Page 145 - Drone Program News Today

Officials claim. joining me now, declan walsh. welcome to you. when u.s. officials do acknowledge the drone programs, they usually describe the strikes as surgical and civilian casualties are rare. according to your reports, theyre a lot higher. what are we talking about, what kind of numbers? >> its difficult to say exactly. according to groups that monitor these strikes, they estimate theres been between 400 and 900 civilian casualties since the drone program started in pakistan about ten year...

As she was picking vegetables in a field and 18 laborers as they sat having a meal at the end of the day. so it holds this out as proof, if you like, that the drone program is not as surgical as u.s. officials claim sometimes in private. >> how about the pakistani government? how complicit has that government been in these strikes over the years? >> it has in public been very consistent. its always insisted it has no knowledge of the strikes, that it doesnt approve of the strikes. indeed, every ...

Quantify if these drone strikes have taken out more militants than theyve inspired others to join insurgent groups? >> well, thats one of the sort of million-dollar questions about the drone program. people who are against the drones very much say that they act as a recruiting sergeant, that due to the sort of culture of people in the tribal belt where they take place, people are very quick to jump to revenge. if a young man and a family is killed, his brothers and his relatives will come out to...

You. >> thank you. >> the controversy surrounding the u.s. drone program. a new report says the strikes are not so surgical. ♪ hey lady! noooo! no! [ tires screech ] ♪ nooo! nooo! nooo! hey lady, thats diesel! i know. ♪ ♪ woman: everyone in the nicu -- all the nurses wanted to watch him when he was there 118 days. everything that you thought was important to you changes in light of having a child

Resentment maybe its counterproductive. in other words, it helps recruitment for groups like al qaeda. >> is he getting medical help? >> part of the reason hes speaking out, by the way, he said is so that he tells american and people all around the world what this drone program is about. and also to explain that drone operators and these people who are in charge of pushing the button, if you will, quote unquote, they get a bad rap, that they too are exposed to the type of violence that people in...

Screen because the drone program, you can see the numbers. very popular among americans. this is a wall street journal/nbc news poll. 66% of americans favor the u.s. drone program. but im curious, you have talked to someone just recently who says the drone strikes are down. civilian deaths are down. >> i would be interested in knowing what the results of an opinion poll would be if americans had more information about the drone program. the government does not release targets. >> people are call...

Worldwide, because once you understand how an enemy conducts these terrorist operations, then and only then can you truly target them for defeat. using a drone program on the face may appear effective but the reality is, unless you capture them and have a place to bring them, away from the battlefield to fine -- find out how theyll do operations well tonally be behind the power curve and what the information has done. this overreliance on the drone program and underreliance on intelligence gathe...

Foundation has cataloged a total of 365 drone strikes in pakistan since 2004, killing as many as 2700 militants and 300 civilians, meaning that on average, roughly one in ten victims is a civilian. the data found similar resulting for yemen. >> the administration has repeatedly emphasized the care that we take to ensure counsel tore terrorism actions are in accordance with all applicable law. >> reporter: still the drone program is the primary reason for anti-u.s. sentiment. tomorrow, the presid...

Point, we transition from this combat model to a law enforcement model. i think those are very encouraging signs. and ones you dont hear often from obama administration officials. i think again, thats the kind of attitude you want at the dhs. >> and yet, he has been in the center of a set of decisions, asserting the legality of things like the targeted killing of american citizen, expansion of the drone program. signature strike, strikes in which we dont know the names of of the targets and we s...

Ammunition. you have something like rand paul who have spoken out about aspects of the drone program. but by and large, the republicans who might be resistant to a presidential -- a nominee perfect president obama are not going to make a big deal out of jeh johnsons role in the drone program. and liberals on the democratic side are not going to want to oppose the presidents nominee for homeland security. it is interesting although johnson was by and large one -- somebody who pushed for approval ...