Monday, May 31, 2010

A professor and writer finds ways for peacebuilding

Christian Science Monitor

A professor and writer finds ways for peacebuilding

http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Religion/2010/0526/A-professor-and-writer-finds-ways-for-peacebuilding

Conflict negotiator and writer John Paul Lederach has spent decades seeking new paths to peacebuilding.

Temp Headline Image
University of Notre Dame professor John Paul Lederach is widely known for his pioneering work in conflict resolution and peacebuilding.
(Jim Z. Rider/Special to the Christian Science Monitor)

By Josh Allen, Contributor
posted May 26, 2010 at 10:32 am EDT

When John Paul Lederach was a student looking for a college that offered peace studies, he found only a handful of programs in the United States. That was more than 30 years ago.

Today, almost 100 US graduate schools and dozens of undergraduate colleges offer degrees or certificates in conflict resolution and peace studies. And Dr. Lederach's writings now are a frequent part of the study of peacemaking.

Some of Lederach's ideas draw on his views as a Mennonite Christian and an academic, first at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Va., and since 2001 as professor of international peacebuilding at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.

Yet much of his perspective is based on his experiences as a mediator and trainer of peace workers in more than 25 countries, places of conflict where Lederach has tried to help people resolve their differences without violence – despite decades of unrest, injustice, or war.

He has pursued his career – peace building – with unchanging inspiration. "[This work] is the only thing I've ever done," he says.

He works with people "who have taken extraordinary risks and have suffered the consequences of violent situations," he says. But they also have kept their hope that they can defeat "violence in a nonviolent way," he says.

Lederach's first peace-building experience came in Nicaragua in the 1980s, when he helped mediate between the Sandinista government and a local movement on the country's east coast.

Since then, he's worked both with villagers caught in local rebellions and high-level government officials.

In the 1990s he served as a consultant to churches and peace groups in the Philippines as the country struggled with communist and Islamic insurgency and indigenous violence. In 2003, the Carter Center, a nonprofit foundation founded by former President Jimmy Carter, invited him to Venezuela to speak to groups seeking to maintain peace in the wake of a coup attempt on the government of President Hugo Chávez.

When Lederach himself isn't on hand to resolve a conflict, his influential writings often are there to represent him, sometimes at historic moments.

In Kenya in Jan­uary 2008, George Wachira, a senior adviser of the Nairobi Peace Initiative – Africa, was working with former military leaders as violence raged in the wake of controversial national elections. Mr. Wachira had partnered with Lederach throughout Africa in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Wachira's group involved the news media in calls for peace and consulted with Kofi Annan, the former United Nations secretary-general, who finally brokered a power-sharing deal between President Mwai Kib­aki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

"John Paul's ideas are about providing space and connecting, recognizing opportunities, all guided by a broad, yet clear, picture of where you want things to go," Wachira says. "These elements were directly present in our work during the postelection crisis in Kenya."

In February, Lederach visited Colombia as part of an effort to help reintegrate former paramilitary groups, who had used violence to traumatize the population, back into society.

In Colombia, "Many ... people have lost family members or experienced massacres," Lederach says. The challenge is, "How do we tell the truth about this violence when some may want to move quickly past that?"

In March he traveled to Nepal to address conflicts in a country staggered by poverty and political instability after a 10-year civil war.

The possible long-term consequences of violence must be conveyed to people on all sides of a dispute despite differences in language, faith, ethnicity, or politics. "Because of his rich practical experience in many conflict settings and peace-building processes, John Paul is firmly rooted in both practice and theory," Wachira says. "His ability to commute seamlessly between these two worlds serves him well."

Lederach grew up in Oregon and earned a PhD in sociology at the University of Colorado. He founded the conflict transformation program at Eastern Mennonite before moving to Notre Dame. He has written dozens of books and scholarly articles on ending conflicts, including the recent "When Blood and Bones Cry Out: Journeys Through the Soundscape of Healing and Reconciliation" (University of Queensland Press), with his daughter, Angela.

"He is a very modest guy, but I've encountered Lederach's writings in academic programs in Central America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East," says Brian Polkinghorn, executive director of the Center for Conflict Resolution at Salisbury (Md.) University. "Works ... that he wrote 15 years ago or more continue to inspire and educate students and practitioners of peace today."

