=89f3db0a75-2012_02_23_drones_UN_complaint&utm_medium=emailhttp://reprieve.org.uk/media/downloads/2012_02_22_PUB_drones_UN_HRC_complaint.pdf?utm_source=Press+mailing+list&utm_campaign=89f3db0a75-2012_02_23_drones_UN_complaint&utm_medium=emailhttp://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_PAKISTAN_DRONES_HUMAN_COST_GLANCE?SITE=VARIT&SECTION=STATE&TEMPLATE=DEFAULThttp://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_PAKISTAN_DRONES_HUMAN_COST_GLANCE?SITE=VARIT&SECTION=STATE&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


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On August 14 2010 AP found that seven civilians died - including a ten year old child alongside seven Pakistan Taliban. The deaths occurred during Ramadan prayers. Until now it hadnot been known that civilians had died in the attack. US officials told AP that its ownassessments indicated all those killed were militants.

On April 22 2011, AP confirms that three children and two women were among 25 dead in an

attack on a guest house where militants were staying. Three named eyewitnesses in the village ofSpinwan confirmed that the civilians had died two had attended their funerals.

Bureau findings confirmedThe AP investigation has also independently confirmed that six civilians died alongside tenTaliban in an attack on a roadside restaurant on May 6 2011.

Last year the Bureaus field researchers in Waziristan identified by name six civilianskilled inthe attack by the CIA. An anonymous US official used the New York Times to mock the Bureauat the time: The claim that a restaurant was struck is ludicrous.

Now APs investigation endorses the Bureaus findings, stating: Missiles hit a vehicle parkednear a restaurant in Dotoi village, killing 16 people, including 10 Taliban militants and sixtribesmen.

United NationsIn the second new report confirming civilian casualties in US drone strikes, Reprievehas filed amajor case with the United Nations Human Rights Council.

The study details a dozen drone strikes in Pakistan during President Obamas time in office. Eachis supported by witness affidavits, mostly from family members of civilians killed.

For example on Valentines Day 2009, just weeks after Obama came to office, a CIA droneattack struck a village in North Waziristan. Between 26 and 35 people died in the attack, nine ofthem civilians. One of those killed was an eight year old boy, Noor Syed. The complaint to theUNHRC draws on evidence from Noors father:

Maezol Khan is a resident of Makeen in South Waziristan, Pakistan. In the early morning of

February 14, 2009, he and his son were sleeping in the courtyard of their home when a missile

from a drone struck a nearby car. As a result of the explosion, a missile part flew into thecourtyard, killing Maezols eight-year-old son. In addition, there were approximately 30 people

killed or injured in the attack.
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Noor Syed Aged 8 (Photo: Noor Behram)

Another complaint reports that four civilians died on June 15 2011 when a CIA missile hit theircar in Miranshah, North Waziristan.

Far from being Taliban, the men were a pharmacist and his assistant; a student; and an employeeof the local water authority.

That attack so enraged local opinion that at the mens funeral their coffins were used to block themain highway in a spontaneous protest at CIA attacks.

Clive Stafford Smith, Reprieves director, said that the CIA was creating desolation and callingit peace.

The UN must put a stop to it before any more children are killed. Not only is it causing untold

suffering to the people of North West Pakistan it is also the most effective recruiting sergeantyet for the very militants the US claims to be targeting.

Pakistan barrister Mirza Shahzad Akbar runs theFoundation for Fundamental Rights, andprepared the UNHCR submission. He told the Bureau:

The US needs to address the question of a large number civilian victims, and also has to respectthe well established international laws and norm. The UN is the best forum to discuss drones-related humanitarian issue as well as its far reaching impact on world politics.

Evidence in British court contradicts CIA drone claimsApril 24th, 2012 | by Chris Woods | Published in Bureau Stories, Covert Drone War, Dronestrikes in Pakistan,Top Stories | 4 Comments

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Londons Royal Courts of Justice: scene of latest drone legal battle (Nick Garrod/ Flickr)

A major case in the British High Court has revealed fresh evidence of civilian deaths during anotorious CIA drone strike in Pakistan last year.

Sworn witness testimonies reveal in graphic detail how the village of Datta Khel burned for

hours after the attack. Many of the dozens killed had to be buried in pieces.I was thrown 24 feet from where I was sitting. When I awoke I saw many individuals who

were dead or injuredAhmed Jan, attack survivor

Legal proceedings were begun in London recently against British Foreign Secretary

William Hague, over possible British complicity in CIA drone strikes.

