In his report to the UN Human Rights Council, Alston called on American leaders to stop using the CIA for conducting drones attacks in Pakistan and Yemen because the spy agency is not publicly accountable for its decisions, unlike the U.S. Air Force, for example.

 

The first reported CIA drone killing was that of al-Qaeda leader Qaed Senyan al-Harithi, who was hit while traveling in a car in Yemen on November 3, 2002.

 

According to the report, “The CIA reportedly controls its fleet of drones from its headquarters in Langley, Virginia, in coordination with pilots near hidden airfields in Afghanistan and Pakistan who handle takeoffs and landings. The CIA’s fleet is reportedly flown by civilians, including both intelligence officers and private contractors (often retired military personnel).”

 

Alston fears the U.S. reliance on unmanned aircraft to perform military strikes in non-war zones will encourage other countries to follow along, creating greater worldwide conflict. More than 40 nations now have drones that are capable of surveillance and reconnaissance, including the dictatorships of China and Iran.

 

Alston released a statement that said: “the rules being set today are going to govern the conduct of many States tomorrow. I’m particularly concerned that the United States seems oblivious to this fact when it asserts an ever-expanding entitlement for itself to target individuals across the globe. But this strongly asserted but ill-defined licence to kill without accountability is not an entitlement which the United States or other States can have without doing grave damage to the rules designed to protect the right to life and prevent extrajudicial executions.”

-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky

 

U.N. Report Highly Critical of U.S. Drone Attacks (by Charlie Savage, New York Times)

Report of the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions (by Philip Alston, UN Human Rights Council) (pdf)