enhanced_deficit
07-08-2016, 01:22 PM
This wdely awaited news citing seemingly grossly underestimated numbers was posted in another thread but this topic probably deserves a separate thread.
Obama claims US drones strikes have killed up to 116 civilians
Long-awaited assessment of death toll under Obama, criticized as an undercount, acknowledges government does not always know how many civilians it kills
The White House and the CIA pioneered the strikes during the George W Bush era and dramatically accelerated them during Obama’s presidency.
Friday 1 July 2016
Barack Obama has claimed that droneand other airstrikes,his favored tactics of war, have killed between 64 and 116 civilians during his administration, a tally which was criticized as undercounted even before Friday’s announcement.
The long-promised assessment acknowledged that the government itself does not always know how many civilians it kills and that it may revise its death tolls over time.
The assessment presents the White House’s account of the death toll from a method of warfare that defines Obama’s legacy in many parts of the world. The White House released its long-awaited drones report the afternoon before the Fourth of July holiday weekend, having pledged transparency on the drones issue for years.
Yet the count is also incomplete, leaving out the civilian toll from drone strikes in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq. Nor did the administration go into detail about where the strikes occur, citing what an official told reporters on Friday were “diplomatic sensitivities”, even as it presented the assessment as a significant advance in transparency. The Guardian has filed a freedom of information act request for records relating to the civilian-death assessment in the US bombing campaign in Iraq and Syria, where thus far the US military has concluded it has killed (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/apr/22/us-airstrikes-syria-iraq-civilian-deaths-transparency) 36 civilians since summer 2015 (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jan/22/us-led-military-coalition-civilian-casualties-strikes-isis-iraq-syria).
In 2013, senior Republican senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said that drone strikes had killed 4,700 people (https://www.wired.com/2013/02/graham-drones/), some 2,000 more deaths than the upper limit the administration released on Friday.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...ivilian-deaths (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/01/obama-drones-strikes-civilian-deaths)
Obama claims US drones strikes have killed up to 116 civilians
Long-awaited assessment of death toll under Obama, criticized as an undercount, acknowledges government does not always know how many civilians it kills
The White House and the CIA pioneered the strikes during the George W Bush era and dramatically accelerated them during Obama’s presidency.
Friday 1 July 2016
Barack Obama has claimed that droneand other airstrikes,his favored tactics of war, have killed between 64 and 116 civilians during his administration, a tally which was criticized as undercounted even before Friday’s announcement.
The long-promised assessment acknowledged that the government itself does not always know how many civilians it kills and that it may revise its death tolls over time.
The assessment presents the White House’s account of the death toll from a method of warfare that defines Obama’s legacy in many parts of the world. The White House released its long-awaited drones report the afternoon before the Fourth of July holiday weekend, having pledged transparency on the drones issue for years.
Yet the count is also incomplete, leaving out the civilian toll from drone strikes in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq. Nor did the administration go into detail about where the strikes occur, citing what an official told reporters on Friday were “diplomatic sensitivities”, even as it presented the assessment as a significant advance in transparency. The Guardian has filed a freedom of information act request for records relating to the civilian-death assessment in the US bombing campaign in Iraq and Syria, where thus far the US military has concluded it has killed (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/apr/22/us-airstrikes-syria-iraq-civilian-deaths-transparency) 36 civilians since summer 2015 (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jan/22/us-led-military-coalition-civilian-casualties-strikes-isis-iraq-syria).
In 2013, senior Republican senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said that drone strikes had killed 4,700 people (https://www.wired.com/2013/02/graham-drones/), some 2,000 more deaths than the upper limit the administration released on Friday.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...ivilian-deaths (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/01/obama-drones-strikes-civilian-deaths)