Britains GCHQ its secret monitoring and surveillance agency is reported to have providedlocational evidence to US authorities for use in drone strikes, a move which is reportedly illegalin the United Kingdom.

Sworn affidavitsThe High Court case focuses in particular on a CIA drone strike in March 2011 which killed upto 53 people.

Sworn affidavits presented in court and seen by the Bureau offer extensive new details of a strikethe CIA still apparently claims killed no non-combatants.
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Ahmed Jan (pictured) is a tribal elder in NorthWaziristan. On March 17 2011 he was attending a gathering with other village elders, to discussa mining dispute.

We were in the middle of our discussion when the missile hit and I was thrown about 24 feetfrom where I was sitting. I was knocked unconscious and when I awoke I saw many individualswho were dead or injured, he says in his affidavit.

Most of those who died in Datta Khel village that day were civilians. The Bureau has so faridentified by name 24 of those killed, whilst Associated Press recently reported that it has thenames of 42 civilians who died that day.

Pakistans president, prime minister and army chief all condemned the Datta Khel attack. Arecent Bureau investigation with the Sunday Timesquoted Brigadier Abdullah Dogar, whocommanded Pakistani military forces in the area at the time.

We in the Pakistan military knew about the meeting, wed got the request ten days earlier. It washeld in broad daylight, people were sitting out in Nomada bus depot when the missile strikes

came. Maybe there were one or two Taliban at that Jirga they have their people attending butdoes that justify a drone strike which kills 42 mostly innocent people?

Yet the US intelligence community has consistently denied that any civilians died.

My father was not an enemy of the United States or any other countryKhalil Khan

Last year an anonymous US official told the New York Times: The fact is that a large group ofheavily armed men, some of whom were clearly connected to al Qaeda and all of whom acted ina manner consistent with AQ [Al Qaeda] -linked militants, were killed.

The sworn affidavits seen by the Bureau offer a very different perspective. Imran Khans fatherIsmail was another of the elders who died that day. Imran says of his father: He always did theright thing for the community and the tribe. He opposed terrorism and militancy and was not

himself in any way connected to these things.Khalil Khans late father Hajji Babat was a local policeman who was not an enemy of theUnited States of America or any other country. His son describes in his affidavit how he rushedback to his village to find his father dead, the bus station and surrounding buildings still burningsix hours after the drone strike.

And Fateh Khan, who once worked for British Telecom, lost his 25-year old nephew DinMohammed in the CIA attack. He reports that his nephews body had to be buried in pieces, and
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that he left behind four children, all of whom now live in my house. His eldest child is currentlyonly five years old.

Absolute lieThe most senior tribal elder to die that day was Daud Khan. Initially he was claimed to havebeen a senior Taliban figure. His son Noor told the Bureau that this was an absolute lie.

My father was not a militant but an elder who was working day and night for his people. Therehave been many children who have been killed in drone strikes. I ask the US if they think thosechildren were militants and combatants and dangerous enough to be killed in such a manner?

The CIA declined to comment when asked whether it still believed it had killed no non-combatants in Pakistan since May 2010, or that no civilians died in Datta Khel last year.

In London, legal campaigners are seeking a judicial review in the High Court a process bywhich senior judges can question and even overturn any government policy on aiding US dronestrikes.

The case is being brought by legal charity Reprieve, and by the Islamabad-based lawyer ShahzadAkbar and the Foundation for Fundamental Rights, which focuses on civilian victims of CIAdrone strikes in Pakistan.

The British government is understood to have firmly challenged the grounds of the case on anumber of fronts.

Naming the Dead: Bureau announces new drones projectFebruary 4th, 2013 | by Drones Team | Published in All Stories, Covert Drone War, Drone strikesin Pakistan, Drone War | 3 Comments

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A February 15 2009 drone strike killed at least 26. Few have so far been named. (Getty Images)

The Bureau is launching an ambitious new investigation, which will seek to identify as many aspossible of those killed in US covert drone strikes in Pakistan, whether civilian or militant.

The Bureau is raising some of the money for this project through a crowd-funding appeal.

Click hereto donate to our Naming the Dead project.

As part of our ongoing monitoring and reporting of CIA and Pentagon drone strikes, the Bureauhas already recorded the names of hundreds of people killed in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.

