Ian Bunn | Political & Popular Culture Arts

Noah Shachtman the American contributing editor at Wired magazine, and the editor of its national security blog, “Danger Room,”  who before turning to journalism, Shachtman worked as a professional bass player, book editor, and campaign staffer on Bill Clinton’s first presidential campaign, has published an article titled ‘Is This the Secret U.S. Drone Base in Saudi Arabia?’. Shachtman states “…satellite images show a remote airstrip deep in the desert of Saudi Arabia …the base’s hangars bear a remarkable resemblance to similar structures found on other American drone outposts. And its remote location — dozens of miles from the nearest highway, and farther still to the nearest town – suggests that this may be more than the average civilian airstrip. …the U.S. built its secret Saudi base approximately two years ago. Its first lethal mission was in September of 2011: a strike on Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born propagandist for al-Qaida’s affiliate in Yemen, which borders Saudi Arabia. Since then, the U.S. has launched dozens of drone attacks on Yemeni targets. News organizations eventually found out about the base. But they agreed to keep it out of their pages — part of an informal arrangement with the Obama administration, which claimed that the disclosure of the base’s location, even in a general way, might jeopardize national security. …The drone base’s exposure is part of a series of revelations about the American target killing campaign that have accompanied John Brennan’s nomination to be the director of the CIA. Brennan currently oversees targeted killing operations from his perch as White House counterterrorism adviser, and would be responsible for executing many of the remotely piloted missions as CIA chief. …In their hours of questioning Brennan, however, the Senators didn’t once ask the CIA nominee about the secret Saudi drone base.”

Inspired by Noah Shachtman, Wired ow.ly/i0Vtx Image source LinkedIn ow.ly/i0VY8

Many killed by drones don't appear terrorists (April 30th 2012)

Michael Hastings the 32 year old USA journalist and contributing editor at Rolling Stone magazine renowned for his profile story of General Stanley McChrystal the then commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, has published an article titled ‘The Rise of the Killer Drones: How America Goes to War in Secret, an inside look at how killing by remote control has changed the way we fight” In the article Hastings states, “Drones offer the government an advanced and precise technology in its War on Terror – yet many of those killed by drones don’t appear to be terrorists at all. In fact, according to a detailed study of drone victims compiled by the Bureau for Investigative Journalism, at least 174 of those executed by drones were under the age of 18 – in other words, children. Estimates by human rights groups that include adults who were likely civilians put the toll of innocent victims at more than 800. U.S. officials hotly dismiss such figures – “bullshit,” one senior administration official told me. Brennan, one of Obama’s top counterterrorism advisers, absurdly insisted last June that there hadn’t been “a single civilian” killed by drones in the previous year.”

Inspired by Rolling Stone http://ow.ly/avkUM image source ctv http://ow.ly/avlO8