US being forced to report on drone casualties: Analyst

Press TV has conducted an interview with Robert Naiman, Policy Director of Just Foreign Policy from Illinois, about a new documentary on the consequences of US drone attacks.

The following is an approximate transcript of the interview.

Press TV: We cover these illegal targeted killings as they are called by these US drone attacks quite extensively here on Press TV and this really, overall, is tantamount to a complete failure of the international community when you look at the loss of civilian lives especially in Pakistan in terms of the ratio of what US officials claim are the killing of these extremists versus the civilian population.

How much longer is this going to continue when you have civilians that are dying? Just recently, 63 people to have been killed in Yemen of which it is claimed that 60 of them were al-Qaeda extremists and 3 civilians.

Naiman: Well, the key dynamic here is the United States – most powerful country in the world – and the mechanisms for holding the most powerful country in the world accountable to international law are weak; but, not non-existent.

The United Nations has attempted to do some things. There has been a report led by Ben Emerson the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Execution – that put some pressure on the US; there was just a vote in the Human Rights Council, which was boycotted by the US on a resolution led by Pakistan and Yemen calling for greater transparency by the United States; and here at home domestically for the first time… news of people being killed by drone strikes.

This is something that hasn’t happened in the ten years of the program that they would have to say publicly what they’re claiming about: how many people were killed; how many of those people were civilians.

So there has been a shift. We have a long way to go, but there has been a shift and greater public scrutiny can put more pressure on the United States to force a change in policy.

Press TV: How many people are killed – How many civilians, that is? How many extremists are killed? But then, how many of those people – family relatives and friends – are turning against the US based on their acquaintances or family members who have been killed?

After all, isn’t that the whole purpose of this drone program, to eliminate extremism and of course threats against US national security?

Naiman: Well, of course we don’t know how many people have been killed. The United States government hasn’t tallied – that information as classified.

We don’t know how many civilians have been killed. The United States government hasn’t tallied – that information is classified.

That’s why we’re pushing by every means to force the US government to disclose what it knows. There is independent tallies marked by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism in London that indicate that hundreds of civilians have been killed in Pakistan alone since drone strikes began in 2004.

Roughly, the mid-range of their estimates would indicate that 20 percent of the people killed have been civilians. Meanwhile, the so-called high level terrorist leaders targeted by the United States, it looks like that’s been about 2 percent.

So, about ten times as many civilians as the people that the US claims it is targeting are dangerous high level terrorists trying to attack the United States. Clearly that is inconsistent with the story that US public officials have told that civilian casualties have been extremely rare.

Again, that is why it is so crucial to force the United States government on the public record to defend its claims about civilian casualty.

Yes of course this policy in Pakistan, in Yemen is turning people against the United States. Some fraction of those people will turn to violence there is no question about that. That’s why we must force this policy into the sun light.