At the end of January 2013, the Bureau was able to identify by name 213 people killed by dronesin Pakistan who were reported to be middle- or senior-ranking militants.

A further 331 civilians have also now been named, 87 of them children.

But this is a small proportion of the minimum 2,629 people who appear to have so far died inCIA drone strikes in Pakistan. The Bureaus work suggests 475 of them were likely to have beencivilians.

At the moment we know the names of fewer than 20% of those killed in Pakistans tribal areas.At least 2,000 deaths still remain publicly anonymous, said Chris Woods, who leads theBureaus covert drone war team.

Our aim will be to identify by name many hundreds more of those killed. A significant numberof those identities will be known by local communities, by US and Pakistani officials, and by

militant groups. We hope to convince them to share that information.

Related story Analysis: Why we must name all drone attack victims

The project has already secured substantial funding from a UK foundation but it still needsmore funds.

Today the US-based Freedom of the Press Foundation, a crowd-funding organisation aimed atraising money for public interest journalism, announced it is backing the Bureaus Naming theDead project. The Bureaus new investigation will be one of four recipients of Freedom of thePress Foundations latest campaign.

Crowd-funding is an established way of supporting journalism in the US and it is increasinglybeing used in the UK as a way of funding projects, which established organisations ignore or will

not fund.Using the reach of the web, many people (the crowd) are able to give small amounts of money toback a cause or project in which they believe.

In the face of official secrecy, having the full facts about who is killed is essential for aninformed debate about the effectiveness and ethics of the drone campaign, said ChristopherHird, managing editor of the Bureau. And it is exciting to be able to give all of our supportersworldwide the chance to be part of our first venture in this democratic form of funding.
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A challenging task

Government officials, media organisations and even militant groups are often quick

to identify senior militants such as Yahya al-Libi and Ilyas Kashmiri when they are

killed.

Yet little is said of the hundreds more alleged militants and civilians among at least 2,629 deathsin Pakistan drone strikes.

Both the US and Pakistani governments are likely to keep detailedrecords. A recent case at the Peshawar High Court heard that officials in the tribal agencies hadprepared a confidential report which included details of each and every drone attack and thenumber, names and ages of the people killed.

Anonymous US intelligence officials have also revealed details of CIA video surveillance on

particular strikes. And the Terror Tuesday process in which hundreds of named allegedmilitants have been selected by US agencies for targeted killing has been widely reported.

Photographs and other documents also occasionally surface. When a civilian family was killed inthe first drone strike of Barack Obamas presidency, local officials issued formal paperwork (seeright) that was later obtained by the campaign group Center for Civilians in Conflict.

ID cards, family photographs and eyewitness testimony of attacks can all provide usefulcorroborating evidence. The graves of militants killed in drone strikes can also name them asmartyrs and give details of the strikes in which they died.

Drawing on information from a wide array of sources, the Bureaus team will seek to build adetailed understanding of those killed.

Focus on Pakistan

While the Bureau will seek to extend the project to Yemen and Somalia in the near future, theinitial focus will be on the nation where most US covert drone strikes have taken place.

Researchers based in Pakistan and the UK will seek to build up biographical information for allof those killed, whether civilian or militant their name, age, gender, tribe, and village, forexample. Where possible, photographs, witness statements and official documentation will alsobe published.

The team will seek assistance from the Pakistan and US governments in identifying those killed.And researchers will also call on Taliban factions and other militant groups to release
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information on the many hundreds of fighters killed in more than 360 US drone strikes since2004.

The Bush Years: Pakistan strikes 2004 2009August 10th, 2011 | by The Bureau| Published in Bureau Stories,Covert War on Terror - theData, Drones data carousel


President Bush inspects a Predator drone / Getty

The events detailed here have been reported by US or Pakistani government, military andintelligence officials, and by credible media, academic and other sources between 2004 and2009.

For the data on the 2012 Pakistan drone strike database clickhere and for the Pakistan 2011 dataclickhere. For the Pakistan 2010 drone strike database clickhere. For a database incorporatingall 2009 drone strikes in Pakistan after President Obamas inauguration clickhere.