Why humans fight is a complex topic and no one definition of peacemaking has emerged.

One thing Lederach has noticed is that societies often expect concrete results – a treaty signed or brutality forgiven – far sooner than is practical. "Quite often, the view of what can be accomplished is on far too short a time frame, by my view," Lederach says. Conflicts that have been going on a decade or a generation may take decades to resolve, he says.

In 2003, he began working in Nepal with the McConnell Foundation of Redding, Calif., as that country struggled toward democracy following violence between Maoist groups and a government organized as a monarchy.

Lederach has developed his emphasis on long-term resolutions in places with deep historical disputes, such as Somalia, Northern Ireland, and the Basque region of Spain.

"John Paul examines any given conflict through a lens that allows us to ask: How do we address the torn or absent relationships caused by this conflict? If you ignore the human cost and suffering caused by cycles of deadly violence, they will continue to recur," says Scott Appleby, director of the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at Notre Dame.

Lederach concedes that some groups are skeptical that nonviolent means will satisfy them. And victims can be frustrated if their former attackers are not held accountable for their acts. Rebel groups often believe that the only path to legitimacy is armed violence.

"You can be criticized on one side as being too lenient with armed groups, and you can be criticized by armed groups of having too much of an idealistic viewpoint," Lederach says.

"I say it may be idealistic, but peace is the most significant thing that we as a human community have to find a way to create."

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Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218.  Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net

 

"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs

 

Protest at Israeli Embassy in D.C./UN calls for full inquiry after Israel Navy commandos storm international aid boat

CodePink, WIAMEP, DCMetroBDS, ANSWER and others are asking all who can to assemble at the Israeli Embassy, 3514 International Drive NW (VAN NESS METRO STOP) at 3 PM on May 31 before moving to the White House at 5 PM.  On board the flotilla were Ambassador Edward Peck from Chevy Chase, Huwaida from D.C., Col. Ann Wright, and Hedy Epstein, a Holocaust survivor). There is a communication blackout. Call 202-422-6275.

Each Tuesday, from 5:30 to 6:30 PM, at 4806 York Road in Baltimore, we hold an antiwar vigil.  Feel free to bring signs on June 1, which condemn the Israeli massacre of members of the flotilla.

--

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/un-security-council-to-hold-emergency-session-over-gaza-flotilla-deaths-1.293299

 

·                                          

  • Published 14:52 31.05.10
  • UN Security Council to hold emergency session over Gaza flotilla deaths

UN calls for full inquiry after Israel Navy commandos storm international aid boat; European Union condemns incident; White House 'deeply regrets' loss of life on Gaza flotilla.

By News Agencies and Haaretz Service Tags: Gaza flotilla Israel news

 The United Nations Security Council will meet on Monday afternoon for an emergency session to discuss Israel's storming of a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, Security Council diplomats told Reuters

Diplomats said the meeting would start at 1 P.M., New York time but they gave no further details.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for a full investigation and expressed shock at Israel's storming of the flotilla.

"It is vital that there is a full investigation to determine exactly how this bloodshed took place. I believe Israel must urgently provide a full explanation," he said at a press conference in the Ugandan capital of Kampala.

The White House on Monday said it "deeply regretted" the loss of life and injuries sustained in the clashes after Israel Navy troops stormed a convoy of international activists bringing aid to the Gaza Strip, leaving at least 10 people dead.

"The United States deeply regrets the loss of life and injuries sustained, and is currently working to understand the circumstances surrounding this tragedy," said White House spokesman William Burton.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled his imminent trip to Washington, where he had been invited to meet with President Barack Obama, in the wake of the incident.

France became the first European nation to respond to the early morning's events. Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said he was "profoundly shocked".

Many of the activists aboard the protest ships were European nationals and analysts have predicted a harsh diplomatic response from the European Union and its member states.

The European Union demanded an inquiry and Germany said it was "shocked". The United Nations condemned violence against civilians in international waters.

Germany, one of Israel's most loyal allies, expressed shock at the deadly interception and questioned whether the action by Israeli commandos was proportionate.

Two members of the Bundestag lower house of parliament were among five Germans on board the ships, the foreign ministry said.

