Targeted Killing
245 Articles
Nils Melzer on Whether U.S. Citizen Abdullah al-Shami is a Lawful Military Target
The Obama Administration is reportedly evaluating whether a lethal operation against a US citizen in Pakistan is legally permissible. Last Friday an important story by Mark Mazzetti…
Too Much War, Not Enough Human Rights from the UN Special Rapporteur and European Parliament
Special Rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism Ben Emmerson’s latest report and the European Parliament’s resolution on drones highlight some pressing issues. Most…
United Nations Releases New Report on Drones
[Editor’s note: Emmerson’s drone report is also publicly available on the UN website.] Last year, two UN Special Rapporteurs released major reports on drones — a…
The Political Support and Divisions Behind the European Parliament Resolution on Drones
By a large majority, the European Parliament yesterday passed a resolution condemning “the use of armed drones outside the international legal framework” and calling on the…
European Parliament Passes Resolution on Drones, Targeted Killings, and Fully Autonomous Weapons
In a landslide vote (534 to 49), the European Parliament has passed a Resolution on drones, targeted killings, and fully autonomous weapons. Stay tuned for a post from one of the…
Secrecy, Nonacknowledgement, and Yemen
Ryan posted last week about varying accounts of who was killed in an attack on an apparent wedding party in rural Yemen on December 12, 2013. A Human Rights Watch report quotes…
Missing Transparency: Is the US Response to Reported Drone Attack on Wedding Party Self-Defeating?
On Thursday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a fact-intensive report based on the group’s investigations into a US drone strike that allegedly hit a wedding party in Yemen…
A Rejoinder from Jenks and Corn re U.S. SIGINT Based Targeting
There is probably no area of greater consensus between us and Professors Goodman and Jinks (their post) than the recognition that the law of armed conflict should and must be responsive…
Military Targeting Based on Cellphone Location
A recent news story by Glenn Greenwald and Jeremy Scahill details the use of NSA signals intelligence (SIGINT) – including cellphone and SIM card data – to locate and kill…
Eyes Wide Shut: Scahill and Greenwald’s Flawed Critique of U.S. SIGINT Based Targeting
[Editor’s Note: Stay tuned later today for a post by Ryan Goodman and Derek Jinks responding to the guest post by Chris Jenks and Geoffrey Corn.] In The NSA’s Secret Role in…
Which Policies Apply to the Killing of U.S. Citizens in Pakistan?
Yesterday, the Associated Press, Washington Post, New York Times, and the LA Times reported on debates within the U.S. government about “whether to authorize a lethal strike…
Where’s the “Metadata”?: What Greenwald and Scahill (Don’t) Say about NSA Metadata Collection and Lethal Targeting
There are many, many important revelations about NSA’s involvement in the US drone program in Glenn Greenwald and Jeremy Scahill’s historic debut story for First Look…