Being read in Europe.
Columbia Law School, Human Rights Clinic
October 2012
Read full report (PDF 36 Pages)
Phi Beta Iota: At a unit cost of $36.8 million (but with a total program cost of $11.8 billion), one has to question the true cost and practical return on investment of this program, never mind the cultural, ideological, political, and social costs. Assuming a $10 billion total cost (actually must more across different programs and supporting agencies), with 1,000 “valid” targets (never mind collateral damage or the probability that fewer than a 100 were worthy of bullet but not a Hellfire), that comes to $10 million cost per individual human target. While significantly better than the $50 million cost per individual Taliban body, the disconnect between means, ways, and ends is provocative of reflection.
See Also:
Berto Jongman: Variations on a Theme – CIA Drones and Suicide Bombs
Chuck Spinney: Drones — Of Idiots, By Idiots, For Idiots + Meta-RECAP
Chuck Spinney: Myth of Precision-Guided Coercion
Chuck Spinney: Real Cost vs Real Value of Drones? + RECAP
CIA Further Out of Control–New Persian “Base”
David Isenberg: NSA Ubber Alles, Drones in the Toilet
David Swanson: Lies and Consequences Across 15 Wars
DefDog: CIA Decides Who to Blow Up – Without Having Any Idea Who They Are…
DefDog: Drones Kill US Forces – Once Again, BAD IDEA
DefDog: Iran Hijacks US Drone Shows Film + RECAP
DefDog: Living Under Drones – Outcomes in Pakistan
DefDog: Mystery Drone in Pakistan–And No HUMINT
Defense Science Board to DoD: Get Brain + RECAP
Dolphin: Their Drones, Our Drones, and EMP Rays
Drones Everywhere, Some Tiny, None Smart
Event: 28-29 Apr Washington DC International Drone Summit: Killing and Spying by Remote Control
G.I. Wilson: Killer Drones, Moral Disengagement, + War Crimes RECAP
John Robb: Automation of Censorship and Extra-Judicial Assassination
John Robb: Drone Diplomacy – Comply or Die + Meta RECAP
John Robb: Micro Drones Threaten US Citizens at Home
John Robb: Worms, Drones, SuperBugs, & Plagues – The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Josh Kilbourn: Pakistan Condemns 245 US Drone Attacks
Journal: AF BODY COUNT–$50 Million Per Body
Journal: Dumbest Weapons Money Can Buy…
Journal: Legality of US Drones as Killing Machines . . .
Journal: The Legal And Moral Issues Of Drone Use
Marcus Aurelius: CIA Counter-Terror Drone Boss – Cognitive Dissonance in Spades + RECAP
Marcus Aurelius: Obama, CIA, Murder by Drone…
Mini-Me: Assassination – Made in America – At What Cost? Impeachable Treason.
Mini-Me: Assassination Nation – How Others See the USA….
Mini-Me: End of the Delusional UAV Era
NIGHTWATCH: Everyone Has Drones Now — And Drone Counter-Measures
Owl: 63 Drone Launch Sites Across the USA
Pakistan Demarche to CIA, Envoy Leaves Early
Patrick Meier: Drones for Non-Violent Resistance
Paul Craig Roberts: Washington Leads World Into Lawlessness
Reference: Gorgon Stare–USAF Goes Nuts (Again)
Steven Aftergood: Secret Systems Cluttering the Electromagnetic Spectrum
The Year of the Drone: Map & Analysis of U.S. Drone Strikes in Pakistan, 2004-2010
USAF–From Gorgon Stare to Micro-Drone Puff
USA Spectrum Out of Control & Self-Destructing
Winslow Wheeler: Common Defense Quarterly Article on Drones
Winslow Wheeler: Drones Dead on Arrival
