Obama
refused to release memos on drone strikes
Ohio
Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich
Ohio Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich says President Barack Obama’s administration has refused to show Congress any documents detailing the legal justification for drone strikes overseas.
Kucinich
is currently building bipartisan support for a resolution that would force the
Obama administration to demonstrate the legality of the drone program.
The
resolution is co-sponsored by Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul, New Jersey
Democratic Rep. Rush Holt, Michigan Republican Rep. Justin Amash, Massachusetts
Democratic Rep. James P. McGovern and California Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee.
“Thus far,
the administration has refused to release the memo or any documents, despite
multiple requests from members of Congress on both sides of the aisle,”
Kucinich said in a statement on Friday. “Intelligence operations that have
virtually no transparency, accountability or oversight raise serious legal
questions, particularly when such programs may constitute possible violations
of international law or the Constitution of the United States.”
Kucinich told
The Daily Caller on Capitol Hill this week that Obama is bypassing Congress by
authorizing drone strikes overseas.
“Regardless
of your support of our drone program, Congress and the American people deserve
to know which laws the United States is relying on to conduct this program, and
how they are interpreted by the executive branch,” Kucinich said.
If the
resolution of inquiry passes Congress, it would require Attorney General Eric
Holder to “transmit to the House of Representatives not later than 14 days
after the date of the adoption of this resolution, any documents and legal
memoranda in the Attorney General’s possession relating to the practice of
targeted killing of United States citizens and targets abroad.”
The drone
strikes “violate the U.S. Constitution, kill innocent people and stain our
nation’s moral consciousness,” Kucinich said. Daily Caller
FACTS & FIGURES
In 2008,
after Barack Obama won the presidency in the U.S., the drone strikes escalated
and soon began occurring almost weekly, later nearly daily, and so became a
permanent feature of life for those living in the tribal borderlands of
northern Pakistan.
The CIA and
the U.S. military use drones to target and kill those Washington describes as “suspected
militants” in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia and Libya.
A report on
the secret drone war in Pakistan says the attacks have killed far more
civilians than acknowledged, traumatized a nation and undermined international
law. In "Living Under Drones," researchers conclude the drone strikes
"terrorize men,
women, and children,
giving rise to anxiety and psychological trauma among civilian
communities." Democracy Now
"The number of 'high-level' militants
killed as a percentage of total casualties is extremely low -- estimated at
just 2% [of deaths]", says the report
According to
revised military stats revealed on December 6, the U.S. launched 447 drone
attacks in Afghanistan this year. That makes Afghanistan, not Pakistan or
Yemen, the epicenter of U.S. drone attacks, The Wired reports.
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