Guest Post by
The killings, part of the Obama administration’s targeted assassination program, are aiding terrorist recruitment and thus undermining the program’s goal of eliminating such fighters, the veterans added. Drone operators refer to children as “fun-size terrorists” and liken killing them to “cutting the grass before it grows too long,” said one of the operators, Michael Haas, a former senior airman in the Air Force. Haas also described widespread drug and alcohol abuse, further stating that some operators had flown missions while impaired.
Haas also described widespread alcohol and drug abuse among drone pilots. Drone operators, he said, would frequently get intoxicated using bath salts and synthetic marijuana to avoid possible drug testing and in an effort to “bend that reality and try to picture yourself not being there.” Haas said that he knew at least a half-dozen people in his unit who were using bath salts and that drug use had “impaired” them during missions.
– From the Intercept article: Former Drone Operators Say They Were “Horrified” by Cruelty of Assassination Program
I’ve highlighted the plight of several brave drone whistleblowers over the years who came forth to decry the barbaric and likely illegal nature of the U.S. drone program. Recently, four of them came together to denounce it more forcefully and provide more disturbing information. They also wrote a letter to Obama.
The Intercept published a powerful story on them the other day, here are a few excerpts:
U.S. DRONE OPERATORS are inflicting heavy civilian casualties and have developed an institutional culture callous to the death of children and other innocents, four former operators said at a press briefing today in New York.
The killings, part of the Obama administration’s targeted assassination program, are aiding terrorist recruitment and thus undermining the program’s goal of eliminating such fighters, the veterans added. Drone operators refer to children as “fun-size terrorists” and liken killing them to “cutting the grass before it grows too long,” said one of the operators, Michael Haas, a former senior airman in the Air Force. Haas also described widespread drug and alcohol abuse, further stating that some operators had flown missions while impaired.
In addition to Haas, the operators are former Air Force Staff Sgt. Brandon Bryant along with former senior airmen Cian Westmoreland and Stephen Lewis. The men have conducted kill missions in many of the major theaters of the post-9/11 war on terror, including Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
“We have seen the abuse firsthand,” said Bryant, “and we are horrified.”
Recall Bryant was the guy who quit after a supervisor tried to tell him a little kid they killed was just a dog.
Haas also described widespread alcohol and drug abuse among drone pilots. Drone operators, he said, would frequently get intoxicated using bath salts and synthetic marijuana to avoid possible drug testing and in an effort to “bend that reality and try to picture yourself not being there.” Haas said that he knew at least a half-dozen people in his unit who were using bath salts and that drug use had “impaired” them during missions.
The operators said that they felt increasing urgency to speak out in the wake of the deadly terrorist attacks in Paris last week; they believe drone assassinations have fed the rise of the extremist group the Islamic State, which has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
In their open letter to Obama, the former drone pilots made a similar point, writing that during their service they “came to the realization that the innocent civilians we were killing only fueled the feelings of hatred that ignited terrorism and groups like ISIS,” going on to describe the program as “one of the most devastating driving forces for terrorism and destabilization around the world.”
Read the full letter the drone whistleblowers sent to Obama here.
For more on the sickening drone program, see:
Meet Brandon Bryant: The Drone Operator Who Quit After Killing a Child
Leaks from a Drone Program Whistleblower – Highlights from the Intercept’s Blockbuster Investigation
This is What Really Happens in the Drone Program from an Insider
45 U.S. Military Veterans Sign Letter Urging Drone Operators to “Refuse to Fly”
McClatchy Study: Obama Administration Has No Idea Who They are Killing with Drones
In Liberty,
Michael Krieger
this drone program is weak, it is like a child with a magnifying glass, killing ants.
it has no strategic value, other than to create a new generation of terrorists, (which is most likely the actual reason for it)
Our feckless leaders think that they can use air power to change reality on the ground, this will not work, and one only has to look at Nixons Vietnam bombing campaigns to come to the same conclusion.
Air power should only be used in the context of supporting ground forces, for the purpose of taking control of territory.
But we don’t want territory, we want hell on earth, to distract us from the increasing possibility of another global financial crisis, due to TO MUCH DEBT.
“it has no strategic value, other than to create a new generation of terrorists, (which is most likely the actual reason for it)”
DING DING DING WE HAVE A WINNER
Everything being done these days is simply to ensure that limited warfare continues, forever, as it furthers the political goals of those now in power in most western countries, and our ME “allies.”
War is a rotten, disgusting affair. Anyone who takes pleasure in it is seriously disturbed. I can’t think of any facet of our culture that isn’t infected with this rot and this just exposes it further.
I think of drone operators as copfuks with a joystick.
If I were an employer and if I saw a resume with “drone operator” listed … I would piss on the resume, utter a prayer that da Lawd strike dead that Droney, and shred the resume.
What kind of person aspires to kill remotely from thousands of miles away? Psychopaths. Evilfuks. Satanic Personality Disorder. Folks who are destined for hell, if there is any justice in this universe.
Agree with the comments above, and all are valid
and true. Killing people with a drone bomb may
be like playing a video game to these people.
Bath salts? OMG, these “pilots” are full on nuts.
This is no way to earn a living. Satan is having
a great time, earning souls by the hundreds and
thousands.
Bad as this “program” is, they make it worse by committing war crimes; once they release the hellfire missile and it hits the wedding party, the drone circles back around to release another missile in order to kill the survivors and medics.
