The legality of U.S. drone strikes under international law

Drone Strikes

Target drone

Legality

International Law and Drone Strikes

Obama Administration

Drone attacks in Pakistan

Drone Strikes in Yemen

Drone Strikes in Somalia

The legality of the drone strikes is a disputed matter. A major challenge to the international law and the international system is the U.S. policy of using drones aerially to carry out target killings. According to some reports U.S. drone strikes have killed almost 4,000 people since 2002 in Pakistan, Yemen and other countries. The Congress of United States of America reviews their policy of drone strikes, which had increased to a great deal under the Obama regime, every month. The main problem of using the drone strikes is that it has not been able to stop terrorism. Instead of stopping it, it has given rise to the terrorist activities. This study is a research based on the topic of drone attacks and the legality of targeted attacks. The study is based on information and research. The study includes graphs and charts which are based on reliable sources.

Targeted Killing

Targeted killing is actually the killing which is intended or intentional killing by agents of government or the government itself, on targeted civilians which in the opinion of the government are "unlawful combatants," and are not in their custody. "Target" is the person who is alleged to have taken some kind of part in terrorism or armed conflict. The concept of target killing is entirely different from the concept of "targeted violence." Target killing has been heavily criticized by the experts and is considered to be the violation of domestic and international laws.

Drone Strikes:

UAVS stands for Unmanned aerial vehicles are also known as drones, are actually aircrafts operated by pilots autonomously from the ground which a follow a pre-programmed mission. There are many different types of drones but they can be classified in two broad categories. The first types of drones are used for the purpose of reconnaissance and the other type is surveillance. The surveillance purpose drones are armed with bombs and missiles. The use of drones has become quite popular recently. There are many advantages of having drones as they are much more useful because they can stay aloft from the ground for a longer duration and are much cheaper than the other military aircrafts. They are controlled by remote controls so there is little danger of flight crew.

The British and U.S. drones are present physically in Afghanistan and Iraq which are controlled through a satellite operated from Creech USAF and Nellis base which is situated outside Las Vegas, Nevada. The ground crew launches the drones and then the operation is handed over to the video operators who have screens which are specially designed in the desert of Nevada. There are three persons who are responsible for the performance of drones. The first is responsible for flying the drone, second person operates and controls with the help of monitors and sensors and the third person acts as an intermediary between the drone personnel and the commanders in the warzone. Armed drones were first introduced in the Balkans War but their use has increased to a great deal in the Iraqi and Afghani War and also in the undeclared war against Pakistan.

Target drone

A target drone is remote controlled and unmanned aerial vehicle which is usually used in crews of anti-aircraft. The simplest form of the target drones is quite similar to the radio controlled aircrafts. The modern target drones use many types of radar, countermeasures and all the systems of the real aircraft. The more advanced forms of target drones have their warheads removed and are large like old anti-ship missiles. The obsolete jets from the past have also been converted into remote controlled drones by making some modifications which are quite expensive.

The U.S. is operating from two separate types of drones. One of them is operated by the U.S. Air Force and the other one is operated by CIA. The U.S. Air force base has increased the number of drones by almost 600% from the past six years. It also plans to increase more in the near future. CIA Director has mentioned that the drones are the most wanted thing these days and have used a phrase "The only game in town" for drones. CIA has been using the drone strikes in Pakistan mostly, to assassinate terrorist leaders. This program was introduced by Bush regime; however it has observed a significant increase in the Obama Administration.

United Kingdom has different types of drones (both surveillance and armed) in Afghanistan and Iraq. There are many other drones which are in the production and development stage. The UK government began to use drone strikes in 2007 in Afghanistan named "Reapers," which were purchased at the cost of £6m each, purchased from General Atomic. UK also has many types of surveillance drones apart from the armed drones. The most famous of their surveillance drones is the "Watchkeeper." This drone is special because it is jointly manufactured by an Israeli company Ebit and a UK-based company Thales.

Following is the distribution of the aerial machines of the world percentage wise to different countries. It is quite obvious from the pie chart that United States of America has spent the most of all the countries on the drone systems. China is on the second place yet it is far behind the United States of America as their priorities are entirely different from them.

UN has appointed Philip Aston as the Special Reporter on arbitrary, extrajudicial executions, who has mentioned on numerous occasions that the use of drones is as destructive as other forms of "target killing." He has questioned the U.S. On the issue of using drones on many occasions and has demanded explanations however the U.S. has refused to do so. He has also mentioned that the U.S. should publicize the extent of the drone attacks and then review their actions after killing so many civilians from the drone strikes.

Another issue of the increasing drone technology is that the military drone manufacturers are constantly in hunt for the civilians uses of drones to expand their customer base and earn more profits. The convergence of other technologies can make it possible to use the drones for surveillance domestically.

