November 25, 2013 at 6:32 P.M. Harassments and obstacles at my home computer make writing difficult. I expect continuing attempts to prevent me from writing further about these matters. If more than two days pass without alteration at these blogs, it means that I am prevented from writing against my will. ("How censorship works in America.")
"The Deaths of Innocents: Two human rights groups cite evidence of dozens of civilians killed by U.S. drone strikes," (Editorial) The New York Times, October 24, 2013, p. A26. (My essay below refers to this editorial, exclusively, despite the nine other related items that will be listed, eventually, to accompany this text.)
Alison Smale, "Amid New Storm in U.S.-Europe Relationship, A Call For Talks On Spying," The New York Times, October 26, 2013, p. A4.
"N.S.A. Spying and the Damage Done: Trust Among Allies is Also a National Security Interest," (Editorial) The New York Times, October 26, 2013, p. A20.
Johnny Cochrane, "N.S.A. Spying Scandal Hurts Close Ties Between Australia and Indochina," The New York Times, November 20, 2013, p. A11.
James Glagg, "U.S. Can Spy on Britons Despite Pact, Memo Says," The New York Times, November 21, 2013, p. A20.
Charlie Savage, "Warrantless Surveillance Continues to Cause Furor," The New York Times, November 21, 2013, p. A20.
In each of the foregoing items pertaining to spying on friends there have been allegations of U.S. disdain for the personal rights to autonomy of Europeans and others, including Americans. At any time, New Jersey officials or persons acting on their behalf may alter the size or spacing of letters in this text in violation of my personal right to expression and copyright in my essays.
Robert F. Worth & Scott Shane, "Questions on Drone Strike Find Only Silence," The New York Times, November 23, 2013, p. A1. (Stone-walling, cover-ups, lies -- OAE?)
James Risen & Laura Poitras, "N.S.A. Report Outlined Goals For MORE Power," The New York Times, November 23, 2013, p. A1. (N.S.A. requires more ability to act outside the boundaries of law.)
Katherine Q. Seelye & Jess Bidgood, "Prison For a State Chemist Who Faked Drug Evidence: Officials Trace Far Reaching [sic.] Consequences of Fraud," The New York Times, November 23, 2013, p. A9. (Was N.J.'s Supreme Court deceived or defrauded by so-called hypnosis experts -- like Terry Tuchin and Diana Lisa Riccioli -- with regards to forensics? How many lives have been destroyed by such "experts"? Each day that the cover-ups continue is a renewal of the tortures for many victims.)
"Surveillance Goes On Trial: An ACLU Lawsuit Finally Exposes the N.S.A.'s Data Sweep to Opposing Arguments," (Editorial) The New York Times, November 23, 2013, p. A22. (Have N.S.A. experts exaggerated or lied about the benefits of unlimited surveillance?)
Supplemental Articles:
Mark Landler, "Pakistani Premier Meets Obama to Mend Ties: Request is Made to Halt U.S. Drone Strikes," The New York Times, October 24, 2013, p. A10. (Pakistan will close U.S. supply routes again.)
Declan Walsh, "Drone Issue Hovers More Than Ever, Even as Strikes Ebb," The New York Times, October 25, 2013, p. A8. (The U.S. claim that strikes had been reduced or would diminish was a lie.)
Alison Smale, "Indignation Over U.S. Spying Spreads Over Europe," The New York Times, October 25, 2013, p. A10. (Hatred of spying and shock at the brazen "disregard for international law and PERSONAL RIGHTS" revealed by Snowden's leaks is exploding in Europe.)
"In separate reports released on Tuesday, Amnesty International examined in detail nine suspected drone strikes in Pakistan. Human Rights Watch looked at six suspected strikes in Yemen. The groups reached a similar conclusion -- that dozens of civilians have been killed and that the United States may have violated international law and committed war crimes." (emphasis added!)
At the center of the continuing controversy surrounding the use of drones in Pakistan and Yemen as well as other "unspecified locations" with additional "unspecified victims" (C.I.A. jargon) is the concept of a person. I am sure that N.J. will classify me as an "unspecified victim." ("New Jersey's 'Ethical' Legal System" and "John McGill, Esq., the OAE, and New Jersey Corruption.")
If we argue that all human beings are "persons" -- even if some humans happen to be Muslims, regardless of whether they wear turbans and other (to us) strange clothing and speak bizarre languages -- then, as persons, all human beings (equally) must enjoy identical fundamental rights at law and in morality. ("Decline in Humanities and Humanity?")
