White House Claims Transparency, Reveals Low-Ball Estimate For Drone Victims

FEATURING OMRAN BELHADI – Months after the White House promised to release details about the US’s drone warfare program, President Obama, late on Friday, before a 3-day weekend, announced that the US government had killed 64 to 116 civilians since 2009.

Drone warfare has been used since the Presidency of George W. Bush in countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somalia. The program has come under fire from people worldwide for having no basis in international law, and for indiscriminately killing civilians.

But how the US government counts who a civilian is, is a huge part of the problem. The international human rights organization Reprieve released its own report before the White House’s official numbers.

Find more at www.reprieve.org.uk.

Omran Belhadi, caseworker at the international human rights organization, Reprieve.