Faulty Intelligence

Dear Mr. President,

In the end it comes down to this: Faulty Intelligence. Of the 779 prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay since 2002—“the worst of the worst,”—603 have been released without charges, implicit admission they never should have been there in the first place. 86% of “the worst of the worst” were named “terrorists” by informants who received a bounty of $5,000, enough to support a family, a village, a tribe for the rest of their lives. The story in Pakistan, is the same as Iraq, as Afghanistan: Faulty Intelligence. In April 2011 a Predator drone strike killed two American soldiers in Afghanistan. Faulty intelligence; they were mistaken for Taliban fighters. In September 2010 Special Forces bombed the convoy of Zet Amanullah, a candidate for parliament, killing him and 9 fellow election workers. Faulty intelligence; they were mistaken for Taliban. Reading the Stanford/NYU report, Living Under Drones, one cannot help but come to the conclusion that in case after case, faulty intelligence resulted in the deaths of innocent civilians—men, women, children. Living Under Drones puts a human face on your targeted assassination program. It is the other end of Kill Lists, Predator drones and Hellfire missiles and it is ugly. It is a picture of innocent villagers living in constant terror of drones and instant annihilation. Poor farmers, small shopkeepers, fruit peddlers, drivers, teachers, schoolchildren, none of them militants. Most had never heard of America before the drones came. Over and over, the refrain, “Why do they do this to us? We have nothing. What do they want from us?” Their customs, their culture, their daily lives shredded in the wake of Predator drones, America’s ambassadors of death, the only direct contact they will ever have with America or Americans. Education for whole communities ended, aspirations and lives destroyed, economic devastation the fate of victims. And over and over and over again, faulty intelligence. The High Value Target was not in the car, in the house, in the compound, in the village. Innocent civilians killed. The militants were not militants after all. Faulty intelligence, innocent civilians killed. In 1789 Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to James Madison in which he said, “assassination, poison, [and perjury] were all legitimate purposes in the dark ages…but exploded and held in just horror in the 18^th century.” Under Bush/Obama, we have descended back into the dark ages. 83% of Americans approve of your drone wars.