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Search: drones

14 Apr

...Anwar al-Awlaki for death, I went back to Koh’s explanation for why the drone strikes are legal. It seems to me that his arguments could possibly double as a justification of the government’s authority to kill al-Awlaki without due process. Serwer then walks back through the text of Legal Adviser Koh’s speech, applying the language about drones to the targeting of Anwar al-Awlaki. He concludes that it could be seen as a justification for that as well. I think that’s right, and a good observation. Of course, I think also...
14.04.10 | |

31 Dec

...my argument. I did not claim that the drone program is immoral because it lacks strategic justification. I claimed that the drone program is immoral because it causes the deaths of innocent people without countervailing strategic justification. If being concerned about needless and counterproductive killing is not a "moral consideration," I have no idea what is. As an aside, if there is a just-war argument for the US drone program, I'd be very interested to hear it. Annie Your objection to the use of drones seems to be that (a)...
31.12.12 | |

05 Jun

OJ’s good friend Marko Milanovic has offered a super-substantive response to my brief comments re self-defense in my not-yet-response to Professor Alston’s report on targeted killing and drones. I will have things to say about that and also my reactions to the interior of the Special Rapporteur’s report – happy to say that I avoided any $100 a day fines by completing the grading, but now face threats to my family from my editors, who have given me a drop-dead date for my US-UN relations book, which, by the way,...
05.06.10 | |

08 Sep

From Siobhan Gorman (of the Wall Street Journal’s national security team) a nicely done retrospective on the rise of the drones as part of strategy, technology, law, ethics and philosophy. It’s a reasonably short piece, quotes the Very Great Bobby Chesney, and gives a good sense of the history of how it came about, linking policy and strategy, all in a short piece. If you’re looking for a good introduction to a class, or a student looking for a way into the topic, this is a good place to begin....
08.09.11 | |

23 Jun

...Targeted Killings by U.S. Drones Under International Law Thursday, Jun 19, 2014 - 3:28pm Print Anticipating that targeted killings by drones may increase in the future, both by the United States and by other countries, the New York City Bar Association today released a report analyzing the legality of targeted killings by drones launched by the United States in the context of international law. While noting that there are serious constitutional, moral and policy issues associated with targeted killings using drones, some of which the City Bar has addressed elsewhere,...
23.06.14 | |

28 Feb

My new Weekly Standard essay – although “polemic” is probably closer to it. And thanks, Julian, for the plug below! Well, regular readers have been hearing about this piece for a while, and I have posted various arguments from it (concerning targeted killing and Predator drones and the CIA and armed conflict and self-defense, and my general concern that the Obama administration has embraced a policy that its lawyers have not so far stood up publicly to defend as lawful against its gradually emerging critics in the international “soft law”...
28.02.10 | |

16 Apr

...the U.S. drones program. We also agree that U.S. actions must conform to a demanding application of constitutional law and international law. Nevertheless, we believe the petition is deeply misguided. Professor Koh has been a leading scholar of, and advocate for, human rights for decades. While some may disagree with him on particular issues of law or policy, he is widely known for his unquestionable personal commitment to human rights and his eminent professional qualifications to teach and write on the subject. Any number of reports confirm that Professor Koh...
16.04.15 | |

02 May

At last night’s White House Correspondents Dinner, President Obama cracked a funny joke about his administration’s use of Predator Drones for targeted killings. From the Politico: — “The Jonas Brothers are here! … Sasha and Malia are huge fans but boys don’t get any ideas. I have two words for you: Predator Drones. You’ll never see it coming.” Ha, ha, ha…er, on second thought, is it just me, or is this joke a little creepy?...
02.05.10 | |

07 Mar

...of the remaining Democratic presidential candidates, for instance, have publicly expressed support for the program as it is currently being implemented. Hillary Clinton, as might be expected from a former Obama administration cabinet member, has endorsed such strikes on both a policy and legal basis. But so has her chief Democratic rival Bernie Sanders: In an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press scheduled for broadcast on Sunday, host Chuck Todd asked the independent senator from Vermont if drones or special forces would play a role in his counter-terror plans. “All...
07.03.16 | |

20 May

[Jonathan Horowitz is writing in his personal capacity. He is the Associate Legal Officer at the Open Society Justice Initiative’s National Security and Counterterrorism Program.] When assessing the legality of drone strikes, attention is often focused on the State that carries out the strike—usually the United States. On May 8th, for example, the U.S. Congressional Progressive Caucus Peace and Security Taskforce held a hearing on the United States use of weaponized drones abroad and heard testimony that detailed specific incidents of civilian harm and encouraged transparency, after-action investigations, accountability, and...
20.05.13 | |

03 Jun

I have been flattered to be called out on the topic of drones, targeted killing, the CIA, and related issues arising mostly from the release today of Professor Philip Alston’s UN special rapporteur report (press release here). Deborah has a useful summary and some important quotes from the press release in her earlier post. I’ve read the report once, and am reading it again, but am not ready to comment. Well, not quite. I’m under pressure to produce some commentary for some newspaper and print journalism, while getting the grading...
03.06.10 | |

30 Sep

...background on the attack and initial commentary.) We’ve talked extensively about this case here at OJ, so I won’t go back over that ground now. My last comment on drones and targeted killing was this post here at OJ (“Tactically Precise, Strategically Incontinent?”), endorsing the Washington Post’s recent editorial on drones and criticizing David Ignatius’ claim that the US is “addicted” to them. But Lawfare has links to the leading US newspaper accounts if you’d like to see how it is being covered in the United States. I don’t suppose...
30.09.11 | |