New York: The campaign of CIA drone strikes against suspected militants in Pakistan has made the United States “the most prolific user of targeted killings” in the world, said a United Nations official, who urged that responsibility for the program be taken from the spy agency.
Philip Alston, a New York University law professor who serves as the U.N.’s special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, made the comments Wednesday as he released a report on targeted killings. The report criticizes the U.S. for asserting “an ever-expanding entitlement for itself to target individuals across the globe” in its fight against Al Qaeda and other militant groups.
Alston acknowledged that the right to self-defense may justify drone strikes in Pakistan, where the planners of the Sept. 11 attacks are thought to have fled. But he questioned whether that right extended to other countries where links to the attacks are more remote, such as Yemen or Somalia. He urged the U.S. to be more open about the program.
He also expressed concern about the precedent set by the U.S. program. Many other countries are seeking drone technology and when they obtain it, they are likely to copy U.S. tactics, he said.
Alston is scheduled to present his findings Thursday to the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva. They represent one of the most critical assessments to date of U.S. drone strikes, a tactic that has been stepped up significantly under the Obama administration. U.S. officials have credited the program with inflicting severe blows to militant groups.
As the drone attacks have expanded, they have attracted increasing criticism from human rights organizations and international legal scholars, some of whom claim aspects of the program violate international law. Critics also contend that the attacks risk a backlash in Pakistan and other countries where they are carried out.
The U.S. uses the unmanned aircraft extensively over Afghanistan and Iraq, as well, but those are primarily reconnaissance flights and are run by the military. The U.S. does not officially acknowledge the CIA program that focuses on Pakistan. Still, Obama administration officials dismissed much of Alston’s criticism of the CIA program.
“We have a way to get at dangerous terrorists operating in areas otherwise inaccessible to the central government or to conventional military units. It’s effective, exact and essential,” said a U.S. counter-terrorism official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Source: Agencies