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OpEdNews Op Eds    H2'ed 7/28/21

Drone Whistleblower Gets 45 Months in Prison for Revealing Ongoing US War Crimes

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The Air Force is requesting $10 billion to perpetuate the U.S. imperial footprint in South Asia and the Middle East.

On June 30, 113 organizations, including Veterans for Peace, wrote a letter to Biden, "to demand an end to the unlawful program of lethal strikes outside any recognized battlefield, including through the use of drones."

Drone Strikes Violate International Law

The UN Charter requires that international disputes be settled peacefully. It allows a country to use military force only in self-defense after an armed attack or with the consent of the UN Security Council. Neither the U.S. war in Iraq nor in Afghanistan complied with the Charter's mandates.

"Outside the context of active hostilities, the use of drones or other means for targeted killing is almost never likely to be legal," Agnà ¨s Callamard, UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, tweeted. She added that "intentionally lethal or potentially lethal force can only be used where strictly necessary to protect against an imminent threat to life." Thus, Callamard said, the United States would need to demonstrate that the target "constituted an imminent threat to others."

Targeted or political assassinations also known as extrajudicial executions violate international law. Willful killing is a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions and is punishable as a war crime under the U.S. War Crimes Act. Civilians must never be the target of military strikes. A targeted killing is only lawful if it is deemed necessary to protect life, and no other means including capture or nonlethal incapacitation is available to protect life.

Yet the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations have all prosecuted whistleblowers for revealing evidence of U.S. war crimes. In addition to Hale, those courageous folks include Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange and John Kiriakou, who revealed that CIA officials used waterboarding, which constitutes the war crime of torture.

Misuse of the Espionage Act

The Espionage Act of 1917 was enacted to prosecute foreign spies. It was never intended for use against whistleblowers. Nevertheless, Obama charged eight whistleblowers with violating the act, more than all prior presidents combined.

But although Obama refrained from indicting Assange for publishing evidence of U.S. war crimes (for fear of setting a dangerous precedent), Trump indicted Assange for 17 charges under the Espionage Act. Assange now faces 175 years in prison. A British judge denied Trump's request that Assange be extradited to the U.S. to stand trial for those charges. But Biden has continued Trump's appeal of the denial of extradition, notwithstanding the grave threat Assange's prosecution poses to the First Amendment right to freedom of the press.

Hale is the first person sentenced under the Espionage Act during the Biden administration and he probably won't be the last.

Ironically, Hale told the sentencing judge that he was a descendent of Nathan Hale, who was executed by the British for spying during the Revolutionary War. "I have but this one life to give in service of my country," Hale said, quoting his ancestor.

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Marjorie Cohn is professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, former president of the National Lawyers Guild, deputy secretary general of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, and a member of the National Advisory Board of Veterans for Peace. Her most recent book is Drones and Targeted Killing: Legal, Moral, and Geopolitical Issues. See  (more...)
 

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