The long version:
Date:
Dear Senator/Representative,
As
members of local peace and justice organizations opposed to the continuation of
the Bush administration’s failed wars, we are writing to condemn the Obama
Administration's use of unmanned aerial vehicles or “drones”, to kill citizens
in at least seven countries, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya,
Pakistan, the Philippines, Somalia and Yemen. The use of drones
is wrong on many levels: the illegality and immorality of assassinations,
the violation of international law and the Constitutional protection of due
process, the targeting killing of civilian populations, and the violation of national
sovereignty. Equally wrong and quite disturbing are killings by U.S.
drones of at least 3 U.S. citizens, including a 16 year old boy born in Denver,
Colorado, all in violation of their right to due process. We are
especially troubled by the Obama Administration's refusal to release, even to
Congress, the documents which purportedly give the U.S. legal cover to
determine who is placed on the "kill list." A recent House Resolution, HR
819, sought to make these documents public.
The
use of killer drones does and will continue to create more enmity toward the
United States. Because of the lack of transparency, it remains unclear
how many civilians have suffered losses of life, limb or property as a result
of strikes. A recent Columbia University study gives strong evidence to
support high rates of civilian casualties. Another recent and important
study by Stanford and New York Universities revealed in detail how communities
living under drone warfare in Pakistan are being "terrorized" by the
daily presence of these drones in their skies. High rates of
psychological trauma, suicide, and PTSD are just a few of the symptoms, as well
as the serious disruption of their entire social structure. We are
providing copies of these studies to your staff, and hope that you will take
the time to read them. Sadly, Obama has drastically increased the use of
drone strikes compared to former President Bush, leading to rampant anti-U.S.
sentiment throughout these areas of conflict.
Furthermore,
we are also concerned that U.S. drones are used to eliminate political
opponents of corrupt leaders. This happened in 2010 in Yemen, when a
state governor who opposed President Ali Abdullah Saleh was labeled as a leader
of Al Qaeda and killed.
We
believe that Congress should uphold its responsibilities in providing the
checks and balances needed to protect us from an executive branch that has run
amok, acting in total disregard to International and Constitutional law.
This would have a profound effect around the world, and could initiate a
process of healing. As citizens, we do not see the people
of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, the Philippines, Somalia
and Yemen as enemies. They are our brothers and sisters. Instead of
wasting billions of dollars on immoral drone strikes, take the money from the
program and give it to non-governmental organizations working on providing jobs
and income to people so that they do not join militant groups. There would be tremendous support for such a
program in these war-torn countries.
The illegal
U.S. occupations and proliferating drone wars have been demonstrable
failures. Now is the time to take a bold step for peace.
Imagine becoming a country which has denounced the madness of war, and
instead wants to assist and make friendship with the people of the Middle
East, Central Asia, and the entire world.
We are
asking you to do the following:
-
Sponsor a bi-partisan bill calling for an immediate moratorium on all targeted
killing by drones, with the ultimate goal of an in-depth Congressional
investigation into the ineffectiveness and illegality of U.S. drone warfare.
-Work
diligently to get your Congressional peers to support the above bill, and establish
Congressional oversight over the illegal practices committed by the Obama
Administration, the CIA and the Pentagon, as is your obligation by the U.S.
Constitution.
-Sponsor
a bi-partisan bill to address some of the most egregious practices of U.S.
drone warfare, calling for an immediate ban on:
a.) All extra-judicial killings of U.S. citizens
by U.S. drones or by any other means, without due process. Stop the assassination of our own citizens.
b.) The practice of “Double-tapping”, or
“secondary strikes”, by U.S. drones, which is clearly a war crime under
international law, and has led to the killing of rescuers and medical relief workers,
and has discouraged witnesses from providing aid to those injured in drone
strikes.
c.) The practice of “signature strikes”, or
killing of unknown individuals purely based on “suspicious behavior”, without
any knowledge of their identity, which leads to very high rates of civilian
deaths.
d.) The Obama Administration’s policy of calling
all military-age males “militants” and therefore subject to being drone
targets, which also leads to very high civilian death rates.
We
would like a response to these requests in the next 30 days, for we feel the
lives and well-being of every person that is potentially threatened by these
drone attacks requires our and your urgent action. Should you agree to
endorse a foreign policy with the goal of peace and justice, we will stand with
you. Rejecting our requests will make you complicit in the immoral and lawless actions
of the Obama Administration. We will then continue to protest, risk
arrest and denounce a foreign policy of endless wars and illegal assassinations
and hold Congress complicit with these policies.
We
also request a meeting with you in the next month to discuss our proposal to
immediately end killer drone strikes and to start a process of healing with the
victims of U.S. wars. Please give serious consideration to our proposal
of reconciliation and diplomacy rather than be complicit in the continued use
of pernicious killer drones. We urge you to provide the necessary checks
and balances against the executive branch, a responsibility required under the
Constitution, which you have sworn an oath to uphold.
The short version:
Date:
Dear Senator/Representative:
Last month, 20 of our
precious and innocent children were killed in a barrage of bullets from weapons
carried by someone unknown to them. Our country still reels from the numbing
news. We mourn for them, for their families, and for our country.
In Yemen and in Pakistan,
countries with which we are not at war, at least 178
precious and innocent children have been killed by U.S. drone strikes launched
by someone unknown to them. As a people, why do we not respond with equal
revulsion and sympathy?
Are the children of foreign
lands any less precious? And is the government that is responsible for their
deaths any less guilty of murder than the Newtown gunman?
You hold in your hands, by
the power of your office, the capacity to stop the carnage. In the name of
decency, and in memory of the innocent children the world over killed by our
drones, I ask you to co-sponsor HR 819, directing the U.S. Attorney General to
transmit to the House any and all legal documents and memoranda relating to the
use of drones by the U.S. government.
I will look to you, as my
elected representative, to sign on to HR 819 before the end of this month. Your
failure to do so will announce to the world your complicity in the murder by
assault weapons of children no less precious than our own.
Most
sincerely,
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