Monitoring press freedom and international affairs from Mid-Missouri Public Radio and the Missouri School of Journalism
Woman supporters of Pakistan Muslim League-N party burn a U.S. flag and effigy of President Pervez Musharraf during a rally in Multan, Pakistan on Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2008. Photo credit: AP Photo/Khalid Tanveer
The US government has been using armed unmanned aerial vehicles, or “drones,” to carry out hundreds of covert missile strikes in northwest Pakistan since as early as June 2004.
A Pakistani villager holds a wreckage of a suspected surveillance drone which is crashed in Pakistani border town of Chaman along the Afghanistan border in Pakistan on Thursday, Aug 25, 2011. Photo credit: AP Photo/Shah Khalid)
The US government has been using armed unmanned aerial vehicles, or “drones,” to carry out hundreds of covert missile strikes in northwest Pakistan since as early as June 2004.
Pakistani tribesmen look at the damage of a house after a suspected U.S. missiles strike in Mohammadkhel, a village in the Pakistan's north Waziristan region along Afghan border, Saturday, Oct. 4, 2008. Photo credit: AP Photo/Hasbunallah Khan
To date, the US government has refused to provide necessary details on how the program works, how targets are chosen, or how legality and accountability are ensured. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism reports drone strikes have killed between 2,562 - 3,325 Pakistani citizens, 474 - 881 were civilians, including 176 children.
In this Dec. 29, 2010, file photo, Pakistani villagers carry the shrouded casket of a person reportedly killed by a US drone attack in Pakistani tribal area of Mir Ali along the Afghanistan border, during his funeral in Bannu, Pakistan. Photo credit: AP Photo/Ijaz Muhammad, file
According to a recent study conducted by researchers at NYU and Stanford Law schools, not only are innocent citizens being killed but life for those living under twenty-four hour drone surveillance is filled with unbearable fear, anxiety, and unease.
In this photo taken on Thursday, June 16, 2011, Pakistani villagers offer funeral prayers of people who were reportedly killed by drone attack, in Miranshah, capital of Pakistani tribal region of North Waziristan along the Afghanistan border. Photo credit: AP Photo/Hasbunullah
This has caused many to wonder whether the US is committing intentional human rights violations under the often broad and discretionary justification of “fighting terrorism.”
Protesters gather outside the Des Moines National Guard Base in Des Moines Wednesday Jan. 23, 2013 to oppose plans to create a military drone control center. Local military and elected officials support the move to operate what are known as remotely piloted aircraft from Iowa, noting that this will preserve most of the roughly 1,000 jobs on the base. Photo credit: AP Photo/Catherine Lucey
