UN Lawyer Leading Drone Inquiry Calls Obama Speech 'Significant' and 'Historic' [View all]

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UN rapporteur Emmerson hails 'historic' Obama drone vow

The lawyer leading a UN drone inquiry has praised a speech by US President Barack Obama as a "significant step towards increased transparency".

Ben Emmerson said Mr Obama had set out more clearly than ever before the legal justifications for targeted killing . . .

Mr Emmerson, a United Nations human rights special rapporteur, launched an inquiry into drones in January . . . examining 25 attacks, in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, the Palestinian territories and Somalia . . .

"It sets out more clearly and more authoritatively than ever before the administration's legal justifications for targeted killing, and the constraints that it operates under," he said.

"The publication of the procedural guidelines for the use of force in counter-terrorism operations is a significant step towards increased transparency and accountability."

read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22653476#TWEET766839

related:

remarks by the President at the National Defense University, May 23
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022893512

"We wish Mr Obama had pledged an accounting for the civilian deaths caused by drone strikes, and some form of reparations, but he did not. He should do so," says the New York Times in an editorial.

Commenting on the heckler, the Los Angeles Times says: "Obama's careful and almost deferential response suggested that he is closely attuned to such complaints. Rather than dismiss [her] as a heckler, the president engaged her, asking her to let him explain but also pausing to listen as she continued to talk while security closed in around her."