Americans beg Obama: Please, don't kill US with drones - US Governor cites warzone drone success, says domestic use would be “great”

Grace Bedell thought it could clinch the election when she suggested to Abraham Lincoln that he grow a beard. Now a century and a half later, Americans are asking their president to consider an updated proposal: Mr. Obama, please don’t kill us.

Unlike the correspondence from 1860 that was signed off by a single person — an 11-year-old girl from upstate New York — over 1,000 Americans have already added their name to a petition posted on the Internet this week. Their plea may sound silly at first glance, but it’s authors appear to be anything other than serious about it: after a Tuesday morning article in the New York Times revealed US President Barack Obama’s authority to add and remove names from a roster of alleged enemies of the state to be executed without due process, 1,679 Americans have already asked that they be placed on a “do not kill” list.

With the 2012 presidential election less than six months away, issues such as the economy, unemployment and cybersecurity are should to be big talking points as the candidates prepare for voters to hit the polls. Now, however, it appears as if whether or not the next administration can justify killing anyone on command will be a big talking point leading up to November. And although it might not be as big of a selling point as growing out a beard, Obama’s stance on killing his own citizens could make or break his chances come Election Day.

As of Thursday morning, the creators of the petition are 23,321 signatures short of their goal. Only a day after being published to the Web, however, the sign-up sheet has already received notable publicity.

“The New York Times reports that President Obama has created an official “kill list” that he uses to personally order the assassination of American citizens,” reads a message posted on the WhiteHouse.gov page that hosts the petition.“Considering that the government already has a “Do Not Call” list and a “No Fly” list, we hereby request that the White House create a “Do Not Kill” list in which American citizens can sign up to avoid being put on the president’s “kill list” and therefore avoid being executed without indictment, judge, jury, trial or due process of law.”

As RT reported earlier this week, the Times’ article suggests that the commander-in-chief has a very active role in determining who can be killed by his own military and intelligence offices. Discussing the piece he co-authored to the PBS program Newshour this week, journalist Scott Shane said, “Instead of wanting deniability and wanting to keep at a distance from this lethal program, he actually wanted to be very much part of it.”

Last year public outcry erupted over the White House’s targeted kill program after it was revealed that the president ordered a targeted kill of American citizens living abroad that had been linked to terrorist organizations by the Obama administration. Both President Obama and US Attorney General Eric Holder have gone on the record to stand by the air strikes.

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Additional:
VA Governor cites warzone drone success, says domestic use would be “great”


Recently the domestic use of drones has taken a major step forward with the passage of a bill which accelerates their integration into American airspace and some are embracing this troublesome reality with open arms.

One such individual who has embraced the disturbing use of drones in the United States is Bob McDonnell, the Governor of Virginia, who is also a retired Lieutenant Colonel with the U.S. Army.

McDonnell claimed that police drones flying over Virginia would not only be “great” but also “the right thing to do.”

He claims that this is true because they have been so effective in use over battlefields across the world. One must wonder if he means their brutal efficiency in murdering many people at once as they have done in the undeclared war in Pakistan or their nearly unbelievable surveillance capabilities.

McDonnell further stated that he is open to any technology which makes law enforcement activities more productive, which makes me wonder if he would also support the use of chips allowing mobile devices to see through walls in the hands of police, so long as it is in the name of increasing productivity.

Unsurprisingly the police chiefs of Fairfax County, Virginia (one of the state’s most affluent regions) and the District of Columbia have already endorsed the use of drones in the name of making better use of police resources.

McDonnell cited the reasons the military and intelligence community use the drones in warzones as reasons we should use them in our own country – which has officially become a battlefield thanks to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 (NDAA) – such as safety and reduced manpower.

However, this claim of reduced manpower is not quite accurate, since the military is already years behind in analyzing the data captured by drones and as the Los Angeles Times reported last year, “It takes more people to operate unmanned aircraft than it does to fly traditional warplanes that have a pilot and crew.”

Where the “reduced manpower” myth comes from is beyond me, but there is absolutely no indication that the claim has any basis in reality whatsoever.

“It’s great,” McDonnell stated while appearing on local Virginia news outlet WTOP’s “Ask the Governor” program.

“If you’re keeping police officers safe, making it more productive and saving money … it’s absolutely the right thing to do,” McDonnell added.

However, once again, his claim of “saving money” makes very little sense whatsoever. This may be true over a period of several years, or perhaps even a decade or more, but since almost all counties are struggling to get by as is, I seriously doubt that this massive start up cost is something worth absorbing.

That is, unless, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) chooses to give out some of their massive grants to subsidize the move towards drones or if they begin being given away under the Pentagon’s 1033 program.

Seeing as the Department of Defense is now distributing military robots and heavily armored vehicles under the program, that wouldn’t be all too surprising.

While a proposal to purchase drones has not even made it to McDonnell’s desk yet, he clearly is itching to get them out into the air above Virginia.

“Drones will certainly have a purpose and a reason to be in this region in the next, coming years,” Fairfax County Police Chief David Rohrer said. “Just as a standpoint as an alternative for spotting traffic and sending information back to our VDOT Smart Traffic centers, and being able to observe backups.”

Seems to be a little expensive to just serve for spotting traffic and observing backups but maybe I’m the only one who thinks our governments at the local, state and federal level are engaging in completely out of control spending.

McDonnell did briefly address the overwhelming privacy and civil liberties concerns, although all he said was that it will prove important to ensure that the state looks after the civil liberties of Virginians.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released a list back in April of the entities authorized to use drones including Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Virginia Commonwealth University and the United States Marine Corps, although it is noted that they have not yet said where they are actually flying the drones and it is jut their headquarters which is in Quantico, Virginia.

With the massive concerns about the use of drones’ impact on civil liberties, the false claims made by McDonnell about reduced manpower and the dubious nature of the cost-effectiveness, I personally do not see it as reasonable for him to support it as he is.

However, with such massive support amongst federal legislators, I do not think that it would be smart to expect McDonnell to put his citizens and their rights before his beliefs in the efficacy of drones.

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