• Drones 'inhumane' dead Al-Qaeda man's family says...(irony?)
    136 replies, posted
[quote]TRIPOLI (Reuters) - The brother of al Qaeda's second-in-command, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike, said Washington's use of the remote-controlled weapons is inhumane and makes a mockery of its claims to champion human rights. U.S. officials said on Tuesday that Libyan-born al Qaeda operative Abu Yahya al-Libi was killed by a drone strike in Pakistan, in what was described as a major blow to the militant group. The attack is likely to fuel an increasingly fierce debate about the legality and morality of the drones, which have become one of the chief U.S. weapons against al Qaeda but which opponents say stretch the definition of the legitimate use of lethal force. "The United States talks human rights and freedoms for all, but the method they used to kill him is savage," Abu Bakr al-Qayed, brother of al-Libi, told Reuters on Wednesday in a telephone interview. "The way the Americans killed him is heinous and inhumane," he said, speaking from the town of Wadi Otba, south of the Libyan capital. "We are in the 21st century and they claim to be civilized and this is how they take out people." "Regardless of my brother's ideology, or beliefs, he was a human being and at the end of the day deserves humane treatment," he said. For years considered a covert Central Intelligence Agency program, the unmanned aircraft can be remotely piloted from thousands of kilometers (miles) away and can fire missiles at targets at the push of a button. White House officials say there is nothing in international law that forbids the use of the drones and that, by killing dangerous insurgents, they are making Americans safer. That view has been challenged by authorities in Pakistan, who are angry because many of the strikes have happened on their soil, and by rights campaigners. Civil liberties groups argue that the strikes are illegal because they take place outside an active battlefield, meaning the rules of law which allow a combatant to kill their opponent do not apply. RADICALISATION The United States and security analysts say al-Libi was a veteran militant and leader of operations for al Qaeda, a group responsible for the September 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. cities as well as dozens of other acts of violence. His brother offered a more nuanced account, describing how al-Libi had gone from being a chemistry student in Libya to hiding out in the mountains of Pakistan's North Waziristan region. He said his brother, also known as Mohammed Hassan al-Qayed, had been radicalized by his treatment under Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader killed in an uprising last year. Gaddafi's security forces routinely arrested anyone who strayed from officially approved Islam. "We come from a great line of students of religion, we are a religious family and we all studied Islamist jurisprudence at school. I am an Islamic studies professor," al-Qayed, 57, told Reuters. "He was a very bright student and always had high marks and he wanted more out of his studies, so was forced to leave Libya... The last time we saw him was in 1990 when he left to study abroad because he was oppressed in Libya due to his beliefs." "The last time we spoke to him was in 2002, and since then we only know what's happening with him through the media," the brother said. "I never heard him speak of killing innocent people and don't believe he would ever condone it. He was a Muslim, and we don't kill people without reason." "My brother was attracted to his ideology because he was oppressed and we were all oppressed and saw great suffering from Gaddafi's regime." In what one analyst said was a retaliation for al-Libi's killing, a bomb exploded outside the offices of the U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya's eastern city of Benghazi early on Wednesday. There was only slight damage. Al-Qayed said he knew nothing about the attack in Benghazi. Asked if he expected any reaction inside Libya to his brother's killing, he said only: "I don't know, but the Muslim is the brother of the Muslim." He appealed to Pakistan's government and humanitarian agencies to find his brother's body and bring it back to Libya "so we may bury him here as a martyr."[/quote] Source: [url]http://au.news.yahoo.com/latest/a/-/article/13890214[/url]
They should have massaged him to death instead
[quote]"The way the Americans killed him is heinous and inhumane," he said, speaking from the town of Wadi Otba, south of the Libyan capital. "We are in the 21st century and they claim to be civilized and this is how they take out people."[/quote] Irony out the ass here.
How is it any different from one person killing another? It just adds a bit of distance, they still press the "kill" button as they would pull a trigger.
[QUOTE=SammySung;36226907]said Washington's use of the remote-controlled weapons is inhumane and makes a mockery of its claims to [b]champion human rights.[/b][/QUOTE] [QUOTE=SammySung;36226907]The brother of al Qaeda's second-in-command[/QUOTE] Huh.
Yes, because the way they kill us is so nice.
[QUOTE=Sir_takeslot;36226937]Irony out the ass here.[/QUOTE] Holy fuck, it feels like this is an Onion article because the irony is too fucking intense for me to handle. How is getting killed by a drone any less humane than getting killed by a human? You're still dead. Is it just because it doesn't give the target a chance to fight back? That's not inhumane, that's intelligence on the side of the attacker.
I agree with this man, the predator drones totally need more lasers.
Herp let me crash a plane into a building full of civilians, strap bombs on women and children, then complain about drones. Oh my god gonna go kill myself from the irony.
It's interesting how drones are changing warfare. People can fly combat duty in Afghanistan from an Air Force base in Arizona or Nevada, and still be home in time for dinner with the family. It's no wonder the PTSD and suicide rates are so high among drone operators. There's no aclimation, it's constant changes from one extreme to another. To think that you could kill somebody before going to pick your kid up from school; just imagine what must go through the minds of those operators.
Drones bombing people is inhumane but leaving IEDs fucking everywhere isn't? Double standards out the ass right here
[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;36227039]It's interesting how drones are changing warfare. People can fly combat duty in Afghanistan from an Air Force base in Arizona or Nevada, and still be home in time for dinner with the family. It's no wonder the PTSD and suicide rates are so high among drone operators. There's no aclimation, it's constant changes from one extreme to another. To think that you could kill somebody before going to pick your kid up from school; just imagine what must go through the minds of those operators.[/QUOTE] Ooh, I know, lets make it a video game. Only the participants don't realize it is more than a video game! No PTSD! ....wait...this sounds familiar...
