Blog Posts By Duane Shank

A high rate of burnout among drone pilots is leading to concerns in the U.S. Air Force over how they are selected. NBC News reports:  Pilots may be thousands of miles away from the flying weapons system they're operating. They often head home at the end of the day, as if returning from any other office job, maybe picking up milk on the way. But while at work, their drones' onboard cameras put them in a unique position to watch people being killed and injured as a direct result of their actions.As psychologists learn more about the mental scarring warfare leaves on drone pilots — caused by long shift hours, isolation, witnessing casualties and those Jekyll-and-Hyde days split between battlefield and home — experts from within the U.S. Air Force are calling for a review of drone pilot selection.Read more here.

Quote of the day. "We have created new idols. The worship of the golden calf of old has found a new and heartless image in the cult of money and the dictatorship of an economy which is faceless and lacking any truly humane goal."Pope Francis in a speech yesterday on the economic and financial crisis. (Full text of the speech here.) (Guardian)

Quote of the day. "I know kids look up to me, but I don''t want to be known as just a baseball player. God gave me the opportunity and blessed me to accomplish good things in this sport. But if you don''t do something with it and help people with blessings you received, what does that really mean?” Carlos Beltran, St. Louis Cardinals'' All-Star right fielder, on why he spends time off working with underprivileged kids and visiting young cancer patients. (USA Today)

Quote of the day."Our research predicts that climate change will greatly reduce the diversity of even very common species found in most parts of the world. This loss of global-scale biodiversity would significantly impoverish the biosphere and the ecosystem services it provides." Dr. Rachel Warren, University of East Anglia's (UK) school of environmental science, on a study she led showing that common land animals could see dramatic losses this century because of climate change. (Guardian)

Quote of the day. ‘‘I can’t pretend it’s not difficult to be reviled and maligned. But any time you can reach across the divide and work with people that are not like you, that’s what God calls us to do.’’ Martha Mullen, on why she helped to arrange the burial of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev at a small Islamic cemetery in rural Virginia. (Boston Globe/AP) 1. IRS field office singled out groups that ‘criticize how the country is being run.’ At various points over the past two years, Internal Revenue Service officials singled out for scrutiny not only groups with “tea party” or “patriot” in their names but also nonprofit groups that criticized the government and sought to educate Americans about the U.S. Constitution. (Washington Post) 2. Immigration debate attracts wide swath of lobbyists. As senators begin debate on the so-called Gang of Eight’s proposal, which would provide a pathway to citizenship for an estimated 11 million people here illegally, hundreds of lobbyists representing tech companies, agriculture interests, and students, along with families living here illegally, have flanked Capitol Hill to ensure members of Congress address their needs. (McClatchy News) 3. Renewed drive to ease sequester. Sequestration was supposed to be a meat ax slashing large chunks of the federal budget, but Congress is poised to turn it into Swiss cheese. The shortlist for the next round of possible sequester saves includes cancer patients, medical researchers, hungry seniors, poor people, and pre-schoolers. (Politico) 4. Pediatricians take on gun lobby — carefully. To pediatricians, gun control is a public health issue, not a political one. But they're treading a fine line, and they know it. The American Academy of Pediatrics has begun a renewed push to try to get Congress to pass gun control measures, sending more than 100 pediatricians to Capitol Hill earlier this month. (NBC News) 5. President Obama stares down the second-term curse. The combination of clever and determined Republican resistance on nearly every front, bad luck, Obama’s overconfidence in his capacity to leverage a decisive reelection victory into legislative clout, and his own administration’s past mistakes have left the president feeling deeply frustrated, even angry — and eager to find a way to recapture the offensive. (Politico) 6. Benghazi depositions to examine Clinton's role. The Republican chairman of the House oversight panel is asking a veteran diplomat and a former chairman of the Joints Chief of Staff for sworn testimony about their investigation into the deaths of four Americans at a diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya. (Associated Press) 7. Nawaz Sharif 'ready to hit ground running' as he heads for Pakistan win. The full scale of Nawaz Sharif''s thumping victory in Pakistan's general election became clear on Sunday, making it far more likely the country's next prime minister will be able to govern without coalition deals and be free to push through what supporters see as a potentially revolutionary agenda. (Guardian) 8. Conflict shatters Timbuktu’s soul. Four months after French forces intervened in northern Mali to prevent jihadists from gaining more territory, the conflict is increasingly evoking similarities to the battlefields of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia. (Washington Post) 9. Afghans on U.S. bases losing jobs after years of devoted service. The 11-year Western military occupation of Afghanistan has been a boon for the Afghan workforce, providing thousands of jobs for interpreters, mechanics, cleaners, and drivers. But with bases being torn down and equipment shipped out as combat troops prepare to leave next year, many Afghan workers are no longer needed. (Chicago Tribune) 10. Muhammad Yunus appeals to west to help Bangladesh's garment industry. The Nobel laureate and social activist Muhammad Yunus has asked western consumers and businesses to help reform Bangladesh's booming but unregulated garment industry after the deaths of more than 1,000 people last month in the collapse of a factory in the capital, Dhaka. (Guardian)

