Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Yemen drone strike lawsuit forces US to face non-western 'war on terror' victims
Source: The Guardian
Yemen drone strike lawsuit forces US to face non-western 'war on terror' victims
Sabrina Siddiqui in Washington
Monday 8 June 2015 23.24 BST
If Barack Obama can publicly apologize for the accidental killings of two al-Qaida hostages – one American and one Italian – by a US drone strike, the White House should extend the same courtesy to a pair of Yemeni civilians killed by US Hellfire missiles.
That is the hope of the wrongful death lawsuit filed late Sunday by the families of Salem bin Ali Jaber and Waleed bin Ali Jaber, two men killed by a US drone strike in August 2012 in the eastern Yemeni village of Khashamir. And although it’s unclear if the case will even be heard, human rights groups who have long criticized the use of armed and unmanned aircrafts for counterterrorism operations believe the families of the two victims were left with no other option but to sue.
“In terms of exhaustion of remedies, we’ve tried everything,” Alka Pradhan, a counterterrorism counsel for Reprieve US who has represented the families, told the Guardian in a phone interview.
Pradhan added that Obama’s apology in April over the deaths of American development expert Warren Weinstein and Italian aid worker Giovanni Lo Porto, two hostages being held by al-Qaida at a compound in Pakistan, showed a double standard for how western lives are treated as opposed to civilians in countries ravaged by the broader “war on terror”
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
Sabrina Siddiqui in Washington
Monday 8 June 2015 23.24 BST
If Barack Obama can publicly apologize for the accidental killings of two al-Qaida hostages – one American and one Italian – by a US drone strike, the White House should extend the same courtesy to a pair of Yemeni civilians killed by US Hellfire missiles.
That is the hope of the wrongful death lawsuit filed late Sunday by the families of Salem bin Ali Jaber and Waleed bin Ali Jaber, two men killed by a US drone strike in August 2012 in the eastern Yemeni village of Khashamir. And although it’s unclear if the case will even be heard, human rights groups who have long criticized the use of armed and unmanned aircrafts for counterterrorism operations believe the families of the two victims were left with no other option but to sue.
“In terms of exhaustion of remedies, we’ve tried everything,” Alka Pradhan, a counterterrorism counsel for Reprieve US who has represented the families, told the Guardian in a phone interview.
Pradhan added that Obama’s apology in April over the deaths of American development expert Warren Weinstein and Italian aid worker Giovanni Lo Porto, two hostages being held by al-Qaida at a compound in Pakistan, showed a double standard for how western lives are treated as opposed to civilians in countries ravaged by the broader “war on terror”
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/08/yemen-drone-strike-lawsuit-obama-western-war-on-terror
