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Search: drones

21 Jun

...Al Qaeda at the time of the Cole bombing — before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the authorization by Congress to use military force against their perpetrators. The United States initially handled the Cole attack as a peacetime terrorism crime, but the government now contends that a state of armed conflict had legally existed since 1996, when Osama bin Laden declared war against the United States. According to the Obama administration, therefore, “firing missiles from drones that kill people over an extended period of time pursuant to a U.N.-authorized...
21.06.11 | |

25 Apr

...industrial zone. Lawfare highlights a snippet of testimony given at yesterday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on drones that alleges that the Obama Administration is targeting and killing low-level insurgents, the detainment of whom caused much criticism during the Bush Administration years. In addition to British, French and Israeli allegations, Qatar is now saying that Syria has been using chemical weapons against its own people. Under pressure from the political far-right, Switzerland has now restricted immigration from all EU countries, placing an annual restriction on the number of resident permits it...
25.04.13 | |

20 Mar

...they do not, what kinds of compensation may ever be made available to those who wrongfully suffer a misdirected attack – who knows? By a number of accounts – Richard Clarke’s and others – CIA came to be in the drone business substantially because the military, and especially the Air Force, didn’t want the mission in the 1990’s when the idea of putting a missile on surveillance drones in the interest of counterterrorism first came into vogue. Times have since changed. CIA is no longer the only option. There is...
20.03.13 | |

10 Feb

...Azerbaijanis. For this reason, it falls in violation of the 2008 General Assembly resolution which reaffirms that “no State should recognize as lawful the situation resulting from the occupation of Azerbaijan’s territories, or render assistance in maintaining that situation”. In the continued spirit of Islamophobia, the French Senate resolution also refers to “jihadist mercenaries” aiding the Azerbaijani army, despite the controversy surrounding these claims, and in spite of consensus amongst military experts that Azerbaijan’s military successes resulted from its use of advanced drones that were able to target Armenian military...
10.02.21 | |

12 Dec

...as follows: “[As civil libertarians wearing ‘rose colored glasses’ would have it,] [t]he AUMF triggered the president’s commander-in-chief power, which enables him to detain enemy combatants indefinitely and kill them with drones and other weapons….” As an initial matter, hard to figure out what Eric means, “the AUMF triggered” the President’s Commander-in-Chief power. The President is CINC in wartime and not, and whatever powers Article II of the Constitution provides him (more on which anon) I figure they’d exist whether Congress “triggers” them or not. More to the point, it...
12.12.12 | |

20 Feb

An Israeli soldier has caused outrage because of a photo posted to Instagram showing what appears to be a Palestinian child in the crosshairs of his rifle. Chinese government officials considered using a drone to target a suspected drug lord hiding in Myanmar. In other drone news, the United Arab Emirates has signed a contract with the US to purchase approximately $200 million worth of American-made drones. Reuters provides coverage of the pre-trial hearing of Laurent Gbagbo at the ICC, a proceeding which began yesterday. 20 rebels are dead and...
20.02.13 | |

30 Oct

...example, Reuters reported that of the 500 “militants” killed by drones between 2008 and 2010, only 8% were the kind “top-tier militant targets” or “mid-to-high-level organizers” whose identities could have been known prior to being killed. Similarly, in 2011, a U.S. official revealed that the U.S. had killed “twice as many ‘wanted terrorists’ in signature strikes than in personality strikes.” Despite the U.S.’s intense reliance on signature strikes, scholars have paid almost no attention to their legality under international law. This article attempts to fill that lacuna. Section I explains...
30.10.12 | |

29 Sep

...say, “I hear you guys are looking for me.” No special forces guys, Predator drones, or air strikes are going to take him out if he does this. In other words, this situation is, in conceptual terms, a fairly close analogue to the one in which cops surround a building and say, “Come out with your hands up or we’ll shoot.” Ben and I disagreed about the “surrender” option at the time, and I continue to find it unconvincing even with regard to al-Aulaqi. But a post by Glenn Greenwald...
29.09.10 | |

09 Dec

...unmanned aircraft to monitor the volatile border with Rwanda and Uganda, the first time UN peacekeepers have deployed surveillance drones. France said it will start disarming fighters in the Central African Republic by force if necessary, as relative calm returned to the capital Bangui following three days of heavy fighting between Christians and Muslims. Europe The Vatican refused to provide the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child with information on the Church’s internal investigations into the sexual abuse of children by clergy, saying that its policy was to...
09.12.13 | |

18 Apr

...public about the legal concept of “genocide.” When Wikileaks disseminated its viral “Collateral Murder” video it doctored the film, confusing the audience about the complexity of events on the ground and about the distinction between “murder,” “war crimes” and “lawful targeting.” Assange’s later conflation of “civilian casualties” with “war crimes” in his promotion of the Afghan War Diaries dataset put civilian harms on the agenda, but promoted a fallacious understanding of what “war crimes” are. The public debate over drones is equally confused on these points – a process that...
18.04.12 | |

08 Jun

...United Nations resolutions. Vietnam is in talks with European and U.S. contractors to buy fighter jets, maritime patrol planes and unarmed drones, sources said, as it looks to beef up its aerial defenses in the face of China’s growing assertiveness in disputed waters. Europe Group of Seven (G7) leaders vowed at a summit in the Bavarian Alps on Sunday to keep sanctions against Russia in place until President Vladimir Putin and Moscow-backed separatists fully implement the terms of a peace deal for Ukraine. Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders will discuss...
08.06.15 | |

01 Mar

...moving ahead with its plans to establish a North Korea trade zone. The ruling on compelling the United States to hand over evidence against Kim Dotcom, accused of mass copyright infringement, money laundering and internet piracy, has been overturned by the court of appeal in New Zealand. In case you were hoping to submit public comment to proposed changes to the IAHCR, the deadline is today. In light of Wednesday’s House Judiciary Committee hearing, Esquire has a post about why the drones used by the US are just a sideshow....
01.03.13 | |