Search: drones
21 Jun The Contrast Between Libya and the Pre-AUMF “War” with Al-Qaeda
...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...25 Apr Weekday News Wrap: Thursday, April 25, 2013
...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...20 Mar Getting the CIA Out of the Drone Business
...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...
10 Feb False Equivalences in the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict – International Humanitarian and Criminal Law Perspectives
...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...18 Apr Kony 2012: Seven Questions about Social Media Campaigns and International Law
...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...10 Oct 15 Years Later: A History of the Forever War and the Laws of War (Part 2 of 2)
...history of major contradictions, paradoxes, potentials, and limits, is far less teleological, or unitary, than what many have said so far. Sometimes they, the work of the laws of war and that of peacemaking, overlap and work cooperatively, whereas at other times they operate completely independently, or even work in ways going directly against each other, with occasionally potentially dangerous implications in light of relatively new technological (e.g. drones, autonomous weapons), legal (such as the 9/11 AUMF, the responsibility to protect), and certain ideological developments (the rise of emergency doctrines)....30 Oct New Article on the Legality of Signature Strikes
...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...16 Jan Weekday News Wrap: Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Afghan President Hamid Karzai announced that the United States would give Afghanistan its own fleet of aerial surveillance drones and would speed up the handover of detainees held by American forces. The European Court of Human Rights has found in Eweida and Others v. The United Kingdom (ECHR court document) that British Airways discriminated against a devoutly Christian employee by making her remove her crucifix while at work. Libyan government documents show that Libya authorized payment of almost $200 million to Mauritania months after it extradited Libyan ex-spy chief Senussi...
12 Aug Emerging Voices: The Use of ‘Stabilization’ in the Mandates of UN Peace Operations
...supported by attack helicopters and drones, and has had skirmishes with armed groups, make the intensification of hostilities a distinct possibility. Where there are sustained, direct clashes between MINUSMA and armed groups it would be difficult for the UN to contest the applicability of IHL. Whether a peace operation is a party to the conflict under IHL is also relevant where the UN is providing support to the host state military. Peace operations do not typically fight a war against an enemy but, for instance, MINUSMA is mandated to conduct...