A predator drone. (photo: Veronique de Viguerie/Getty Images)
Family
of Italian Killed in Drone Strike Gets More Than $1 Million From US
By Cora Currier, The
Intercept
17 September 16
The
United States paid over a million euros to the the family of Giovanni Lo
Porto, an Italian aid worker killed in a U.S. drone strike in January of last
year, according to newly released documents.
The
37-year-old Lo Porto died when CIA drones struck an
Al Qaeda compound where he was being held hostage along with Warren Weinstein,
an American humanitarian worker. In a rare admission of responsibility,
President Barack Obama acknowledged the strike and promised compensation for
the families.
The
Intercept first reported that the
family had reached a settlement with the U.S. government in July. Italian
government documents obtained by La
Repubblica show that Lo Porto’s mother and father accepted 1.185
million euros (about $1.3 million) as a “donation in the memory” of their son.
The document, in which the U.S. government was represented by a diplomat
with the embassy in Rome, confirms that Lo Porto died in
Pakistan, but includes no admission of wrong-doing by the United States.
The
document also states that the agreement does not imply “a waiver of
sovereign or personal immunity.” Lawyers for the Lo Porto family had pressed
the Italian state prosecutor to consider a criminal case against the United
States, while acknowledging that the chances of such a case going forward were
slim. They also asked for more information from U.S. agencies about
the strike and its aftermath. There is reportedly a CIA Inspector General
investigation into the incident; in July, the White House would not comment on
the status of the inquiry. It is not known if the Weinstein family has
also settled with the government.
The
U.S. has in a few instances reportedly paid hundreds
of thousands of dollars to the families of civilians killed in attacks in
Yemen, but has not publicly acknowledged doing so. Many human rights advocacy
groups see a double-standard in
the silence of the U.S. government on the cases of non-Westerners who have
died.
Earlier
this summer, the Obama administration released its own tally of
casualties from counterterrorism operations (the estimate of 64 to 116
civilians killed over 7 years is in sharp disagreement with outside estimates,
some of which put the civilian death toll as high as 1,000.) The release was
accompanied by an executive order requiring U.S. forces to take measures
to avoid civilian casualties, investigate instances of civilian harm, and
to acknowledge and provide compensation for any civilian victims.
In
light of the new order, Amnesty International has asked the CIA to
respond to the death of Mamana Bibi, an elderly Pakistani woman killed in 2012.
So far, they have received no answer, according to Naureen Shah, director
of Amnesty International’s Security with Human Rights program.
In
July, a White House spokesperson told The Intercept that they
“will not address specific operations.”
C 2015 Reader Supported News
Donations can be sent
to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD
21218. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"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
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