Foreign Policy: A Human Rights Watch (HRW) report estimates that one of the deadliest drone strikes occurred in December 2013. According to the report, there were 15 injured and 12 killed during a wedding procession in Yemen. Allegedly, the wedding hosted guests who were members of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). Conveniently, the US has denied the attack and continued to push rhetoric that drone strikes are calculated and not harmful to civilians. Human rights groups estimate that some (if not all) of those that were killed were civilians. If these reports are determined to be truthful, they would contradict President Obama's May 2013 speech on drones. His public address about them described the process of evaluation drone worthy situations. He stated that a strike would not be launched without "near certainty" that there would be no collateral damage. A spokesman from the Pentagon refused to comment on the recent strike specifically. Despite some discussion of the drone strategy from President Obama and Secretary Kerry, much more needs to be done to address the continuing human rights violations of this strategy.
Emily Goodfellow
PSC #222
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