Legality

The legality of the drone strikes is a disputed matter. Opinions of the critics are divided on this topic. However there are many ways in which the legality of the drone strikes can be discussed and analyzed. It is important to understand that assassinations and target killings are completely different acts and should not be taken as similar offenses. The use of the term of assassination denotes murders, on the other hand the drone target killings are an act of self-defense therefore it is not a murder but a killing, which is by no means a crime.

Often people call target killing "assassination" in their attempt to preclude on the advantages of the actions. Assassination is mostly defined as a murder, and therefore it is prohibited by any domestic law and international law. The U.S. military personnel might not kill anyone just for their own policies are seen affecting their interests however killings in their own self-defense cannot be classified under assassinations or murders in international affairs and laws. Therefore target killings in someone's self-defense can be only officially decided by the federal government to fall outside the domain of assassination restrictions and laws.

Obama Administration

John O. Brennan is the assistant to the President for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security, justifies the use of drones against the domestic and international laws in his speech on April 30th 2012, by acknowledging the fact for the first time that they have been using drones to kill a few selected members of Al Qaeda. With regard to the domestic law he has stated that the Constitution of America has given them the power to protect their country from any threat. AUMF has given them the authority to use any kind of strategy to encounter any terrorist activity which can cause damage to their country. AUMF stands for Authorization for Use of Military Force which was passed by Congress after the 9/11 attacks. AUMF has stated that they can use any kind of appropriate force necessary to face the terrorists who are responsible for the 9/11 attacks, which means that they can use every force that they have against Al Qaida. With regard to the international laws, Brannan has stated that U.S. is in armed conflict with Al Qaida, Taliban and their allied forces in retaliation to the 9/11 attacks and are allowed to use any kind of force to combat their enemies as it is a matter of their self-defense. The international law has nothing that can stop the U.S. from employing their strategy of drone attacks.

The process of selecting the targets was altered in the year 2011/2012 in order to make a certain group of people of White House to call all the shots. They compiled a list of terrorists who were to be targeted and the agencies were given those names in a weekly meeting held in White House. Obama was at the top of the selection process and he was the ultimate decision maker when it came to selecting the potential targets for the drone attacks. He was also responsible to decide the priority of target killings in Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen.

The Congress of United States of America reviews their policy of drone strikes, which had increased to a great deal under the Obama regime, every month. The staff members of the White House and intelligence agencies watch all the videos and calls recorded by the intelligence agencies and then they discuss among themselves whether to continue with their policy or not.

The Congress has not been critical of the drone strikes. However recently there were 26 lawmakers who questioned Obama over the drone strikes claiming that the armed men were attacking in a behavior which can be called terrorist activities. The signature strikes (a term given to the drone attacks) curbed in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. In Pakistan the signature strikes were common for the past few years but in 2012, Obama gave permission to use signature strikes in Yemen in order to target an Al Qaida affiliate. These signature strikes can easily kill civilians and have been killing many innocent civilians which are a concern for the international community.

Drone attacks in Pakistan

The Government of United States has made a number of attacks on their suspected targets in Pakistan's northwest area. It has been happening since the year 2004. America has used unmanned aerial vehicles (which are called drones); these are controlled by CIA (Central Intelligence Agency). These drone attacks are all part of the strategy against "War on Terrorism." The War on Terrorism is against Taliban and Al Qaeda militants residing in Pakistan. FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) has been most affected by the drone attacks which are situated along the Afghani border. The drone attacks have increased a great deal in the Obama's Presidency. Media often has termed these series of attacks as "drone war." This series of drone attacks has caused the relationship of the two countries to deteriorate and is responsible for a lot of undue tension between Pakistan and the United States of America.

Pakistan's Government has played an extremely critical role in the drone strikes. They have publicly condemned the drone attacks however they have taken the United States intelligence in confidence and have shared much important secret information with them. The Pakistan Government has also allowed these drone strikes as they have given permission to Americans on 150 bases and strike drones on their own country. Wikileaks has revealed that the chief of Pakistan Army General Ashfaq Kiyani had agreed to the drone attacks, in fact he had asked the Americans to increase the number of drone flights. On the contrary Rehman Malik who is the Interior Minister of Pakistan has that the Government and the people of Pakistan are extremely agitated by the drone attacks and they are being victimized by America. In general public of Pakistan there is a growing Anti-American sentiment.

