US Congressman Dennis Kucinich, a Democrat from Ohio, on Thursday called for accountability and transparency in the use of drone warfare against suspected militants in foreign countries including Pakistan.
The lawmaker is seeking support of his colleagues in demanding from President Obama the legal justification for drone attacks on suspected militants, Kucinich’s office said.
According to his office, the Congressman has been stressing that the drone attacks undermine the morals, values and the strategic goals of the United States.
“Congressman Kucinich is currently inviting his colleagues to join him in writing to President Obama to request “the targeting criteria for ‘signature’ strikes (drone strikes where the identity of the person killed is unknown); mechanisms used by the CIA and JSOC to ensure that such killings are legal; the nature of the follow-up that is conducted when civilians are killed or injured; and the mechanisms that ensure civilian casualty numbers are collected, tracked and analyzed.”
The letter, endorsed by Amnesty International, has already been signed by nine members of Congress, a statement said.
Over the years, the Obama administration officials have been defending drone strikes against al-Qaeda-linked militants as part of counterterrorism efforts but a series of articles in the American and international media have recently questioned the moral and legal basis for such strikes, which also kill innocent civilians.
Kucinich took the issue to the House of Representative and argued answers to his questions on the drone issue have not been satisfactory.
“Drone strikes are killing militants now identified as males of fighting age. What are the rules? Trust us. What are the legal justifications? Trust us. Haven’t 350 innocent civilians been killed? Trust us, we’re told.
“No transparency, no accountability and until now, no Congress. The Constitution requires Congress to weigh in and demand information and legal justification for drone strikes,” he said. “That is what my letter to the Administration seeks.
“Drone strikes absent a Constitutional basis sanctions the wholesale slaughter of innocents.
“One nation’s drones over another nation’s air space is an act of war.
“With 50 nations exploring the development of drones, a $100 billion business, we cannot permit this nation to further incite ‘perpetual war for perpetual peace,” he said.
According to the statement, Kucinich has opposed the use of combat drones against suspected terrorists abroad since the first known attack in 2004.
In February 2006 he asked the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency to suspend the use of Predator drones citing the “high toll in innocent civilian life.” In the 111th Congress, he sponsored a bill to prohibit the extrajudicial killing of U.S. citizens abroad in response to revelations that the Administration included U.S. citizens on its targeted killing list.
“When Congress passed the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force, it did not authorize endless war against countries we are not at war with. These drone strikes are being conducted in the name of our national security and yet Congress and the American people have not been provided with the legal justification for such strikes. The use of drones must be subject to the same legal constrains and oversight as any other weapon.
“These attacks undermine the morals, values and the strategic goals of the United States. The fact that they are conducted with complete impunity and with no accountability threatens to set a dangerous precedent that could unravel the very laws and international standards the U.S. helped to create. Even the most ardent supporter of the current President should consider the precedent created by granting the President the power to circumvent the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution,” said Kucinich.
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism estimates that at least 2,292 people have been killed by U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan since 2004. The Bureau estimates that of that number, over 350 are civilians. A July 2009 Brookings Institution report stated ten civilians die for every one suspected militant from U.S. drone strikes.
Yet another study by the New American Foundation concluded that out of 114 drone attacks in Pakistan, at least 32% of those killed by the strikes were civilians, Kucinich’s office said.