‘Drones cause growing hatred for America’

A bipartisan panel of senators held a spirited and unusually public debate on Tuesday afternoon about the legality and unintended consequences of America’s targeted killings overseas, a forum convened amid growing calls for stronger oversight of the government’s use of armed drones outside conventional battlefields.

Senator Richard J Durbin, who presided over the hearing, said it was important to review whether current laws sanctioned drone strikes in countries such as Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, where the United States was not formally fighting a war but relied on remotely piloted aircraft to killed suspected militants.

“The use of drones has, in stark terms, made targeted killing more efficient and less costly in terms of American blood and treasure,” said Durbin, who noted that the hearing was the first of its kind. “There are, however, long-term consequences, especially when these airstrikes kill innocent civilians.”

Among those testifying before a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee was a young Yemeni activist who argued passionately that American drone strikes in Yemen were emboldening the country’s al Qaeda franchise, embittering Yemenis against the United States and delegitimising the government in Sanaa.