{"id":17371,"date":"2014-12-31T11:01:00","date_gmt":"2014-12-31T11:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reprieve.org\/uk\/?p=17371"},"modified":"2021-02-16T08:47:42","modified_gmt":"2021-02-16T08:47:42","slug":"you-never-die-twice-multiple-kills-in-the-us-drone-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reprieve.org\/uk\/2014\/12\/31\/you-never-die-twice-multiple-kills-in-the-us-drone-program\/","title":{"rendered":"You Never Die Twice: Multiple Kills in the US Drone Program"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Each of us only lives once. It sometimes appears, however, that the covert US Kill List allows a man to die twice. Public reports suggest some men on the Kill List have \u2018died\u2019 as many as seven times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Kill List is a covert US programme that selects individual targets for assassination. The list is personally approved by President Obama and requires no public presentation of evidence or judicial oversight. Targets often die in covert drone strikes in foreign countries and are never notified of what they are accused to have done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Information on the Kill List and drone strikes is limited to media reporting and anonymous leaks by US, Pakistani and Yemeni officials. Nevertheless, by sifting this information, we found 41 names of men who seemed to have achieved the impossible: to have \u2018died,\u2019 in public reporting, not just once, not just twice, but again and again. Reports indicate that each assassination target \u2018died\u2019 on average more than three times before their actual death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This raises a stark question. With each failed attempt to assassinate a man on the Kill List, who filled the body bag in his place? In fact, it is more accurate to say \u2018body bags\u2019: many other lives are sacrificed in the effort to erase a name from the Kill List. In one case, it took seven drone strikes before the US killed its target. In those strikes, as many as 164 people died, including 11 children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In total, as many as 1,147 people may have been killed during attempts to kill 41 men, accounting for a quarter of all possible drone strike casualties in Pakistan and Yemen. In Yemen, strikes against just 17 targets accounted for almost half of all confirmed civilian casualties. Yet evidence suggests that at least four of these 17 men are still alive. Similarly, in Pakistan, 221 people, including 103 children, have been killed in attempts to kill four men, three of whom are still alive and a fourth of whom died from natural causes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One individual, Fahd al Quso, was reported killed in both Yemen and Pakistan. In four attempts to kill al Quso, 48 people potentially lost their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other key findings include:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n