Washington covers up civilian drone deaths

BY MARK THOMPSON

In the best tradition of the manipulation of casualty figures during the U.S. war on Vietnam, the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence claimed July 1 that at most 116 civilians have died during 473 aerial drone and missile strikes that killed 2,500 alleged “enemy combatants” over the seven years since President Barack Obama took office. The figures only include pilotless strikes “outside areas of active hostilities” — in other words, where there are no U.S. combat operations.

Most of the strikes took place in northwest Pakistan with others in Libya, Somalia and Yemen. The figures do not include Afghanistan, Iraq or Syria, where U.S. troops are on the ground. The report admits that nongovernmental organizations that have tried to verify the number of civilians killed believe the U.S. figures are false.

According to the New York Times, “The administration’s count of civilian deaths is about half of the lowest estimate from independent watchdogs.” The Washington-based Long War Journal, which the Times says has the lowest estimates, said there were 207 deaths in Pakistan and Yemen alone. The London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism estimates that the number of civilian casualties could be as high as 801.

The National Intelligence office did not provide any breakdown by year or country, much less a strike-by-strike account, making it virtually impossible for anyone to challenge how the figures were determined.

The drone strikes are organized by the CIA and the U.S. military’s Joint Special Operations Command. They were pioneered by the White House under President George W. Bush as part of the “war on terror” following 2001, but accelerated under Obama, who championed them as a “surgical” alternative to traditional airstrikes and ground combat. A Times article last year noted that operators who direct the missiles by computer from the state of Nevada “often do not know who they are killing.”

Obama has involved himself intimately in directing the drone attacks, as part of promoting a military perspective that is supposed to avoid “boots on the ground” and minimize U.S. casualties. This includes using airstrikes, special operations forces and local forces, and was meant to lead to a withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Middle East. Despite this, 9,800 U.S. troops remain in Afghanistan, more than 4,000 are in Iraq and 300 have been sent to Syria.

In June the White House approved a more aggressive use of U.S. troops and airstrikes in Afghanistan. It also said it was “not ruling out” sending hundreds of additional troops to Iraq. Civilian deaths in these two wars number in the tens of thousands. Last October a U.S. airstrike on a hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz killed 42 patients and staff, despite repeated phone calls appealing for the attack to be called off.

The Obama administration says the drone strikes are necessary to protect U.S. national security against terrorist groups like Islamic State. But the majority of those targeted by Islamic State are Muslims in the Middle East and Asia. In late June and early July IS killed hundreds in terrorist attacks in Bangladesh, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, all countries with majority Muslim populations.

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