Report: Deadly drone strike in Yemen failed to comply with Obama’s rules to protect civilians

Washington Post ^ | February 19, 2014 | By Greg Miller

[Brad from Tennessee]

A U.S. drone strike in December that killed at least a dozen people in Yemen failed to comply with rules imposed by President Obama last year to protect civilians, according to an investigation by a human rights organization released Thursday.

The report by Human Rights Watch concluded that the strike, which was carried out by the U.S. military’s Joint Special Operations Command, targeted a line of vehicles that were part of a wedding procession, and that evidence indicates “some, if not all those killed and wounded were civilians.”

The findings contradict assertions by U.S. officials that only militants were killed in the operation, although the report acknowledged that members of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the terrorist network’s affiliate in Yemen, may have been among the dead.

Overall, Human Rights Watch “found that the operations did not comply with the targeted killing policies that President Obama outlined” in a speech in May, the report said, citing in particular Obama’s requirement of “near-certainty” that no civilians would be harmed. . .

[2ndDivisionVet]

Related:

White House: No more information about drone killings will be released to public
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3124963/posts

[Daffynition]

What happens when joe-six-pack uses a drone to film police activity? In Connecticut....that's an arrest.

The police department’s actions violated Pedro Rivera’s Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable seizures and his First Amendment right to free speech.

Anyone from CT will not be surprised.....but we're accustomed to the police making stuff up as they go along arresting citizens.

[McGruff]

Maybe he's not so bad after all.

[Jack Hammer]

Obama has rules to protect civilians????

[goodwithagun]

If you like your civilians, you can keep your civilians.

[originalbuckeye]

Is the WaPo pretending that the Bamster cares about anyone but himself??? Bwahahahaha!

[ozdragon]

It has been reported that president Obama chooses the targets and he has bragged that he is very good at choosing.

[Brad from Tennessee]

Obama is not the first president to politicize the national security apparatus but he has done it more thoroughly and ruthlessly than anyone else. From bugging the AP and other news agencies, to dangerous White House leaks for political effect, to assigning reliable hacks to top posts in the intelligence community and the military, many books could be written on the subject. In foreign policy and military strategy it appears that White House political advisers have the last word over the experts. The results have been disastrous.