Four Former Drone Operators Demand that Obama End the Drone Killings Now
Four veterans of the U.S. Air Force with more than 20 years of experience between them in drone operations, three as sensor operators and the fourth as a communications technician, have written to President Obama calling on him to reconsider the policy of targeted killings by drone because, they say, it is a “driving force” behind ISIS and other jihadi groups. In an impassioned letter addressed to Obama, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, and CIA Director John Brennan, they write that the tactic has “fueled the feelings of hatred that ignited terrorism and groups like ISIS, while also serving as a fundamental recruitment tool similar to Guantánamo Bay.”
The oldest of the four, Brandon Bryant, who served from 2005 to 2011 in drone squadrons, told the Guardian that he was part of the team that tracked Anwar al-Awlaki by drone for 10 months shortly before he was killed. Bryant said that in his view, he had been made to violate his military oath by being assigned to a mission that killed a fellow American. “We were told that al-Awlaki deserved to die, he deserved to be killed as a traitor, but Article 3 of Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution states that even a traitor deserves a fair trial in front of a jury of his peers.”
They called the drone strategy self-defeating because the civilian casualties create hatred for the United States. “Right now it seems politically expedient,” said Cian Westmoreland, the communications technician. “But in the long term the bad side of a Hellfire missile and drones buzzing overhead is the only thing that a lot of these people know of the United States or Britain.”
The text of their letter follows:
“When the guilt of our roles in facilitating this systematic loss of innocent life became too much, all of us succumbed to PTSD. We were cut loose by the same government we gave so much to, sent out in the world without adequate medical care, reliable public health services, or necessary benefits. Some of us are now homeless. Others of us barely make it.
“We witnessed gross waste, mismanagement, abuses of power, and our country’s leaders lying publicly about the effectiveness of the drone program. We cannot sit silently by and witness tragedies like the attacks in Paris, knowing the devastating effects the drone program has overseas and at home. Such silence would violate the very oaths we took to support and defend the Constitution.
“We request that you consider our perspective, though perhaps that request is in vain given the unprecedented prosecution of truthtellers who came before us like Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange, and Edward Snowden. For the sake of this country, we hope it is otherwise.”
The letter is signed by Brandon Bryant, sensor operator; Cian Westmoreland, RF Transmissions Systems technician; Stephen Lewis, sensor operator; and Michael Haas, sensor operator.
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