Drones are increasingly gaining coverage in the media, in the UK and internationally. We collate most coverage of APPG work and commentary. The APPG cannot confirm and is not responsible for the content of individual articles.
“Here’s their actual stories, make of them what you will.” Dr Peter Lee on ‘Britain’s Reaper Force’
On 4th October, a ground-breaking book on the UK’s use of armed drones will be published by John Blake Ltd. ‘Reaper Force: The Inside Story of Britain’s Drone Wars’ is the result of conversations that have taken place over several years between Dr Peter Lee of Portsmouth University and RAF Reaper crews and their partners at Creech…
Soldiers get lessons in morality of drone killings
The British Army is training ethicists to teach soldiers about the morality of killing with drones.Chaplains have been sent on postgraduate philosophy courses so that they can guide officers on ethical issues thrown up by deployments thousands of miles away from the battlefield. The Rev David Coulte
C.I.A. Drone Mission, Curtailed by Obama, Is Expanded in Africa Under Trump
DIRKOU, Niger - The C.I.A. is poised to conduct secret drone strikes against Qaeda and Islamic State insurgents from a newly expanded air base deep in the Sahara, making aggressive use of powers that were scaled back during the Obama administration and restored by President Trump.
How the UAE’s Chinese-Made Drone Is Changing the War in Yemen
On Monday evening, video began circulating online of a black-and-white drone feed monitoring a two-car convoy driving north along Road 45, east of Hodeidah, Yemen. In the video, the drone’s target - a blue Toyota Land Cruiser - turns onto a side street. Seconds later, it is struck by a Chinese-made Blue Arrow 7 missile.
How Theresa May will tell MPs that military action has been taken in Syria
Theresa May is set to inform MPs about military action against the Assad regime, in the same way David Cameron did after a UK drone killed British jihadis in Syria three years ago.
Trump asks ‘why did you wait?’ after CIA delayed drone strikes to prevent civilian deaths
President Donald Trump’s pronouncement that he would be pulling troops out of Syria “very soon” has laid bare a major source of tension between the president and his generals. Mr Trump has made winning on the battlefields of Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan a central tenet of his foreign policy and tough guy identity.
Somalis Harmed by Suspected Drone Strikes Demand Accountability
This article is the latest in a new series we are producing in partnership Columbia Law School’s Human Rights Institute that features the voices of experts and advocates from countries affected by U.S. national security policies. Earlier pieces in this series are here.
U.S. Strikes Qaeda Target in Southern Libya, Expanding Shadow War There
In a statement, the military’s Africa Command said the strike had targeted militants with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, an affiliate also known as AQIM, and had been carried out in coordination with the United Nations-backed unity government in Tripoli. “At this time, we assess no civilians were killed in this strike,” the statement said.
Exclusive: Trump to boost exports of lethal drones to more U.S….
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump will soon make it easier to export some types of lethal U.S.-made drones to potentially dozens more allies and partners, according to people familiar with the plan.
How to Fix the US Military’s Broken Targeting System
The recent groundbreaking investigation by the New York Times into civilian casualties in Iraq uncovered a shocking truth for the many Americans who believe the United States is engaged in the “cleanest” and “most precise” war of all time: the U.S.’s targeting system in Iraq is broken and, as a result, U.S.
US counter terror air strikes double in Trump’s first year
“We should keep a close eye on the increase in strike volume, as it does suggest a more aggressive approach, but it’s not yet clear to me that it represents a truly gloves off approach,” said Luke Hartig, a former counterterrorism advisor in the Obama administration and now a fellow at the New America Foundation, a US thinktank.
Gavin Williamson’s Isis comments ‘put soldiers at risk’
Gavin Williamson’s suggestion that British Islamic State fighters should be killed before they can return to the UK could put soldiers at risk, a Labour MP and Afghanistan veteran has claimed.
