9 Myths About Obama’s Drone Killings Debunked [Video]

http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/9-myths-about-obamas-drone-killings-debunked-video





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Myth #1: Drone killings are few, focused and vetted.

In January 2012, President Obama confirmed and defended the use of drone strikes. He said the attacks were “a targeted, focused effort at people who are on a list of active terrorists who are trying to go in and harm Americans, hit American facilities, American bases … for the most part, they have been very precise.” The President added, “this thing is kept on a very tight leash.”

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Myth #2: Drones legally protect against imminent threats.

“First, the strikes are legal,” John Brennan, assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, said in April 2012. “As a matter of domestic law the Constitution empowers the president to protect the nation from any imminent threat of attack.”

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Myth #3: Due process doesn’t mean a day in court.

“Due process and judicial process are not one and the same, particularly when it comes to national security,” Attorney General Eric Holder said in a May 2012 speech. “The Constitution guarantees due process. It does not guarantee judicial process.”

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Myth #4: Drone killings don’t violate international law.

Leon Panetta, CIA director from 2009 to 2011, said the drone attacks were permitted by international law. “We have a responsibility to defend this country and that’s what we are doing,” he said. “And anyone who suggest that somehow we are employing other tactics here that somehow violate international law are dead wrong.”