Killing probes the frontiers of
robotics and legality
'War on terror' tag allows US to attack anywhere, lawyer
argues
Brian Whitaker in Cairo and Oliver Burkeman in New York
Wednesday November 6, 2002
The Guardian
The following is an excerpt:
" In Washington officials admitted that the CIA had carried out the
operation.
The Swedish foreign minister, Anna Lindh, told the Swedish
news agency TT: "If the USA is behind this with Yemen's
consent, it is nevertheless a summary execution that violates
human rights. If the USA has conducted the attack without
Yemen's permission it is even worse. Then it is a question of
unauthorised use of force."
Walid al-Saqqaf, editor of the Yemen Times, said: "The Yemeni
government is now in a very weak position. It means they no
longer have sovereignty over the country."
While defence experts said the incident could herald a new era
of robotic warfare, international lawyers debated the legal
implications of the surprising turn in US strategy: killing specific
individuals in countries where there is no war. "
"To have a drone that engages and kills people, that is quite a
threshold to cross," Clifford Beal, editor of Jane's Defence
Weekly, told Reuters.
guardian.co.uk |
