Marjorie Cohn - Drones and Targeted Killing: Legal, Moral, and Geopolitical Issues

Marjorie Cohn is a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, former president of the National Lawyers Guild, and deputy secretary general of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers. Her books include Cowboy Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law ; Rules of Disengagement: The Politics and Honor of Military Dissent (with Kathleen Gilberd); and the edited volume, The United States and Torture: Interrogation, Incarceration and Abuse . Cohn is a recipient of the Peace Scholar of the Year Award from the Peace and Justice Studies Association. She testified before Congress about the Bush torture policy.

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR DRONES AND TARGETED KILLING

This book provides much-needed analysis of why Americas targeted killing program is illegal, immoral and unwise.
from the foreword by Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Armed unmanned drones have radically reduced the practical constraints on the use of force, and in so doing present challenging legal, political and moral issues. This hard-hitting collection offers multiple critiques of drone targeting, raisingif not resolvingmany of the questions that must be asked as nations increasingly develop and deploy unarmed drones as a security tool.
David Cole, Georgetown University Law Center

Just weeks before 9/11, U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Martin Indyk, told the Israelis: The United States government is very clearly on the record as against targeted assassinations. They are extrajudicial killings, and we do not support that. This extraordinary collection shows how two presidents abandoned that principled stand and, more importantly, the need to reclaim it.
Mary Ellen OConnell, Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame

First published in 2015 by
OLIVE BRANCH PRESS
An imprint of Interlink Publishing Group, inc
46 Crosby Street
Northampton, Massachusetts 01060
www.interlinkbooks.com

Copyright Marjorie Cohn, 2015
Foreword copyright Archbishop Desmond Tutu, 2015

All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Drones and targeted killing : legal, moral, and geopolitical issues / edited by Marjorie Cohn ; foreword by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. -- First American edition.
pages cm.
ISBN 978-1-56656-989-7
1. Drone aircraft--United States. 2. Drone aircraft--Moral and ethical aspects--United States. 3. Drone aircraft--Government policy--United States. 4. United States--Foreign relations--1989- 5. Geopolitics--United States. I. Cohn, Marjorie, 1948-, editor.
UG1242.D7D76 2014
358.4--dc23

2014033926

Printed and bound in the United States of America

To request our 48-page, full color catalog, please call us toll free at
1-800-238-LINK, visit our website: www.interlinkbooks.com,
or send us an email: info@interlinbooks.com

For Jerry, Victor, and Nicolas

CONTENTS

(1) Introduction: A Frightening New Way of War
Marjorie Cohn

(2) Why Drones Are More Dangerous Than Nuclear
Weapons
Richard Falk

(3) Drones and Assassination in the USs Permanent War
Phyllis Bennis

(4) The Predator War
Jane Mayer

(5) A Global Assassination Program
Tom Reifer

(6) The Grim Toll Drones Take on Innocent Lives
Medea Benjamin

(7) Documenting Civilian Casualties
Alice K. Ross

(8) US Policy of Targeted Killing With Drones: Illegal
at Any Speed
Jeanne Mirer

(9) Drone Warfare and Just War Theory
Harry van der Linden

(10) Al-Aulaqi v. Obama : Targeted Killing Goes to Court
Pardiss Kebriaei

(11) The Case of Israel: A Covert Policy of Political
Capital Punishment
Ishai Menuchin

(12) Drone Strike Blowback
John Quigley

(13) Surveillance Drones in America
Jay Stanley

(14) To Stop the Drones?
Tom Hayden

Department of Justice White Paper: Lawfulness of a
Lethal Operation Directed Against a US Citizen Who
Is a Senior Operational Leader of Al-Qaida or An
Associated Force

White House: Fact Sheet: US Policy Standards and
Procedures for the Use of Force in Counterterrorism
Operations Outside the United States and Areas of
Active Hostilities

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I thank Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the other wonderful contributors to this collection, whose critical work has been instrumental in shedding light on a dark new weapon of war. My heartfelt gratitude to my assistants, Michael Klitzke and Lisa Scarpa, without whom this book could not have been published. Michel Moushabeck, David Klein, and Pam Fontes-May from Interlink Publishing believed in this project and provided invaluable editorial assistance; I am grateful to Olive Branch Press for publishing and promoting the book.

Dean Thomas Guernsey, former Dean Rudy Hasl, and my colleagues at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law provided crucial assistance as the book took shape. I also wish to acknowledge my book groupCarol, Deborah, Donna, Kate, Lindy, and Lynnefor their ongoing support. My family and friendsMom, Victor, Nicolas, Gary, Sherril, Nancy, Susan, Terri, David, John, Dan, Pedro, Luis, Susana, Josefa, Gustavo, Emilio, Lenin, Vaughdean, Claire, Chuck, Dean, Joan, Jeanne F, Jeanne M, Dorothy, Christa, Josie, and Anneare my best fan club. My father, who died during the writing of this book, would have been proud, as he always was. Jerry Wallingford, my husband, editor, and life partner, continues to be my main source of inspiration. Finally, my deep appreciation goes to the courageous people struggling to stop US wars of aggression. We will prevail someday.

FOREWORD

Archbishop Desmond Tutu

A terrible thing happened on September 11, 2001, when 19 men committed suicide and took 3,000 innocents with them. That was a crime against humanity. People around the world expressed solidarity with Americans. We have all suffered painful repercussions since that awful day.

After the United States and its coalition partners invaded Afghanistan, hundreds of men were taken prisoner, most of them innocent of any terrorist activity, and sent to Guantnamo. There they have been detained indefinitely with no charges, much like what the apartheid government did in South Africa. Guantnamo has become the symbol of American hypocrisy on human rights. Unknown numbers of men have been tortured there, as well as in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the secret CIA black sites. George W. Bush and Tony Blair, claiming that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, invaded Iraq. It was a lie and they knew it. Many people were killed, wounded, and tortured.

But different standards are applied to leaders in the West and those in Africa. Although Bush and Blair committed war crimes, by starting an unnecessary and deadly war, only African leaders have been tried in the International Criminal Court.

The war on terror continues. Unfortunately, Barack Obama has failed to close Guantnamo and his government is trying men in the military commissions with a reduced level of due process. And Obamas drones have been killing thousands of people with no due process at all.

When it was revealed that the Obama government might kill American citizens on US soil, many people in the United States called for a special court so that judges could rule on those decisions. But the outrage they expressed was limited to the killing of Americans. Thus, I wrote in the New York Times :

Do the United States and its people really want to tell those of us who live in therest of the world that our lives are not of the same value as yours? That PresidentObama can sign off on a decision to kill us with less worry about judicialscrutiny than if the target is an American? Would your Supreme Court reallywant to tell humankind that we, like the slave Dred Scott in the 19th century, arenot as human as you are? I cannot believe it.