Don’t care anymore… I only care if they use drones against our own citizenry…
For you “Boo hoo, poor Islam!” folks…
Enjoy. This is a partial transcript from the video “1400 Year Secret”…
15:30 At the battle of Olayis in Iraq for two days he spent out rounding up the losers,
15:34 put them in a dry stream bed and cut off their heads until the stream ran with blood.
15:40 He then took the captain of the Zoroastrian Persian tribe, his wife was there.
15:44 He cut off the man’s head, let the blood drain into the soil and raped his wife in the bloody soil.
15:48 That was one of the companions of Mohammed.
15:55 This is the nature of jihad.
15:58 Where did Khalid learn how to do that? From Mohammed. From Mohammed at the Battle of Khaybar.
16:06 Umar conquered Jerusalem, and every Jew and Christian became a dhimmi
16:10 which is a third-class semi-slave.
16:19 We’re taught this myth of ‘THE GOLDEN AGE’ – how wonderful Islam is.
16:23 So here is what is happening here in ‘THE GOLDEN AGE’.
16:27 They started attacking the Sind, which is the Hindus, 26,000 Hindus died.
16:33 Armenian nobles were herded into a church after a debate
16:38 and the building burned down on top of them. At Ephesus, 7000 Greeks are enslaved.
16:41 We’re still in ‘THE GOLDEN AGE’.
16:42 All new churches were ordered destroyed.
16:45 At Amorium, there was massive enslavement of all the Christians. The Egyptian Christians revolt
16:49 over the jizyah which is the dhimmi tax based on the shariah. Churches are burned, villages destroyed.
16:56 Tenth Century, we are still in ‘THE GOLDEN AGE’.
16:57 In Thessalonica, 22,000 Christians were enslaved. Christians massacred in Seville.
17:01 In Egypt and Syria, 30,000 churches destroyed. You have your religion, I have mine.
17:12 Still in THE GOLDEN AGE.
17:14 6,000 Jews of Morocco killed. Hundreds of Jews in Cordoba killed. 4000 Jews of Granada killed.
17:18 Georgia and Armenia invaded. In Hindustan 15,000 killed, a half million are enslaved.
17:22 A GOLDEN AGE is still upon us.
17:28 In Yemen, the Jews are given the choice of convert or die. Christians of Granada
17:32 are deported to Morocco. In India, many cities are destroyed under the order to convert or die.
17:36 In one town, 20,000 Hindus became slaves.
17:40 Still THE GOLDEN AGE.
17:43 50,000 Hindu slaves decided to get freedom by converting to Islam.
17:48 A new 20 year campaign created 400,000 new Muslims out of Hindus.
17:51 Buddhist monks butchered, nuns raped.
17:54 In Damascus and Safed, mass murder of Christians. Jews of Marrakesh massacred.
17:59 Tabriz – Forced conversions of Jews.
18:03 Still, we’re in THE GOLDEN AGE.
18:04 There are riots in Cairo. Churches are burned. Jews of Tabriz are forced to convert.
18:09 Tamerlane, one of the most evil men who ever lived massacred 90,000 Hindus in one day.
18:16 30,000 in another battle massacred in India in cold blood.
18:19 Another Muslim leader takes 180,000 Hindu slaves.
18:25 Oooops, we’re out of THE GOLDEN AGE. See if you can notice any change in tenor.
18:27 Tamerlane destroys another 700 villages in India. He then turned to Iraq
18:31 and destroyed the Nestorian and Jacobite Christians.
18:42 The Nestorian Christians – half of the silk trade from China was Nestorian Christian.
18:46 The Nestorian Christians had emissaries and missionaries in the Court of China.
18:50 Afghanistan was partly Christian. All right? Gone.
19:01 This is part of the destruction of the church that no one knows about.
19:07 Seven hundred years of attack, they finally destroy Constantinople.
19:10 Sixteenth Century
19:12 The son of Tamerlane destroys temples, forced conversions.
19:15 Two of his generals built two towers of human heads. Once again, you couldn’t see over them.
19:19 And then noble women, Hindu women started the practice of suttee
19:23 which was mass suicide in order not to become sex slaves inside of the sultans harem.
19:30 17th Century Jews of Yemen and Persia forced to convert. Forced conversion
19:34 of Greeks and Zoroastrian are persecuted in Persia and over half million Hindus killed.
19:44 18th Century, more Zoroastrian persecution, Jews of Jedda are expelled,
19:48 Jews of Morocco are massacred, Hindu persecution continues.
19:51 19th Century
19:53 More forced conversion of Jews in Iran, Jews of Baghdad massacred.
19:58 Oooops, quarter million Armenian Christians are slaughtered in Turkey.
20:02 Now then, in Persia, the Zoroastrians are completely annihilated.
20:03 Twentieth Century
20:07 Over one million Armenian Christians are killed. One million.
And it gets worse, as hard as that is to believe…
Moors take over Spain? First thing they demand are thousands of blonde haired, blue eyed virgins.
You all want to wallow in pity over some fucking Muslims, go right ahead. Want to gin up some outrage for us blowing up a few? Go ahead.
Fraid I’m fresh out of sympathy for a group of savage fucks who have been attacking, beheading, raping, burning, pillaging and enslaving our people for the last 1400 years.
I hope they kill every last one of the motherfuckers – by drone or any other means…
Billy don’t like turd colored people. Specially them arab sandy turd lookin people. He don’t never fergive, he don’t never ferget.