Disdain for the humanity of innocent persons because those persons are different from us in their culture or beliefs is the crime of the 9/11 terrorists who reduced the occupants of the World Trade Center to "symbols" that might be destroyed to illustrate the terrorists' political arguments or protests.
Persons are not the "instruments" of others. The victims of the Boston bombers were treated by their killers as "objects" or "instruments," whose lives were sacrificed to make a political point by the bombers.
America's disdain for INNOCENT victims of drone bombings reduces all of us to the level of terrorists as far as the victims and many persons in the world are concerned. ("America's Drone Murders.")
It is never O.K. to kill or maim innocent persons, to destroy their lives, in order to advance a policy goal or strategic objective of the nation, not even in war time. Furthermore, it is crucial to remember that the U.S. is not at war with Pakistan or Afghanistan's government and people. No war against abstract nouns (like "terror") makes sense.
Calling a murdered or disfigured seven year-old child a "militant" -- after mistakenly using a multimillion dollar weapon against her and her grandmother -- makes the offense worse because it is absurd, even as the crime is denied, publicly, by our government's spokespersons, usually attorneys, lying about what they know to have occurred. ("Herbert Klitzner, Esq.'s Greed and New Jersey's Hypocrisy" and "Have you no shame, Mr. Rabner?")
Much the same is true if a school or monastery is targeted for a drone strike because of "bad intelligence" -- possibly supplied by the "enemy"! -- when political damage is only enhanced.
Similarly, New Jersey's errors in targeting me are only worsened by continuing lies and cover-ups by Mr. Rabner, the New Jersey Supreme Court, and Office of Attorney Ethics (OAE) -- especially when lies that are posted on-line are absurd since they are unsupported by facts and/or evidence. ("Ken Zisa Still Stealing by Fraud.")
Incidentally, Mr. Tuchin, I will not "cooperate" by behaving as you may wish me to behave in a bookstore or anywhere else. How many Palestinians or African-Americans have been "questioned" under hypnosis or in a drugged state by Terry Tuchin? How many have been assaulted and raped? How many have been stolen from? ("An Open Letter to My Torturers in New Jersey, Terry Tuchin and Diana Lisa Riccioli" and "Terry Tuchin, Diana Lisa Riccioli, and New Jersey's Agency of Torture.")
"Amnesty International's report, based on Pakistani and other sources, says there have been 374 strikes since 2004, including four incidents it investigated in which 30 civilians were killed. ... [emphasis added]"
Each of these lives matters -- legally and morally -- as much as the lives of Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Obama. To the same extent that we respect the rights of Mr. Boehner, we must respect the rights of young Nabila in Pakistan.
Token or meaningless hearings before a handful of Congress persons granting witnesses and victims all of twenty minutes to tell their stories is inadequate, or an insult to these people's pains and losses. This is especially true when the same members of Congress state, privately, that they "don't care about Pakistani lives."
Mere gestures will not be sufficient for the international community when the U.S. expresses concerns, at some future point, about terrorism by a regime America comes to dislike.
What is needed is not the "appearance" of concern for drone victims, but the reality of such concern and immediate action to prevent further loss of innocent lives:
"The Human Rights Watch report on Yemen, which examined one attack in 2009 and five in 2012-13, determined that 82 people, at least 57 of them civilians, were killed in those episodes. All except one involved drone strikes; the other involved a cruise missile."
If we decide to ignore the special ontological status of persons that affords them human rights -- rights which trump considerations of convenience or utility in civilized legal systems, including our own (theoretically) and the system of international law, then we may expect others (whom we will call "terrorists") to adopt the same attitudes to Israelis and Americans, like me, reducing us to disposable items in a political game. The killing will go on forever:
" ... a 68 year-old grandmother was gathering vegetables in a field, her grandchildren nearby, when she was 'blasted into pieces' by a drone strike that appeared aimed directly at her. Three months earlier, 18 male laborers, including a 14 year-old boy, were killed in a series of drone strikes on the remote village of Zowi Sidgi."
Fear of drone attacks haunts the daily lives of persons living in remote villages far removed from Al Qaeda or the Taliban, as concern for computer crime accompanies my writing efforts, every day, creating a "permanent state of terror" for unfortunate and traumatized children in Pakistan, Yemen, Afghanistan and other countries.
Is this how we will defeat terrorism, Mr. Obama? Or is this how we become terrorists?
