Will Miller Green Mountain Veterans For Peace

Members of a Vermont veterans’ peace group spent part of Tuesday urging state’s congressional delegation to support legislation banning the use of armed drones by the military and the CIA.

 

“These drone strikes are war crimes by definition, by international treaties and by our own laws going back to World War I and II,” said one of group’s attendees, Gregory Epler-Wood of Burlington, a retired Air Force staff sergeant.

Drones are remote-controlled unmanned aircraft capable of scoping out activities of suspected terrorist operations and, when armed, bombing them. Drone proponents claim the drone attacks are “surgically precise” and save lives of American soldiers.

 

The veterans’ peace group, however, points to recent studies showing that drone strikes have as many as 4,731 people in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia in recent years.

 

“One in five of the casualties of drone attacks have been innocent civilians,” Epler-Wood said. “The blow-back we are seeing against the United States is in great part due to that.”

 

He said the group received expressions of support during their visits to the delegations’ offices. John Tracy, himself a veteran and now the director of Leahy’s Burlington office, said he had “productive session” with the group.

David Carle, Leahy’s chief spokesman, said later Tuesday that Leahy has pushed the Justice Department to produce documents justifying the Obama administration’s use of drones against U.S. persons abroad.

 

“He is concerned about the legal justification for drone strikes,” Carle said. “He has been deeply concerned by reports of civilian casualties from drone strikes, and also about the reported practice of ‘signature strikes’ that target categories of persons, rather than specific individuals.”

 

Sanders’s aide Daniel McLean said Sanders is sympathetic to the group’s concerns. McLean pointed to a letter Sanders uses when responding to inquiries on the drone issue that said a debate on the subject is needed.

“While I believe we must aggressively pursue international terrorists who would do us harm, we must do it in a way that protects the constitution and the civil liberties which make us proud to be Americans,” the letter said in part.

Welch, who said he conducted a conference call with members of the veterans’ group last month, said Tuesday he had “grave reservations” about the use of armed drones by the Central Intelligence Agency, or CIA.

 

“One question I have is whether the CIA is becoming a para-military organization,” Welch said in an interview. “My view is it shouldn’t.” He said the CIA’s original mission was to gather intelligence, and becoming involved in combat operations goes far beyond that.

 

Welch said armed drones ought to be considered a weapon in the American arsenal to be used only in war zones, not in countries like Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan that are not at war with the U.S.

 

As part of their presentation, the veterans’ group gave copies of a petition signed by 637 Vermonters from 98 communities supporting a ban on armed drones.