Interview: Call for global outcry against U.S. drone killings
Press TV
July 17, 2012
Activist calls for “a global outcry” against US drone campaign
Rick Rozoff from Stop NATO has slammed the United States over its drone strikes overseas and called for “a global outcry” against the deadly attacks.
The U.S. has decided to use unmanned drone aircraft to target suspected militants in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and a couple of other countries because firstly, the air strikes cost the U.S. military little, and secondly, no military troops need to risk their lives in the operations, Rozoff told the U.S. Desk on Tuesday.
He said “U.S. drone warfare is murderous,” adding that the targeted assassinations are “in violation of U.S. federal law”.
Since seven years ago, U.S. drone strikes have killed as many as 2,800 civilians in northwestern Pakistan alone, according to Shahzad Akbar, Pakistani attorney and director of the Foundation for Fundamental Rights – an organization that has investigated the U.S. drone operations in Pakistan.
Recent media reports say Pakistan has offered the U.S. a new mechanism encompassing ‘surveillance’ of targeted operations against suspected militants as an alternative to drone strikes in the country’s tribal regions.
The plan, as crafted by Islamabad, involves both the identification of targets by the CIA in the tribal areas and swapping of information with the Pakistani security agencies.
The mechanism is currently figuring in behind-the-scene discussions between Pakistan and the U.S.
