October 10th, 2012
Declare Your Independence with Ernest Hancock
9 a.m. - Noon (EST)
Studio Line: 602-264-2800
Hour 1
Robert Naiman
Policy director of Just Foreign Policy, Naiman just wrote the piece
"Americans Press U.S. Ambassador for End to Drone Strikes in Pakistan, and
the Ambassador Responds," which states: "On Wednesday, as a member of a
U.S. peace delegation to Pakistan organized by Code Pink, I delivered a
petition from more than 3,000 Americans to Acting U.S. Ambassador to
Pakistan Richard Hoagland calling for an end to the CIA drone strike policy
in Pakistan.
"I also delivered a letter from Alice Walker, Noam Chomsky, Naomi Wolf,
Oliver Stone, Danny Glover, Jody Williams, Tom Hayden, Patch Adams, Glenn
Greenwald, Juan Cole and other prominent Americans, including former U.S.
government officials, calling for an end to the drone strikes. The letter
concludes: 'We demand an immediate moratorium on the drone strikes. We
demand that U.S. policy in Pakistan be brought into compliance with U.S.
and international law, that the U.S. government come clean about civilian
casualties, that civilian victims and their families be compensated, and
that "signature" drone strikes and attacks on civilian rescuers be
permanently abandoned, in Pakistan and everywhere else.'
"In our meeting, I particularly pressed Ambassador Hoagland on reports
of U.S. drone attacks on civilian rescuers. Ambassador Hoagland responded
in more specific detail to some of the concerns that I and others raised
than has been typical for U.S. officials in the past, who have usually
either 1) refused to talk publicly and on the record about the U.S. drone
strike program because it is 'classified' or 2) have defended the policy in
vague and misleading terms without answering specific allegations. ...
"The Bureau of Investigative Journalism has reported 474-884 civilians
killed in U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan since 2004 out of 2,572-3,341
killed overall. That suggests that somewhere between a sixth and a third of
the deaths have been civilian deaths. Is that 'exceedingly rare'?
Meanwhile, a recent Stanford/NYU report says that only 2 percent of drone
strike deaths have been 'high-level' targets. This suggests that somewhere
between 7 and 15 times as many civilians have been killed as 'high level'
targets, and that while killing civilians has been common, it is the
killing of 'high level' targets that has been 'exceedingly rare.'"
In the the meeting, Ambassador Hoagland stated: "I looked at the
numbers today, before I came here and I saw a number of civilian casualties
officially, U.S. government, classified information. Since July 2008, it is
in the two figures. I can't vouch for you that that's accurate -- in any
way. So I can't talk about numbers. ... I probably just got in big trouble
for what I just said." See video: http://vimeo.com/50777393
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