Obama Administration May Be Guilty Of War Crimes

By: DSWright Wednesday November 6, 2013 12:15 pm

The Obama Administration’s assassination program, including its use of drones, has already proved controversial around the world. But now questions are being raised as to whether the program violates the laws of war and international human rights law. Outside of Afghanistan, or a “defined conflict zone”, the use of lethal force is subject to international laws protecting human rights. Laws the Obama Administration may have violated in Yemen and Pakistan where they have killed people using drones.

If the United Statesis only involved in an armed conflict in Afghanistan, international human rights law would be the regime that regulates the use of lethal force in Pakistan and Yemen. Therefore, as noted by Amnesty International, the use of lethal force outside of Afghanistan is legal when it can be demonstrated that:
“[It was] only used when strictly unavoidable to protect life, no less harmful means such as capture or non-lethal incapacitation was possible, and the use of force was proportionate in the prevailing circumstances.”

That is a pretty tough standard to meet when the Obama Administration is engaging in “signature strikes” or essentially killing people based on profiling people in a given area.
It is, in essence, killing by algorithm.

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