"The German government is shocked by events in the international waters by Gaza," government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm told a regular news conference, adding the government was seeking further clarification about the incident.

"Every German government supports unconditionally Israel's right to self defense," said Wilhelm. But he added that Israeli actions should to correspond to what he described as the "basic principle" of proportionality.

"A first look does not speak in favor of this basic principle being adhered to," he said. Berlin would await further details before judging the incident, he added.

Italy also condemned the killing of civilians during Israel's storming of the aid flotilla as "very grave" and asked for an EU investigation to ascertain the facts.

"I deplore in the strongest terms the killing of civilians. This is certainly a grave act," said Foreign Minister Franco Frattini.

Referring to the European Commission, he said it was "indispensable that there be an inquest to ascertain the facts, which are still not clear."

He also said he had asked the Israeli ambassador for clarification and hoped that it would not hurt efforts on the part of Israel and Turkey to cooperate in the search for Middle East peace.

More on this topic

·                                 Israeli commandos: Gaza flotilla crew tried to lynch us

·                                 Turkey recalls envoy to Israel in response to Gaza flotilla deaths

Haaretz.com, the online edition of Haaretz Newspaper in Israel, and analysis from Israel and the Middle East.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Activists in Chicago Push Against Rahm Emanuel

Activists in Chicago Push Against Rahm Emanuel

Thursday 27 May 2010

by: Micah Uetricht, t r u t h o u t | Report

http://www.truthout.org/activists-chicago59895

 

photo
(Photo: Micah Uetricht)

Activists in Chicago are some of the nation's fiercest agitators for immigration reform, as more than two dozen were arrested at a civil disobedience at the entrance to a detention facility in the city's downtown area Tuesday, the second such action in a month.

But another Chicagoan is reportedly standing squarely in their path - one they will have to either win over or overwhelm if a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants is to be won this year.

Rahm Emanuel, President Obama's chief of staff and former Illinois representative, was reported this week to be holding the White House back from tackling immigration reform, an issue he once called the "third rail of American politics."

Emanuel is a well-known political pragmatist. He has skirted immigration in the past to avoid its potential fallout, and does not want to pick a potentially explosive and politically damaging fight on immigration that is unwinnable and will cost votes.

But many activists demand a plan for reform now, and are unconcerned with legalization's potentially negative consequences for Democrats' midterm prospects. They say deportations are tearing their communities apart, and they can't wait until after re-elections. A favorite Spanish chant at the rallies is "Legalizacion o no re-eleccion"; even Rep. Luis Gutierrez - a high-ranking member of the Democratic Party - said in a CNN interview last month that if Democrats take Latino votes for granted, Latinos will abandon the Democratic Party.

At a march to a detention center in downtown Chicago yesterday, many chants and speeches targeted Obama.

Not all Chicago reform activists bad-mouthed the party of their city's former representative. Members of the Service Employees International Union held signs calling for Republicans to stop stalling reform, and SEIU International Executive Vice President Eliseo Medina warned that if the party of the right remained recalcitrant, they would not receive a single vote for any office - "not governor, not mayor, not even dogcatcher."

But others at the rally seemed most angered by Emanuel and the Democrats.

"I don't know how these politicians can sleep at night," said Rachel Heuman of the Illinois Coalition for Immigration and Refugee Rights.

"The destruction of families [through deportations] is inhuman. It's completely immoral to play politics with people's lives, and it makes me infinitely angry."

As she spoke, Heuman was interrupted by a Department of Homeland Security officer: she was one of 30 to sit down and block the doors to a detention facility where immigrants facing deportation are sent in the city's South Loop, and was soon arrested.

Heuman's anger is echoed by the immigrant rights movement around the country, as proponents of legalization have been reinvigorated by the passage of Arizona's strict anti-immigrant bill SB1070. News of arrests in protest of the bill and in favor of reform is almost daily - recent sites of civil disobediences include:

·                                 New York City

·                                 Los Angeles

·                                 Washington,  DC

·                                 Chicago (an action less than a month earlier)

Arizona continues to see civil disobediences (including nine students chaining themselves to the capital building, four undocumented students sitting in at Sen. John McCain's (R-Arizona) office and an ongoing  boycott that has already cost the state millions of dollars.

