Leaked Drone Papers Reveal 90% of People Killed in U.S. Drone Strikes are Innocent CiviliansBy Jay Syrmopoulos The eight-part investigation, which included documents, analysis, slides, and visuals, was released on Thursday as The Drone Papers, by The Intercept. The insightful reporting by The Intercepts Jeremy Scahill and fellow investigative journalists analyzed and explored the manner in which drone strikes have been carried out by the U.S. in Iraq, Somalia, Yemen, and Afghanistan; ultimately questioning the legitimacy and legality of these extrajudicial killings. The stunning array of classified information revealed an extreme lack of precision in the drone assassination campaign, with one document reporting thatnearly 90 percent of people killed in airstrikes were not the intended targets over one five-month period. Edward Snowden (@Snowden) October 15, 2015 The report focused on the use of drones as President Barack Obamas weapon of choice, used by the military and the CIA to carry out assassinations in both declared war zones and areas outside of recognized war zones. While the administration has consistently stated that the drone program is operated as a precision program carried out with strict oversight and regulation, evidence reveals that this is false. Operations outside of declared war zones were done with very little restriction, as it was not until May 2013 the White House released a set of standards and procedures for conducting such strikes. Step by step of how Obama administration kills people by drone explained by @coracurrier https://t.co/blm6CG6q3v pic.twitter.com/b8q5wgAkSq Nick Turse (@nickturse) October 15, 2015 Its stunning the number of instances when selectors are misattributed to certain people. And it isnt until several months or years later that you all of a sudden realize that the entire time you thought you were going after this really hot target, you wind up realizing it was his mothers phone the whole time, the intelligence whistleblower told The Intercept. This outrageous explosion of watchlisting of monitoring people and racking and stacking them on lists, assigning them numbers, assigning them baseball cards, assigning them death sentences without notice, on a worldwide battlefield it was, from the very first instance, wrong. jeremy scahill (@jeremyscahill) October 15, 2015 The source claims that the digital data gathered from cell phones and emails are the primary tools used by the military to find, fix, and finish its targets, and says that relying on such tactics require an enormous amount of faith in the technology that youre using. The report makes it clear that bad intelligence has gotten many innocent people killed in drone attacks, including U.S. civilians. New docs: Nearly nine out of 10 people who died in airstrikes were not the Americans direct targets, by @rdevro https://t.co/iNq6BcLGl1 Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) October 15, 2015 The documents reveal that the U.S. government has intentionally labeled people killed in drone strikes as enemy combatants, even though they were in no way intended to be the target of the strike, and have no relation to the operation. The actions by the government are intended to mask the actual extent of civilians being killed by the U.S. drone program. Ryan Gallagher (@rj_gallagher) October 15, 2015 Following the publication of the report, Amnesty International has called on the U.S. Congress to start an immediate independent inquiry into the Obama administrations drone strikes overseas. These documents raise serious concerns about whether the USA has systematically violated international law, including by classifying unidentified people as combatants to justify their killings, Naureen Shah, Director of Security with Human Rights at Amnesty International USA said. Additionally, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has come out to condemn the U.S. drone assassination program after the revelations by the Intercept, stating that the Obama administrations lethal program desperately needs transparency and accountability because it is undermining the right to life and national security. A review of the lethal force program must be transparent and include disclosure of the United States compliance with its legal obligations, Hina Shamsi of the ACLUs National Security Project said. These eye-opening disclosures make a mockery of U.S. government claims that its lethal force operations are based on reliable intelligence and limited to lawful targets. Its important to keep in mind that these foreign countries dont hate us for our freedom. They hate us for killing their innocent mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters as they sleep. Unless the U.S. reins in its imperialistic war machine, expect the blowback from our interventionist policies to continue. Also Read: The Innocents Killed by Obama: They Never Saw it Coming Jay Syrmopoulos is an investigative journalist, free thinker, researcher, and ardent opponent of authoritarianism. He is currently a graduate student at University of Denver pursuing a masters in Global Affairs. Jays work has been published on Ben Swanns Truth in Media, Truth-Out, AlterNet, InfoWars, MintPressNews and maany other sites. You can follow him on Twitter @sirmetropolis, on Facebook at Sir Metropolis and now on tsu. Certainly demonstrates who the real Terrorists are.as theyre also creating that which theyre pointing their fingers atby these criminal heinous acts of war against civilians. because the Obominator is a card board cut-out that reads teleprompters the only thing he makes any decisions onis what hes having for dinner tonite..the shadow masters behind him that hijacked the Federal Gov. on 9-11are the treasonous dual-citizen Zionists that need to be rousted with flame throwers at the pit of vipers that they truly are (imo) I wouldnt be so sure he decides what to eat for dinner. Otherwise, spot on! And well said at that. I think he was produced from a 3-D printer. *well you gotta admit hes a strange really weird choice rumored to be a crack smoking homosexual with a tranny for a wifeI think this whole fiasco was a joke perpetrated by the pyramid cap to see how far they could push the envelope on what they can force-feed the American public (imho)demonstrating their cackling hubris the egocentric chutzpah of thetroll troglodyte toads as the chosen ones. that consider us all a herd of stupeified chattel. I wonder of the likelihood in the relatively near future of a serious International Criminal Court where these types of crimes against humanity are supposed to be prosecuted. I think perhaps it looks good what with Putin now filling the void in which there once were leaders of a FREE world! all part of the assassination program: http://stateofthenation2012.com/?p=24029 Looking at the big picture, this is about creating adversaries where once there was none. Bad Guy In Afghanistan Not defending Obama, but all this started under Bush and his cohorts. Obama is just carrying on, being an obedient puppet to those who are pulling these strings. The US MUST go on a leash. This kill at will should not be allowed to continue. Put this country in its place. Heads of many African countries are hauled to the iCC for crime trials. When will it be Bush or Obamas turn? 