Wednesday, October 16, 2013

#Drones: Human Rights Violation Of A New Kind


Flying spying killer robots, also known as drones, have added a new dimension to human rights violations.

Human beings have no recourse when a drone bombs their family home, or tracks their movement from thousands of feet overhead. Drones cannot be contacted to plead for justice. The sound of a drone can disturb the sleep of an entire town night after night without the machine that produces the sound growing tired.

Drones have no conscience, and the person behind the joystick is far from reprisal. He refers to human beings killed by him as "bugsplat" because that is what they look like on his video monitor.

Drones for the U.S. have been used extensively by the CIA, an organization famous for its human rights violations including rendition, torture, and terrorizing civilian populations.

CIA drones conduct inhumane attacks by drones that kill first responders to scenes of death and mayhem, the so called "double tap" policy of the Obama administration. The filthy hand of the CIA also partly explains the morally corrupt policy of killing mourners at the funerals of people killed by drones, even children.

Hundreds of children, and thousands of adults, are documented drone bombing victims.

Drones have been used by the state of Israel to terrorize civilians in Gaza for years. Many of the technologies that make drones possible were developed by Israeli corporations, a chilling fit since Israel's occupation of Palestine is one long chronicle of gross human rights violations.

Technological advances that might have helped human beings to live better lives -- safer, more secure, and more connected to other human beings -- have failed to do so.

Drones are touted by President Obama and the state of Maine's Tea Party Governor Paul LePage alike. The Attorney General of Maine, Janet Mills, called drones "an economic driver" for the state.

My home state of Maine is mostly rural with splendid forests, rivers and lakes and an abundance of wildlife. It has long been "Vacationland" for people from around the U.S.

Flying killer robots in the airspace over Vacationland will surely destroy the economic driver of tourism.

Flying killer robots funded by the U.S. taxpayer will surely spell the end of our Constitution as we knew it. Extrajudicial assassination is diametrically opposed to any concept of human rights. A President with a weekly meeting to go over his "kill list" of possible drone targets has lost his moral compass.

If the steady erosion of human rights by flying killer robots concerns you, register now for the No Drones Summit in Washington DC November 16 - 17.

The Maine Drone Peace Walk continues today and through Friday, October 18, ending at the Maine State House Hall of Flags with a rally at 3pm. This is a chance to join others who are concerned about the human rights implications of killing and spying by drones.


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