Kill British Isis fighters, says the defence secretary. It’s not that simple | Shashank Joshi
Defence secretary Gavin Williamson has been widely ridiculed for his hawkish remarks on British jihadists, but both the minister and some of his critics are guilty of oversimplifying a complex legal and political issue to score cheap points. Williamson set out a one-dimensional counter-terrorism policy, with crude body counts at the core.
US counter terror air strikes double in Trump’s first year
“We should keep a close eye on the increase in strike volume, as it does suggest a more aggressive approach, but it’s not yet clear to me that it represents a truly gloves off approach,” said Luke Hartig, a former counterterrorism advisor in the Obama administration and now a fellow at the New America Foundation, a US thinktank.
Sally Jones’ son ‘collateral damage’
The young son of the British jihadist Sally Jones was considered as part of the “collateral damage equation” when the CIA carried out a targeted drone strike on the so-called White Widow, sources said last night.
‘Trump’s secret Yemen war’: UK role in US counter-terrorism causes unease
Donald Trump has more than doubled the number of covert US airstrikes in Yemen compared with the final year of Barack Obama’s presidency, new estimates show. The rise, combined with Trump’s rollback of Obama-era safeguards, has sparked renewed concern from MPs and human rights groups over the UK’s role in US counter-terrorism operations, in Yemen and other countries with which Britain is not at war.
Global Group of Civil Society Organizations Raise Concerns about U.S.-led Drone Export Initiative
On Tuesday, 19 civil society organizations from around the world issued a joint statement with their concerns about a U.S.-led initiative that seeks to set out international standards on the export and subsequent use of armed and strike-enabled drones. In October 2016, the U.S.
This time Britain must resist colluding in US drone terror | Clive Lewis
I know what it’s like to feel the fear of battle. To be constantly looking over my shoulder and thinking every sound might be a bomb or a bullet. When I served in Afghanistan in 2009 I felt that fear, but I made a choice to serve in the army and I knew I could come home to safety at the end of my tour.
‘Killing jihadist fathers is hard’: RAF drone pilots reveal stress of taking out targets
They sit in metal shipping containers in Lincolnshire, watching their targets in Syria and Iraq go about their daily lives - before killing them. RAF drone pilots have lifted the lid on the exhaustion and mental stress of their job, fighting a remote war thousands of miles away.
MPs call on Theresa May to release ‘kill list’ for UK drone strikes
Ministers ‘must tell public’ about drone strikes on ISIS Britons
UK Government Sets the Stage for Wider Drone Strikes
RAF urged to recruit video game players to operate Reaper drones
Civilian death toll from Isis air strikes ‘is set to reach 1,000 within days’
Britain’s Covert War in Yemen: A VICE News Investigation | VICE News
Tory MP casts doubt on justification for drone strikes on Britons in Syria
RAF base may be legitimate target for Isis, says ex-Nato commander
MPs and peers to investigate British military personnel joining other forces
MPs call for guidance on prosecuting UK spies over US drone strikes
Government to release secret details about the use of drones over UK
RAF remote drone pilots facing real-world combat stress
Britain at serious risk from terrorist drone attacks, experts fear
Call to open RAF Croughton for investigation Guardian 18 June 2014
Watch out for that drone Political Intelligence 21 May 2014
Hasan Dindjer takes a look at the Parliamentary Legal Advice Lawfare 2 February 2014
Government body calls for Reaper transparency, Shepherd Media, 16 September 2013
It’s time to come clean about Voldemorts over Pakistan, Rob Crilly, Daily Telegraph, 15 April 2013
Drones to help police at G8 summit, Belfast Telegraph, 11 April 2013
Drone attacks ‘traumatising a generation of children’, Channel 4 News, 5 March 2013
Revealed: who can fly drones in UK airspace, Nick Hopkins, The Guardian, 25 January 2013
Role of British military drones comes under spotlight, Aurora News, 15 December 2012
MPs to probe UK drone policy, Defence Management, 20 November 2012
MPs to question use of drones amid concerns over their ethics, The Week, 20 November 2012
UK parliament launches group to focus on drones, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, 18 October 2012
