CAMPAIGNERS AGAINST US drone strikes in Pakistan are calling for the CIA’s former legal chief to be arrested and charged with murder for approving attacks that killed up to 2,500 civilians.
Amid growing international concern over the use of drones, lawyers and relatives of some of those killed are seeking an international arrest warrant for John A Rizzo, until recently acting general counsel for the CIA.
Opponents of drones say the unmanned aircraft are responsible for the deaths of up to 2,500 Pakistanis in 260 attacks since 2004. US officials say the vast majority of those killed are “militants”. Earlier this week 48 people were killed in two strikes on tribal regions of Pakistan. The American definition of “militant” has been disputed by relatives and campaigners.
The bid to arrest Mr Rizzo is being led by British human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith of the campaign group Reprieve and lawyers in Pakistan. They are also building cases against drone operators interviewed or photographed during organised press facilities.
A first information report, the first step in seeking a prosecution of Mr Rizzo in Pakistan, will be formally lodged early next week at a police station in Islamabad on behalf of relatives of two people killed in strikes in 2009. It will allege Mr Rizzo should be charged with conspiracy to murder a large number of Pakistani citizens.
Now retired, Mr Rizzo (63) is being pursued after admitting in an interview with Newsweekthat since 2004 he had approved monthly drone attacks on targets in Pakistan, even though the US is not at war with the country.
Mr Rizzo, who was by his own admission “up to my eyeballs” in approving CIA use of “enhanced interrogation techniques”, said in the interview that the CIA operated “a hit list”. He also asked: “How many law professors have signed off on a death warrant?”
He has also admitted being present while civilian operators conducted drone strikes from terminals at CIA headquarters in Virginia.
Although US government lawyers have tried to argue drone strikes are conducted on a “solid legal basis”, some believe civilians who operate the drones could be classified “unlawful combatants”.
Drone strikes were launched on Pakistan by former US president George W Bush and have been accelerated by Barack Obama.
Much of the intelligence for the attacks is supplied either by the Pakistani military or the ISI, the country’s controversial intelligence agency. Both have blocked journalists and human rights investigators from visiting the tribal areas targeted, preventing independent verification of the numbers killed and their status.
– ( Guardianservice)