The number of causalities caused by the drone attacks differs a great deal that are mentioned in various reports. According to a report compiled by Daniel L. Byman, the number of militants killed by the drone strikes is extremely low compared to the number of civilians and innocent people killed in the drone strikes. On the contrary, the report presented by the New American Foundation has given an estimate of 80% militant killings from the drone strikes. This report has been backed up by the Pakistan military who claim that many hardcore workers of Taliban and Al Qaeda have been killed by the drone attacks. The CIA has mentioned that they have killed over 600 militants in the drone attacks since 2010 and they have not caused any damage to the civilians in the process. This claim of CIA has been rejected by all the experts and is not credible. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism conducted an extensive research which showed that around 400 to 800 civilians were killed out of the total of 2,500 overall killings. There were also 200 children who lost their lives in these drone strikes. The follow up drone attacks had also killed around 50 civilians. The large discrepancy in the number of killings in the various reports has made it difficult for the international opinion makers to decide the progress of the drone attacks.

The drone attacks took a break after November 2011 but are soon to be resumed on full throttle after Pakistan and America have agreed to their new terms and conditions. The strikes were halted after the Salala incident when NATO forces had killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. The Shamsi Airfield was evacuated after one month of the incident and was taken over by the Pakistani Military. The incident caused the drone attacks to be abandoned for two months but resumed in January however there were many restrictions however the matter was resolved under new terms and conditions.

Statistics

The following table is based on the reports presented by New American Foundation:

YEAR

NUMBER OF ATTACKS

NUMBERS KILLED

2004

1

5

2005

2

7

2006

2

23

2007

4

77

2008

33

2009

53

2010

2011

70

2012

28

The above table clearly shows a rise in the number of the drone attacks as years have passed by. It also shows that Obama administration has employed the strategy of drone attacks more than the Bush administration as the number of drone attacks has increased to a great extent as the following graph is clearly indicating that the number of attacks increased since 2008 and due to the resistance from the Pakistani government the number has declined slightly.

The graph below represents the number of killing in the years. It is quite obvious from the graph that with the rise in the number of drone attacks the number of killings has also increased.

The location of the drone strikes is highlighted in the following pie chart. As the chart shows that most of the drone strikes were made in North Waziristan because the U.S. Intelligence agencies have reported that many of the key figures of Al Qaida and Taliban are hiding.

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism conducted an extensive research which had the following major findings:

Total Number of Strikes = 336

Total reported injured = 1200-1300

Total reported killed = 2520-3250

Drone Strikes (Bush Administration) = 52

Drone Strikes (Obama administration) = 284

Civilians killed = 480-850

Children killed = 175

The following is the graph which shows the year wise ratio of killings of militants and other civilians killed from the drone strikes. These are figures from the Pakistani sources which cannot be treated as reliable source of information however still they can give an idea about the damage that the drone attacks have caused.

Drone Strikes in Yemen

President Obama is severely criticized by International media for accelerating the number of drone strikes in Pakistan, however that criticism has come to no use as Obama has launched a similar kind of covert war in Yemen and has drawn less attention. The Obama administration has launched 13 air strikes and 28 drone attacks according to some sources. On the contrary Bush administration had launched only one drone attack in Yemen.

In the month of April this year, White House approved a more aggressive policy of launching a campaign of drone attacks in Yemen. They also allowed the use of "signature strikes" in Yemen. The previous administration had only allowed the CIA and the U.S. Joint Special Commands to launch drone strikes in Yemen only against the top militants who were present in the CIA and JSOC target lists with confirmed locations. These changes in the policy have accelerated the activities of military operations in Yemen and have weakened the state by creating many civil wars.

The drone strikes in Yemen have killed around 530 to 780 people. Out of those 510 to 710 were militants identified by some media reports. The 99% of the drone strikes have occurred during the Obama regime. The casualty rates of civilians are between 4-8% and are quite similar to that of civilian casualty rate in Pakistan which was 5.5% in the year 2011.

The drone program in Yemen was introduced in the year 2002 when a drone at a vehicle was launched through Predator. The attack had killed top operatives of Al Qaeda in Yemen. After the first drone attack there were no drone strikes for almost 7 years until 2009. From December 2009, a sustained campaign of drone attacks began which is still ongoing. The strategy in Yemen changed because some key members of Al Qaeda were operating from Yemen and many of them were on the terrorist list of American security agencies.

AQAP which is operating I Yemen had claimed the responsibility in 2009 of the bomb attacks in Detroit airlines. They also had claimed the responsibility of the intended attacks by sending packages in Dubai and United Kingdom in the same year. In the year 2011, U.S. military officials had stated that they were almost in reach of defeating Al Qaeda in Yemen and AQAP was indeed the biggest threat to the national security of United States of America.

The counting process of drone strikes and air attacks are complicated in Yemen because most of the times it is ambiguous that whether the attacks were launched from drone strikes or fighter jets. The locals have also provided unreliable stats and information which makes the whole process tough for the record keepers to estimate the numbers of attacks or killings. The Yemen government has also taken responsibility for some of the air strikes which makes it even harder for the record keepers to collect data of how many strikes have been carried out by the United States of America.

