thenatureofmind

The Hall of Mirrors: CIA Files Reply Memo in Drone FOIA Case

How the CIA chooses to foil the legal process in the United States. If you request documents through FOIA, we don't even have to admit that such documents exist much less disclose them. Some people may say we are running drone strikes but no one has ever officially admitted that we do so we can't respond to anything about drone strikes even though everyone knows we are doing it. 

The CIA’s efforts to deny the ACLU’s FOIA requests for records about the Agency’s involvement in drone-based targeted killings continue apace in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The Agency filed a reply memorandum in favor of summary judgment  on the matter in D.D.C. on November 1.

Lawfare › CIA Files Reply Memo in Drone FOIA Case.

Grayson: God Decides Who Lives, Who Dies - Unless There's a Drone War

US drone strikes could be classed as war crimes, says Amnesty International

US officials responsible for the secret CIA drone campaign against suspected terrorists in Pakistan may have committed war crimes and should stand trial, a report by a leading human rights group warns.Amnesty International has highlighted the case of a grandmother who was killed while she was picking vegetables and other incidents which could have broken international laws designed to protect civilians.

The report is issued in conjunction with an investigation by Human Rights Watch detailing missile attacks in Yemen which the group believes could contravene the laws of armed conflict, international human rights law and Barack Obama's own guidelines on drones.

US drone strikes could be classed as war crimes, says Amnesty International | The Guardian

Drone Survivors Speak at Congressional Briefing Called by Rep. Grayson

Fast forward to 11:00 when Rep. Alan Grayson Speaks

John Podesta: Obama should lift secrecy on drones

From Attorney General Eric Holder’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, we learned that the Obama administration is “struggling” with how to provide more information on its so-called targeted killing program; that senior officials have “talked about a greater need for transparency” about the program; and that we “will hear the president speak about this” in the future. After a limited document review by the Senate intelligence committee; a spirited 13-hour filibuster led by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.); and a last-minute admission by Holder that the president does not have the authority to use drones to kill a U.S. citizen on American soil who is not engaged in combat, the White House is still bobbing and weaving on whether to share with Congress the legal opinions and memorandums governing targeted killing, which include the legal justification for killing U.S. citizens without trial.

John Podesta: Obama should lift secrecy on drones

Glenn Greenwald: The NYT And Obama Officials Collaborate To Prosecute Awlaki After He's Executed

The New York Times and the Obama administration have created a disturbing collaborative pattern that asserted itself again on Sunday with the paper's long article purporting to describe the events leading up to the execution by the CIA of US citizen Anwar Awlaki. Time and again, the Obama administration shrouds what it does with complete secrecy, and then uses that secrecy to avoid judicial review of its actions and/or compelled statutory disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act. "Oh, we're so sorry", says the Obama DOJ, "but we cannot have courts deciding if what we did is legal, nor ordering us to disclose information under FOIA, because these programs are so very secret that any disclosure would seriously jeopardize national security".

The NYT and Obama officials collaborate to prosecute Awlaki after he's executed

What Rand Paul and Ted Cruz Exposed About the Drone Strikes

If you're concerned about the lack of transparency and accountability of the policy of drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, you have to concede that Senators Rand Paul and Ted Cruz have done us a great service: Cruz, R-Texas, with his questioning of Attorney General Eric Holder in the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Paul, R-Kentucky, with his widely reported filibuster on the Senate floor.

What Rand Paul and Ted Cruz Exposed About the Drone Strikes

New Documents Reveal U.S. Marshals’ Drones Experiment, Underscoring Need for Government Transparency

The use of surveillance drones is growing rapidly in the United States, but we know little about how the federal government employs this new technology. Now, new information obtained by the ACLU shows for the first time that the U.S. Marshals Service has experimented with using drones for domestic surveillance.

New Documents Reveal U.S. Marshals’ Drones Experiment, Underscoring Need for Government Transparency.

On Drones, Contra Krauthammer

On Drones, Contra Krauthammer By Kevin D. Williamson February 15, 2013 1:59 P.M. Comments36 Print Text Charles Krauthammer writes: “Once you take up arms against the United States, you become an enemy combatant, thereby forfeiting the privileges of citizenship and the protections of the Constitution, including due process. You retain only the protection of the laws of war — no more and no less than those of your foreign comrades-in-arms.” Krauthammer, like practically everybody who has written about the case of Anwar al-Awalaki, Samir Khan, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, and other American citizens who have been or may be put to death by the U.S. government, is begging the question. Anwar al-Awlaki certainly was affiliated with al-Qaeda and unquestionably propagandized and organized on behalf of the organization, but it is far from clear that that is the same as “taking up arms against the United States.” And even if we conclude that he did in effect take up arms against the United States, the case is hardly clear-cut enough to justify unilateral executive action with no review and no constraint imposed by the separation of powers.

On Drones, Contra Krauthammer

U.S. a step closer to wide domestic use of drones

A future in which unmanned drones are as common in U.S. skies as helicopters and airliners has moved a step closer to reality with a government request for proposals to create six drone test sites around the country. The Federal Aviation Administration made the request Thursday, kicking off what is anticipated to be an intense competition among states hoping to win one of the sites.U.S. a step closer to wide domestic use of drones

U.S. a step closer to wide domestic use of drones