‘How Do You Surrender to a Drone?’ Jeremy Scahill Rips Obama on Drone Strikes
Journalist and documentarian Jeremy Scahill sat down with Jake Tapper on Monday to take on the Obama administration on drone strikes after reports that the White House is debating whether to take out an American citizen and al-Qaeda member with a drone, a particularly sore subject after the big droneibuster of 2013 and the controversy over the 2011 killing of American citizen and al-Qaeda member Anwar al-Awlaki.
Scahill argued that in order for such measures to be taken, “the threat should be imminent,” and in many cases the burden of proof has not been there. He asked, “How serious are these threats that we’re facing and is it more that we’re going after people because of their propaganda value or the potential threat they pose to the United States than actual?”
He argued that “how a nation treats its own citizens is a good indicator of how it treats other people,” and when you get down to it, “how do you surrender to a drone?”
Scahill also talked about his piece with Glenn Greenwald about the NSA’s involvement in drone strikes, explaining that cell phone metadata is being used to pinpoint people’s locations to launch drone strikes, but the problem is they’re targeting the phone and not the people.
Watch the video below, via CNN:
[photo via screengrab]
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