[QUOTE=Occlusion;36226955]How is it any different from one person killing another? It just adds a bit of distance, they still press the "kill" button as they would pull a trigger.[/QUOTE] a more accurate comparison would be a gunman walking into a shopping mall because he spotted somebody who kinda looked like the guy he's looking for, and immediately opened fire on the crowd in hopes of killing someone who might be a suspect. and then he went to the funeral of everyone that died that day and shot the funerals up as well in an attempt to catch friends of the suspect who might be doing illegal stuff as well.
America is now terrorists, cycle is complete.
[QUOTE=Septimas;36226994]Herp let me crash a plane into a building full of civilians, strap bombs on women and children, then complain about drones. Oh my god gonna go kill myself from the irony.[/QUOTE] did the article say that the guy behind interviewed was a member of al qaeda? i might have missed in there but i'm pretty sure he's just the brother of someone who was in al qaeda.
[QUOTE=GunFox;36227158]Ooh, I know, lets make it a video game. Only the participants don't realize it is more than a video game! No PTSD! ....wait...this sounds familiar...[/QUOTE] Griefing would now become a war crime.
To be honest, I'd rather die being shot with a missile than tortured and beheaded in a cave.
Inhumane? Just because you can't capture the pilot and torture him for years doesn't make it inhumane. Is this guy complaining that his brother brought a knife to a robotic hunter-killer death machine fight?
'Inhumane' because it's a hell of a lot easier to push a button and wipe out a little ant-like figure running on a video screen than to point a gun at another human being and deliberately kill them. Drones have been seriously changing the way we wage war. In any case, just because the source is biased as all get out doesn't instantly invalidate his point. Besides, we're supposed to be [I]better[/I] than the terrorists, right? 'You do the same thing!' isn't a good defense.
Boo hoo, he was only asking for it by posting videos of him chanting "DEATH TO AMERICA!!" and even being affiliated with an extreme terrorist organization in the first place.
The irony of his statement is the [I]point[/I] of it. A Humvee hits an IED and it kills a bunch of soldiers, and we call them cowards and savages. Then we hit an informant with a Hellfire strike, and wipe out an apartment block, civilians and all- and that's noble and justified, while their method isn't? That's the point. We can't claim the moral high ground on our methods if we're producing collateral damage the same way they are, if we're doing the exact same thing. Look at the first quote: [quote]"The United States talks human rights and freedoms for all, but the method they used to kill him is savage,"[/quote] That's the point right there. It's not about the fact that we're using such techniques, it's that we're using such techniques while simultaneously claiming to be more moral and more just. He's not saying Al Qaeda isn't guilty, he's calling us hypocrites. Edit: Not that I'm I agree with Al-Qaeda, fuck 'em to hell, but it is a valid question to raise and it's one we as a nation need to discuss and come to terms with. The use of drones is changing the nature of modern conflicts and when we're replacing precision raids conducted by boots on the ground with long-range missile strikes with serious potential for collateral damage, we start to have problems with our image as 'good guys'.
[QUOTE=GunFox;36227158]Ooh, I know, lets make it a video game. Only the participants don't realize it is more than a video game! No PTSD! ....wait...this sounds familiar...[/QUOTE] "War as a video game - what better way to raise the ultimate soldier?" Solid Snake called this shit
Holy fuck we shoot a missile at them and we're inhumane while one of their most iconic methods of fighting is the rpg
I am willing to bet if they had access to drone technology they wouldn't call it inhumane.
[QUOTE=JohnnyMo1;36227775]"War as a video game - what better way to raise the ultimate soldier?" Solid Snake called this shit[/QUOTE] Damnit, why are our new supersoldiers commandeering tanks and driving straight at the enemy so often?
They should cut off their heads and put the video on the internet like civilized people instead.
cant spell freedom and democracy without drones
[QUOTE=catbarf;36227692]The irony of his statement is the [I]point[/I] of it. A Humvee hits an IED and it kills a bunch of soldiers, and we call them cowards and savages. Then we hit an informant with a Hellfire strike, and wipe out an apartment block, civilians and all- and that's noble and justified, while their method isn't? That's the point. We can't claim the moral high ground on our methods if we're producing collateral damage the same way they are, if we're doing the exact same thing. Look at the first quote: That's the point right there. It's not about the fact that we're using such techniques, it's that we're using such techniques while simultaneously claiming to be more moral and more just. He's not saying Al Qaeda isn't guilty, he's calling us hypocrites. Edit: Not that I'm I agree with Al-Qaeda, fuck 'em to hell, but it is a valid question to raise and it's one we as a nation need to discuss and come to terms with. The use of drones is changing the nature of modern conflicts and when we're replacing precision raids conducted by boots on the ground with long-range missile strikes with serious potential for collateral damage, we start to have problems with our image as 'good guys'.[/QUOTE] They started it.
[QUOTE=GunFox;36227158]Ooh, I know, lets make it a video game. Only the participants don't realize it is more than a video game! No PTSD! ....wait...this sounds familiar...[/QUOTE] Ender's Game?
[QUOTE=Occlusion;36226955]How is it any different from one person killing another? It just adds a bit of distance, they still press the "kill" button as they would pull a trigger.[/QUOTE] They are similar but drones do not allow both parties to have an equal opportunity to defend themselves.
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