Indiscriminate drone attacks by the U.S. termed “war crimes”

Glenn Greenwald takes a look at the disturbing reports concerning Afghanistan drone attacks by the United States, suggesting a pattern to many of the attacks:

the U.S. first kills people with drones, then fires on the rescuers and others who arrive at the scene where the new corpses and injured victims lie.

Experts quoted by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism conclude “targeting rescuers and funeral attendees is patently illegal and almost certainly constitutes war crimes.”

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Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth is an attorney focusing on civil rights (including First Amendment), consumer law litigation and appellate practice. At this website often writes about censorship, corporate news media corruption and cognitive science. He is also a working musician, artist and a writer, having founded Dangerous Intersection in 2006. Erich lives in St. Louis, Missouri with his two daughters.

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    Erich Vieth February 6, 2012 Reply

    Glenn Greenwald has criticized the fact that the U.S. has a policy of attacking those who come to the assistance of drone attack victims and mourners of those killed in drone attacks. Predictably, “an anonymous senior anti-terrorism official” has criticized those who criticize U.S. policy. In fact, he goes further, suggesting those who criticize U.S. drone policies are Al Qaeda sympathizers.

    Here’s Greenwald’s response to this government response:

    [T]here are two lessons to take from this paragraph. First, at least according to some “senior” Obama official, those who report critically on the civilian-killing, rescuer-and-funeral-targeting American drone attacks (i.e., those who “malign these efforts”) are either supporters of or useful idiots for Al Qaeda; it sure is a good thing the Bush era is over when those who questioned the President’s national security policies were accused of helping the Terrorists. Second, if you’re a cowardly senior government official who wants to smear critics as Al Qaeda enablers or supporters, The New York Times will grant you anonymity to do it, all while violating multiple provisions of its own policy on anonymity adopted after its historically shameful performance in the run-up to the Iraq War.”

    http://www.salon.com/2012/02/06/top_official_drone_critics_are_al_qaeda_enablers/singleton/

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