There have been conflicts in the Yemen Government as there are conflicting remarks passed by different government officials. Some of them take full credit for the drone strikes whereas there are some officials who claim that they are heavily against the strategy of employing drone attacks.

Statistics

The Obama administration has carried out 99% of the drone attacks in Yemen and has been able to kill 16 key members of Al Qaida. Although the drone attacks have been increasing at a great speed and have killed many key figures. It is unclear that it has made any impact on weakening APAQ. This is quite evident from the fact that APAQ has been growing in size since the reintroduction of the drone attacks under the Obama administration. Three years back there were 200 to 300 militants but now they have increased to more than 1000 fighters who have gained control in many important areas of Yemen which has added to the threat on the national security of the United States. These militant wings have gained control over the power in some provinces and have established their own judicial system, courts and police networks.

The American drone strikes have increased since February after Yemen leader Saleh had stepped down. They have launched around 20 drone strikes since then and comparing that to the total of 18 drone strikes in the whole of the previous two years, we can realize that the drone strikes are affected by the departure of Saleh. The missile surge hasn't worked in Yemen so far and now the question arises that whether they should embrace drone strikes or not. The following graph represents the number killings from drone strikes year wise in Yemen which will highlight all the crucial points which have been made earlier.

Drone Strikes in Somalia

There has been a significant amount of increase in the secret bases, unmanned warplanes and deadly robotic attacks in the past few years by the United States of America under the Obama administration. Five years back U.S. Predator was flown for the first time over the lawless Somalia and since then the drone campaign led by Americans have been killing the ruthlessly and is targeting Islamic militants.

The drone war is not only limited to Somalia, instead this is happening in many different parts of Africa and UN so far has not been able to handle the situation or give any proper justification for the Drone campaign. The current drone campaign is not only a threat to the present Somalia civilians but also it can provide groundwork for the drone wars to be conducted in the future as well. The Somalia drone war is hinting towards the high technology that United States of America and sends a message to the whole world that how much damage could America incur to its enemies at a relatively low cost.

In the year 2007, the first drone attack in Somalia was launched by Predator and since then there have been many more improvements in the drone technology and the damage that a drone can conduct has also increased to a great deal. The drones have killed a total of 112 militants in Somalia according to Bureau of Investigative Journalism which is based in London. Out of them almost 57 civilians have died which is a shame for the decision makers. The drone attacks have also killed seven key members of Al Qaida who were associated with the Al Shahaab group which was involved in many terrorist activities.

Statistics

US Airstrikes: 21

US drone strikes: 9

Total killed: 169

Civilians killed: 57

Children killed: 3

Consequences

The consequences of the drone attacks have been devastating for the regions where drones have been employed and also for the national security of the United States of America. Intelligence, information gathering and operations over the last few years have had heavy reliance on drones in order to achieve the political objectives.

It is hard to imagine that the use of drones have made any significant impact on the abolishment of terrorism from Earth. Instead the use of drones has increased the number of terrorist activities and terrorists in general. Drones carry inborn costs to the administration that allows the use of them. The drones have given the U.S. military officials to escape from any sort of accountability of attacks. The countries where drones have been used are yet to be contested or protested in a major way.

The society wide unrest is the hardest to placate for the decision makers. The public anger in this region has spread wide hatred against Americans and the social backlash is what really is concerning the officials at the moment. The instability of these regions can cause the terrorist activities to increase and also cause major terror attacks in the near future.

There is a major flaw in the drones policy that drones by nature are destructive and counterproductive. Apart from that they are being used without any political or economic policies being kept in mind and could have serious economic consequences. The nasty politics of Pakistan has made the drone policy a part of the dirty politics with which the U.S. strategy of using drones has been severely criticized of using their force without permission and causing damage to the civilians which is against the human rights.

The United States of America has faced opposition in both the countries (Pakistan and Yemen). The main problem of using the drone strikes is that it has not been able to stop terrorism. Instead of stopping it, it has given rise to the terrorist activities. This point can be emphasized after studying the following graph which is representing the correlation between the drone attacks and suicide bombings. Suicide bombing is the most severe form of terrorist attack and is hard to be managed and it can escape even the highest form of securities:

From the chart we can easily make out that there is a positive correlation between the drone attacks and the suicide bombings. Suicide bombings are extremely hard for the security agencies to cope up with and can cause a great deal of damage. As it is quite obvious from the graph that with the rise in the drone strikes, the suicide bombings have also increased and therefore it is clear that the strategy of drone strikes has not been effective at all. In fact the drones have back fired so far at the United States of America.

The future of drone technology seems unclear. The drone has enabled an autonomous way to create damage to the enemies by using less resources and minimal damage. The experts are out there to predict what is the next level of technology which will take over the drones. The drones seems to be used in the near future constantly however with the advancement in the technology it is sure that the drones will be replaced by some kind of superior technology in some time.

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