June 2004 December 2005

B1 June 17 2004 6-8 total killed 2 children reported killed 1+ injuredThe first known fatal US drone strike inside Pakistan also killed two children a fact rarelyreported. The target, local Taliban commanderNek Mohammad (who had been linked to anassassination plot against General Musharraf) died days after Pakistan lifted a short-lived
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amnesty with him. Also killed were up to four other alleged Taliban, including (possibly) twounknown Uzbeks. Others killed were named either as Fakhar Zaman and Azmat Khan; oras Marez Khan, Shahrukh Khan and Leetak(The News). House ownerSher ZamanAshrafkhel, alleged by some to be a militant, was also killed along with his two sons aged 10and 16. One report claimed that two of those who died wereNek Mohammads brothers.

However in October 2012 brotherWali Mohammad told the BBC he was only injured in thestrike, saying that Im not afraid of the drones but I also dont want to die in a drone attack.

Wary of revealing the CIAs involvement, Pakistans Army initially claimed the attack as its ownwork. A military spokesman said at the time:

Nek Mohammad was suspected to be present in a hideout with his

associates and our security forces acted swiftly on the

information and that is how he was killed.

Location: Wana, South Waziristan.References: Asia Times,Dawn,Daily Times,Daily Times,South Asia Analysis, CNN,TheNews,Foreign Policy,New York Times,Washington Post, BBC

B2 May 8 2005

2 total killedTarget Haitham al-Yemeni (an al Qaeda explosives expert) and his car passengerSamiullahKhan, described by MSNBC as a local warlord were killed in a Predator strike whichreportedly targeted the formers mobile phone. Yemeni had been under US surveillance for morethan a week, according to the Washington Post, and it is unclear why attempts were not made tocapture him. Amnesty International later accused the US of carrying out an extrajudicialexecution, in violation of international law.

Location: Toorikhel, near Mir Ali, North Waziristan.References:Washington Post, Long War Journal, Amnesty International, MSNBC, UN SpecialRapporteur, The News

B3 November 5 2005 8 total killed 3-8 civilians, including 2-3 children, reported killed 1 injuredA failed strike against Abu Hamza Rabia (al Qaedas Number 3) destroyed his house andkilled eight people, including Rabias wife. As many as three children were also reported killed,all girls, at least one of them Rabias daughter. Rabia himself was reported wounded in the leg.Once again the Pakistan Army initially claimed the attack, blaming it on a blast caused whilstmilitants prepared bombs. TV reporterNasir Dawar, who lived next door to the attack site, latersaid:

I grabbed my Kalashnikov, because I thought somebody fired a rocket at my house There was

nothing left but body parts, and a kid lying under some bricks.Location: Mosaki, North Waziristan.References: Dawn, AP,SATP,CNN,Family Security Matters,Globe & Mail,The Atlantic, UNSpecial Rapporteur

B4 December 1 2005

5 total killed 2 civilians, children, reported killedTarget Abu Hamza Rabia, a Syrian al Qaeda operative, was killed along with four others,
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including two other foreign militants, Suleiman al-Moghrabi and Amer Azizi both linked tothe Madrid train bombings. Also killed were two children an 8-year old, Noor Aziz and a 17-year old, Abdul Wasit, nephew and son respectively of house-ownerMohammad Siddiq, whosurvived. Media speculation suggested that multiple Predator drones took part in the attack.PhotographerHayatullah Khan recorded the remains of a US Hellfire missile at the site,

proving US involvement. He was subsequently murdered by assailants unknown, although hiswidow (herself later assassinated) blamed Pakistans intelligence service, the ISI. Then-USNational Security AdviserStephen Hadley, when asked whether the US had killed Rabia, said:

Weve obviously been supporting Pakistan. President Musharraf has been very aggressive indealing with the Al Qaeda and Taliban presence in Pakistan. We have helped him in terms ofproviding intelligence and cooperating with his forces, and obviously this is something thatwould be an important thing for Pakistan, important thing for the United States.