The pressure for immigration reform is strong, and national rage seems ready to boil over. Emanuel and Obama's White House don't want to upset too many midterm swing voters and lose crucial seats in Congress. But as anger among the immigrant rights movement reaches a boiling point and activists are promising to withhold votes for Democrats, inaction on immigration reform could see Emanuel heading back to Chicago with the president by 2012.

Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218.  Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net

 

"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs

 

Get out in the streets/Documents Show Early Worries About Safety of Rig

Friends,

 

I frequently speak to college students, and my basic message is to do something against the injustice that overwhelms us and get out in the streets and protest.  I add that it is not unusual for something remarkable to happen when you take it to the streets.

 

On May 29, we had our second demonstration by a BP Station at 33rd & Greenmount Avenue in Baltimore.  As at the first demo, everyone supported us.  This includes police officers, members of the Fire Department and an ambulance crew.  The manager of the Station came out to offer bottled water to the demonstrators on an extremely hot day.  Later a BP executive came out to give us a press release and a document about the tragedy of the oil spill.  He did indicate he thought the latest fix would work.  According to today’s New York Times, it didn’t.

 

Then two students came over as we were closing the demo.  Their environmental youth group is planning demonstrations at every BP Station in Baltimore, all ten, on June 9.  So we agreed to work together protesting this environmental disaster.  And our group plans to intend to return for the third BP demo on June 12.  If we were not in the streets, this connection would never have happened.  Oh, happy days.

 

Kagiso,

 

Max

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/us/30rig.html?ref=us

 

The New York Times

May 29, 2010

Documents Show Early Worries About Safety of Rig

By IAN URBINA

WASHINGTON — Internal documents from BP show that there were serious problems and safety concerns with the Deepwater Horizon rig far earlier than those the company described to Congress last week.

The problems involved the well casing and the blowout preventer, which are considered critical pieces in the chain of events that led to the disaster on the rig.

The documents show that in March, after several weeks of problems on the rig, BP was struggling with a loss of “well control.” And as far back as 11 months ago, it was concerned about the well casing and the blowout preventer.

On June 22, for example, BP engineers expressed concerns that the metal casing the company wanted to use might collapse under high pressure.

“This would certainly be a worst-case scenario,” Mark E. Hafle, a senior drilling engineer at BP, warned in an internal report. “However, I have seen it happen so know it can occur.”

The company went ahead with the casing, but only after getting special permission from BP colleagues because it violated the company’s safety policies and design standards. The internal reports do not explain why the company allowed for an exception. BP documents released last week to The Times revealed that company officials knew the casing was the riskier of two options.

Though his report indicates that the company was aware of certain risks and that it made the exception, Mr. Hafle, testifying before a panel on Friday in Louisiana about the cause of the rig disaster, rejected the notion that the company had taken risks.

“Nobody believed there was going to be a safety issue,” Mr. Hafle told a six-member panel of Coast Guard and Minerals Management Service officials.

“All the risks had been addressed, all the concerns had been addressed, and we had a model that suggested if executed properly we would have a successful job,” he said.

Mr. Hafle, asked for comment by a reporter after his testimony Friday about the internal report, declined to answer questions.

BP’s concerns about the casing did not go away after Mr. Hafle’s 2009 report.

In April of this year, BP engineers concluded that the casing was “unlikely to be a successful cement job,” according to a document, referring to how the casing would be sealed to prevent gases from escaping up the well.

The document also says that the plan for casing the well is “unable to fulfill M.M.S. regulations,” referring to the Minerals Management Service.

A second version of the same document says “It is possible to obtain a successful cement job” and “It is possible to fulfill M.M.S. regulations.”

Andrew Gowers, a BP spokesman, said the second document was produced after further testing had been done.

On Tuesday Congress released a memorandum with preliminary findings from BP’s internal investigation, which indicated that there were warning signs immediately before the explosion on April 20, including equipment readings suggesting that gas was bubbling into the well, a potential sign of an impending blowout.

A parade of witnesses at hearings last week told about bad decisions and cut corners in the days and hours before the explosion of the rig, but BP’s internal documents provide a clearer picture of when company and federal officials saw problems emerging.

