The following films below discuss America's covert drone wars. These films are providing much needed coverage of a subject that is barely discussed in the American media. Drones are unmanned, aerial vehicles that have no onboard human pilot. These vehicles are controlled by operators from inside the U.S. The President of the U.S. presides over a top secret nominations process where he designates targets for drone attack. This Drone War is being conducted in several countries all over the world: Pakistan, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Algeria and Somalia. Yet there are many questions about this covert war that seems to have no international boundaries or regulations. The films will explore these questions in full detail.
DIRTY WARS FILM AND BOOK HOMESITE
Dirty Wars is both a movie and a book that documents a U.S. covert war being conducted in the shadows. This is a war without international boundaries, being launched all over the world. The foot soldiers of this war operate inside the United States with orders from the president to kill individuals designated as enemies of the U.S.This is a covert war that exists outside of American press coverage. It is a war fought with drones,cruise missiles, night raids, secret prisons and unaccountable violence.
Jeremy Scahill, the book's author, states that these wars are going to destabilizing countries around the world and release massive blow back against the U.S.
A SEGMENT ON DRONES FROM BILLMOYERS.COM
This week members in congress, for the first time, heard testimony from the victims of America's drone attacks. Unfortunately, only five congressmen showed up.
13 year old Zubair Rehman, from Pakistan, talked about a strike that killed his grandmother, and wounded him and his sister.
The use of Drones has intensified under President Obama. The video above discusses how these drones are killing innocent people, including children.
This video showed clips from Robert Greenwald's new documentary, Unmanned: America's Drone Wars.
SIGNATURE STRIKE INVESTIGATION
U.S. President Obama claims that before any drone strike is made, that there is a high certainty that no civilian will be injured.
Yet this investigative film reveals a different story: over 98% of drone targets have not been "high value targets," (or in other words, key members in Al Qaeda and Talibani leadership).
The reality is that "Signature Strikes" are not as precise as America's Leadership would like the public to believe.
When Signature Strikes go wrong, 20-30 civilians can be killed.
On March 17th, 2011, a Jirga was held to resolve a dispute over a chromite mine. Jirga's are a Democratic mechanism in the area that help uphold the stability in the region. The Pakistani government was notified days before that this Jirga would be happening. It was even in broad daylight. Yet 20 minutes after the meeting barely started, a drone targeted the area and left 40 tribal elders dead. The loss of these men was devastating for that local community, devastating in terms of moral leadership and devastating for stability in the region. This would be equivalent to a strike on key members of American congress.
Drone strikes are feeding into the sense that no one is safe anymore. Even a Jirga, the most sacred of tribal institutions, are no longer safe.
These strikes area also making America less safe. How are we winning, when every time we kill one "enemy" we create ten? "Winning" is when the Muslim people decide to squash their extremists. Yet the drone strike on the Jirga has really upended relations between Americans and the Pakistanis. Destabilization and political blow-back really does make America less safe, and actually creates more support for the terrorists in war torn regions.
This film addresses the following question: "Who are we targeting?" "Are these people really enemies of the U.S?"
You cannot shoot your way out of a terrorist war. You cannot have a shoot out with an ideology. Ideology must be countered with ideology, not indiscriminate violence.
LIVING UNDER DRONES
This is another powerful film from the Brave New Foundation about the lack of honesty in the American media about the real nature of Drone Strikes.
Civilians in the tribal region of Pakistan speak out in the following film about the indiscriminate killing that has left hundreds of women and children dead.
At the time this film was made, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism reported that approximately 3,300 people had been killed by drones. 176 of these people were reported to be children.
Entire communities are living in areas where drones are flying overhead 24/7. People don't know when and who the drones will strike.
This is resulting in symptoms of PTSD, anxiety, depression and dysfunction. Many of these people don't even know why drones are attacking them.
Drones are creating an immense amount of anger against the U.S. A 2012 poll by the Pew Research Center's Global Attitude project found that 74% of Pakistanis consider the U.S. an enemy.
The civilians interviewed in this film have made a plea for the drone attacks to stop.
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