Location: Haisori, North Waziristan.References:Christian Science Monitor, Dawn,Dawn, Dawn, CNN, Family Security Matters, TheAtlantic, Al Jazeera, Fox News, Foreign Policy, UN Special Rapporteur,secret US diplomaticcable,The News

Tributes to victims of 2004 Madrid bombings-Flickr/mockstarB5 January 6 2006

8 total killed 3-4 civilians, including 1-2 child, reported killed 9 injuredAn attack on an unnamed Al Qaeda official was reported and a guest house owned by MaulviNoor Mohammad was destroyed. Eight people were reported killed including two women andone or two children. Three suspected Islamists were also said to be among the dead. It was
http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/fox-news-sunday/2005/12/05/transcript-national-security-adviser-hadley-fnshttp://www.foxnews.com/on-air/fox-news-sunday/2005/12/05/transcript-national-security-adviser-hadley-fnshttp://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1205/p04s02-wosc.htmlhttp://archives.dawn.com/2005/12/03/top4.htmhttp://archives.dawn.com/2005/12/05/top3.htmhttp://archives.dawn.com/2005/12/05/top3.htmhttp://archives.dawn.com/2005/12/05/top2.htmhttp://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/12/03/pakistan.rabia/http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.6934/pub_detail.asphttp://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/09/the-courage-of-pakistani-journalists/245358/http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/09/the-courage-of-pakistani-journalists/245358/http://english.aljazeera.net/archive/2005/12/200841014473720155.htmlhttp://www.foxnews.com/on-air/fox-news-sunday/2005/12/05/transcript-national-security-adviser-hadley-fnshttp://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/02/27/my_drone_war?page=0,1https://www.aclu.org/drone-foia-state-department-documentshttp://www.cablegatesearch.net/cable.php?id=06ISLAMABAD11675&q=hayatullah%20khanhttp://www.cablegatesearch.net/cable.php?id=06ISLAMABAD11675&q=hayatullah%20khanhttp://www.cablegatesearch.net/cable.php?id=06ISLAMABAD11675&q=hayatullah%20khanhttp://www.cablegatesearch.net/cable.php?id=06ISLAMABAD11675&q=hayatullah%20khanhttp://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-2-146255-50th-al-Qaeda-leader-killed-in-338th-drone-strikehttp://www.foxnews.com/on-air/fox-news-sunday/2005/12/05/transcript-national-security-adviser-hadley-fnshttp://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1205/p04s02-wosc.htmlhttp://archives.dawn.com/2005/12/03/top4.htmhttp://archives.dawn.com/2005/12/05/top3.htmhttp://archives.dawn.com/2005/12/05/top2.htmhttp://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/12/03/pakistan.rabia/http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.6934/pub_detail.asphttp://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/09/the-courage-of-pakistani-journalists/245358/http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/09/the-courage-of-pakistani-journalists/245358/http://english.aljazeera.net/archive/2005/12/200841014473720155.htmlhttp://www.foxnews.com/on-air/fox-news-sunday/2005/12/05/transcript-national-security-adviser-hadley-fnshttp://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/02/27/my_drone_war?page=0,1https://www.aclu.org/drone-foia-state-department-documentshttp://www.cablegatesearch.net/cable.php?id=06ISLAMABAD11675&q=hayatullah%20khanhttp://www.cablegatesearch.net/cable.php?id=06ISLAMABAD11675&q=hayatullah%20khanhttp://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-2-146255-50th-al-Qaeda-leader-killed-in-338th-drone-strike


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claimed that US soldiers took away two tribesmen by helicopter in a related operation. AMaulvi Noor Mohammed identified as a senior Taliban figure was reportedly killed in bothMarch and August 2010. In March 2012 the Washington Post reported that in 2006, At times [inPakistan], the agency had only three working Predator drones.

Location: Saidgai, North Waziristan.References:Reuters, Dawn,New York Times,Daily Times,Global Jihad,Washington Post

B6 January 13 2006

13-22 total killed 10-18 civilians, including 5-6 children, reported killedThe Pakistani governmentpublicly protesteda strike which killed up to 18 civilians. Main targetAyman al-Zawahiri was absent from a possible al Qaeda and Taliban commanders meeting.Despite initial reports that all the victims were al Qaeda or Taliban figures, including six leadingfighters, later reports by local officials suggested that most or all of the dead were civilians,including 14 from one family, with up to six children. The US Congressional Research Servicelater described the attack:

A missile attack on a residential compound in northwest Pakistan near the Afghan border killedup to 18 people, reportedly including numerous women and children. Some reports said the deathtoll was higher and included up to one dozen Islamic militants. Pakistani officials and localwitnesses blamed the attack on U.S. air forces, possibly Predator drones that were targeting topAl Qaeda leader Ayman al- Zawahri, who was not at the scene. U.S. officials would not confirmU.S. involvement. The incident led to major public anti-U.