In addition to focusing on the casing, investigators are also focusing on the blowout preventer, a fail-safe device that was supposed to slice through a drill pipe in a last-ditch effort to close off the well when the disaster struck. The blowout preventer did not work, which is one of the reasons oil has continued to spill into the gulf, though the reason it failed remains unclear.

Federal drilling records and well reports obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and BP’s internal documents, including more than 50,000 pages of company e-mail messages, inspection reports, engineering studies and other company records obtained by The Times from Congressional investigators, shed new light on the extent and timing of problems with the blowout preventer and the casing long before the explosion.

Kendra Barkoff, a spokeswoman for the Interior Department, declined to answer questions about the casings, the blowout preventer and regulators’ oversight of the rig because those matters are part of a continuing investigation.

The documents show that in March, after problems on the rig that included drilling mud falling into the formation, sudden gas releases known as “kicks” and a pipe falling into the well, BP officials informed federal regulators that they were struggling with a loss of “well control.”

On at least three occasions, BP records indicate, the blowout preventer was leaking fluid, which the manufacturer of the device has said limits its ability to operate properly.

“The most important thing at a time like this is to stop everything and get the operation under control,” said Greg McCormack, director of the Petroleum Extension Service at the University of Texas, Austin, offering his assessment about the documents.

He added that he was surprised that regulators and company officials did not commence a review of whether drilling should continue after the well was brought under control.

After informing regulators of their struggles, company officials asked for permission to delay their federally mandated test of the blowout preventer, which is supposed to occur every two weeks, until the problems were resolved, BP documents say.

At first, the minerals agency declined.

“Sorry, we cannot grant a departure on the B.O.P. test further than when you get the well under control,” wrote Frank Patton, a minerals agency official. But BP officials pressed harder, citing “major concerns” about doing the test the next day. And by 10:58 p.m., David Trocquet, another M.M.S. official, acquiesced.

“After further consideration,” Mr. Trocquet wrote, “an extension is approved to delay the B.O.P. test until the lower cement plug is set.”

When the blowout preventer was eventually tested again, it was tested at a lower pressure — 6,500 pounds per square inch — than the 10,000-pounds-per-square-inch tests used on the device before the delay. It tested at this lower pressure until the explosion.

A review of Minerals Management Service’s data of all B.O.P. tests done in deep water in the Gulf of Mexico for five years shows B.O.P. tests rarely dropped so sharply, and, in general, either continued at the same threshold or were done at increasing levels.

The manufacturer of the blowout preventer, Cameron, declined to say what the appropriate testing pressure was for the device.

In an e-mail message, Mr. Gowers of BP wrote that until their investigation was complete, it was premature to answer questions about the casings or the blowout preventer.

Even though the documents asking regulators about testing the blowout preventer are from BP, Mr. Gowers said that any questions regarding the device should be directed to Transocean, which owns the rig and, he said, was responsible for maintenance and testing of the device. Transocean officials declined to comment.

Bob Sherrill, an expert on blowout preventers and the owner of Blackwater Subsea, an engineering consulting firm, said the conditions on the rig in February and March and the language used by the operator referring to a loss of well control “sounds like they were facing a blowout scenario.”

Mr. Sherrill said federal regulators made the right call in delaying the blowout test, because doing a test before the well is stable risks gas kicks. But once the well was stable, he added, it would have made sense for regulators to investigate the problems further.

In April, the month the rig exploded, workers encountered obstructions in the well. Most of the problems were conveyed to federal regulators, according to federal records. Many of the incidents required that BP get a permit for a new tactic for dealing with the problem.

One of the final indications of such problems was an April 15 request for a permit to revise its plan to deal with a blockage, according to federal documents obtained from Congress by the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental advocacy group.

In the documents, company officials apologized to federal regulators for not having mentioned the type of casing they were using earlier, adding that they had “inadvertently” failed to include it. In the permit request, they did not disclose BP’s own internal concerns about the design of the casing.

Less than 10 minutes after the request was submitted, federal regulators approved the permit.

Robbie Brown contributed reporting from Kenner, La., and Andy Lehren from New York.

Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company

Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218.  Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net

 

"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs

 

Operators of Drones Are Faulted in Afghan Deaths

NEW YORK TIMES

May 29, 2010

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/world/asia/30drone.html?th&emc=th

 

Operators of Drones Are Faulted in Afghan Deaths

By DEXTER FILKINS

KABUL, Afghanistan — The American military on Saturday released a scathing report on the deaths of 23 Afghan civilians, saying that “inaccurate and unprofessional” reporting by Predator drone operators helped lead to an airstrike in February on a group of innocent men, women and children.

The report said that four American officers, including a brigade and battalion commander, had been reprimanded, and that two junior officers had also been disciplined. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who apologized to President Hamid Karzai after the attack, announced a series of training measures intended to reduce the chances of similar events.

The attack, in which three vehicles were destroyed, illustrated the extraordinary sensitivity to the inadvertent killing of noncombatants by NATO forces. Since taking command here last June, General McChrystal has made protection of civilians a high priority, and has sharply restricted airstrikes.

The overwhelming majority of civilian deaths in Afghanistan are caused by insurgents, but the growing intensity of the fighting this year has sent civilian casualties to their highest levels since 2001.

General McChrystal’s concern is that NATO forces, in their ninth year of operations in Afghanistan, are rapidly wearing out their welcome. Opinion polls here appear to reflect that.

“When we make a mistake, we must be forthright,” General McChrystal said in a statement. “And we must do everything in our power to correct that mistake.”

The civilian deaths highlighted the hazards in relying on remotely piloted aircraft to track people suspected of being insurgents. In this case, as in many others where drones are employed by the military, the people steering and spotting the targets sat at a console in Creech Air Force Base in Nevada.

The attack occurred on the morning of Feb. 21, near the village of Shahidi Hassas in Oruzgan Province, a Taliban-dominated area in southern Afghanistan. An American Special Operations team was tracking a group of insurgents when a pickup truck and two sport utility vehicles began heading their way.

The Predator operators reported seeing only military-age men in the truck, the report said. The ground commander concurred, the report said, and the Special Operations team asked for an airstrike. An OH-58D Kiowa helicopter fired Hellfire missiles and rockets, destroying the vehicles and killing 23 civilians. Twelve others were wounded.

The report, signed by Maj. Gen. Timothy P. McHale, found that the Predator operators in Nevada and “poorly functioning command posts” in the area failed to provide the ground commander with evidence that there were civilians in the trucks. Because of that, General McHale wrote, the commander wrongly believed that the vehicles, then seven miles away, contained insurgents who were moving to reinforce the fighters he and his men were tracking.

“The strike occurred because the ground force commander lacked a clear understanding of who was in the vehicles, the location, direction of travel, and the likely course of action of the vehicles,” General McHale wrote.

The “tragic loss of life,” General McHale found, was compounded by the failure of the ground commander and others to report in a timely manner that they might have killed civilians.

Predator drones and similar aircraft carry powerful cameras that beam real-time images to their operators, and some are armed with missiles, as well. The C.I.A. operates its own drone operation, mostly focused on Pakistan and separate from the military’s.

In this case, the military Predator operators in Nevada tracked the convoy for three and a half hours, but failed to notice any of the women who were riding along, the report said.

According to military officials in Washington and Afghanistan, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters on the case, intelligence analysts who were monitoring the drone’s video feed sent computer messages twice, warning the drone operators and ground command posts that children were visible.

The report said that drone operators reported that the convoy contained only military-age men. “Information that the convoy was anything other than an attacking force was ignored or downplayed by the Predator crew,” General McHale wrote.

Immediately after the initial attack, the Kiowa helicopter’s crew spotted brightly colored clothing at the scene, and, suspecting that civilians might have been in the trucks, stopped firing.

After the attack, the Special Operations team turned over the bodies to local Afghans. Even so, General McHale said, officers on the ground failed to report the possibility of civilian casualties in a timely way.

On receiving the results of the investigation, General McChrystal recommended a battery of additional training exercises for military personnel coming to Afghanistan, and additional training for those already here.

In addition to reprimanding the four officers and admonishing the other two, General McChrystal asked Air Force commanders to open an investigation into the Predator operators.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/world/asia/30drone.html?th&emc=th

 

Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218.  Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net

 

"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs