Marjorie Cohn on Death from Above: Drones

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Air date: 
Tue, 03/31/2015 - 9:00am to 10:00am
Marjorie Cohn on Death from Above: Drones

Marjorie Cohn is a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego. She is the former president of the National Lawyers Guild. She is the author of many books and she is the editor of Drones and Targeted Killing. Cohn is a recipient of the Peace Scholar of the Year Award from the Peace and Justice Studies Association.

2015 marks the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta, which established the founding principle of modern law: presumption of innocence. Today that principle is largely a casualty of the so-called war on terrorism. Trials, evidence, juries. Who needs them when we have an Oval Office assassination program carried out by drones? These pilotless aircraft have become the weapon of choice for Washington. They are efficient machines killing not only their intended targets but also whoever happens to be nearby. Collateral damage in Pentagon-speak. Malala Yousafzai, the courageous Pakistani teenager who was honored with the Nobel Prize, told Obama when she met him that the drone strikes in her country were "fueling terrorism. Innocent victims are killed in these acts, and they lead to resentment among the Pakistani people." The official White House statement released after the meeting did not mention her comment.

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