US lawmaker urges Congressional oversight of drone policy

Voicing concern over repercussions of United States’ frequent use of drone strikes against suspected militant targets on foreign soils, an American lawmaker has urged Congress to exercise oversight and craft policies that govern the use of lethal force. Democratic Representative Keith Ellison, argued in an opinion piece that the U.S. drone policy “must be guided by more than capability. It must be guided by respect for noncombatants, necessity and urgency.” However, he pointed out that the U.S. lawmakers have yet to hold a single hearing examining US drone policy. “Any rules must provide adequate transparency, respect the rule of law, conform with international standards and prudently advance US national security over the long term,” Ellison wrote in the piece, carried by The Washington Post. The United States recently ramped up drone strikes in Pakistan’s tribal areas along the Afghan border and counterterrorism officials in the past have justified use of drones as an effective tool in getting rid of militants operating on foreign soils. Ellison, who is the first Muslim to be elected to Congress, noted in the opinion piece although the weaponised drones have produced results with elimination of 22 of al-Qaeda’s top 30 leaders and they critically lessen the need to send American troops into harm’s way, the costs of drone strikes have been ignored or inadequately acknowledged. “The number of innocent civilian casualties may be greater than people realize,” Ellison wrote citing a recent study by human rights experts at Stanford Law School and the New York University School of Law, which found that the number of innocent civilians killed by US drone strikes is much higher, “approximately 700 since 2004, including almost 200 children.” “This is unacceptable,” the lawmaker from Minnesota, who co-chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, wrote. Another cost, he noted, is how drone strikes are shaping views of the United States around the world and wrote that in Pakistan, where 95 percent of US drone strikes have occurred, people familiar with them overwhelmingly express disapproval. “Drone strikes may well contribute to the extremism and terrorism the United States seeks to deter.”