Quote of the day. “The growth of this entire thing has been quite organic. People are upset that their wages are low and their working conditions are bad. The divide between rich and poor has gotten greater and people have decided that there has to be more equality.” Rev. Charles Williams Jr., a leader in the group organizing protests by fast-food workers in Detroit over low wages. (Washington Post) 1. Evangelicals on immigration reform. The evangelical "Pray for Reform: 92 Days of Prayer and Action to Pass Immigration Reform" campaign called on Congress in a press call on Wednesday to pass meaningful legislation in the next 92 days, throwing further support behind the current momentum in Congress to finally pass an immigration reform bill. (Christian Post) 2. GOP senators’ assault shows tough path for immigration measure. The difficult road ahead for comprehensive immigration reform became more evident Thursday as Republican critics mounted a sustained assault on the legislation, demanding that it include considerably greater border security measures before legalizing any undocumented immigrants. (Washington Post) 3. Gina McCarthy's nomination in doubt, angering Democrats. President Barack Obama’s nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency is in jeopardy after Republicans formed a united front Thursday to deny her a vote in committee. Democrats erupted in frustration at the GOP “obstructionism” and vowed to find a way to push Gina McCarthy’s nomination through the Environment and Public Works Committee, despite the last-minute Republican boycott of the vote. (Politico) 4. Census: Blacks voted at higher rates than whites in 2012. The report provided fresh evidence of how higher turnout rates among African Americans and a rapidly growing Hispanic population continue to reshape the electorate in presidential elections, with broad implications for the competition between the Republican and Democratic parties. (Washington Post) 5. Prosecutor to seek murder charges against accused Ohio kidnapper. An Ohio prosecutor vowed on Thursday to seek murder charges that could carry the death penalty against a former Cleveland school bus driver accused of kidnapping and raping three young women who endured a decade as captives in his house. (McClatchy News) 6. Bangladesh workers find survivor in factory rubble. A seamstress buried in the wreckage of a collapsed garment factory building for 17 days was rescued Friday, a miraculous moment set against a scene of unimaginable horror, where the death toll shot past 1,000. (Associated Press) 7. Cancer vaccines get a price cut in poor nations. The two companies that make vaccines against cervical cancer announced Thursday that they would cut their prices to the world’s poorest countries below $5 per dose, eventually making it possible for millions of girls to be protected against a major deadly cancer. (New York Times) 8. Turkey 'will support' Syria no-fly zone. In an interview with NBC News on Thursday, the Turkish prime minister said that President Bashar al-Assad's alleged use of chemical weapons against his opponents meant that the Syrian regime had already crossed U.S. President Barack Obama's so-called red line "a long time ago". (Al Jazeera) 9. Prospect of Iran’s election stirs little hope this time around. Iran’s 2009 presidential election was an exuberant and exciting spectacle that aroused a powerful surge of optimism in the populace but that ended with the trauma of a violent crackdown. This year’s vote, taking place under starkly different circumstances, promises to be far more subdued. (New York Times) 10. Secret deals plundering Africa. Africa loses twice as much money through tax avoidance, secret mining deals, and financial transfers as it gets from donors, Kofi Annan warns. (BBC)

Quote of the day. “In the clothing industry, everybody wears it every day, but we have no idea where it comes from. People are starting to slowly clue in to this notion of where products are made.” Michael Preysman, chief executive and founder of Everlane, an online boutique, which is adding to its website photographs of factories where that clothing is made and information about the production. (New York Times) 1. Senate begins debate on immigration bill. The Senate will begin a historic debate Thursday that could overhaul the nation’s immigration system. Senators will get their first crack at modifying or killing legislation proposed by a bipartisan group of eight colleagues. (McClatchy News) 2. NRA-Giffords fight heats up.  The National Rifle Association and new pro-gun control groups headed by former Rep. Gabby Giffords and Michael Bloomberg are in an arms race since a background check bill narrowly failed in the Senate last month — ramping up their fundraising, airing attack ads, and revving up their grassroots machines. (Politico) 3. Lawmaker wants military to promptly alert Congress about drone strikes. A leading House Republican said Wednesday that he wants to require the U.S. military to “promptly” inform Congress about every drone strike it conducts outside Afghanistan as well as other military operations to kill or capture suspected terrorists outside declared war zones. (Washington Post) 4. Nun, 83, and two other activists guilty of intent to injure national security. An 83-year-old Catholic nun and two of her fellow peace activists were found guilty Wednesday of intending to harm national security when they intruded in July onto the Y-12 National Security Complex, a nuclear-weapons production facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn. (Washington Post) 5. Foes suggest a tradeoff if pipeline is approved. President Obama’s first major environmental decision of his second term could be to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, profoundly disappointing environmental advocates who have made the project a symbolic test of the president’s seriousness on climate change. (New York Times) 6. In hearing on Benghazi attack, new facts are few but politics plentiful. A much anticipated congressional hearing Wednesday on the September 2012 attacks on U.S. diplomatic compounds in Benghazi, Libya, produced no major revelations but plenty of partisan fireworks as Republicans renewed charges that the Obama administration had covered up details of what took place while Democrats retorted that politics is driving the GOP-run investigation. (McClatchy News) 7. New diplomatic push to end civil war in Syria. As new reports of violence flowed from Syria, Secretary of State John Kerry telephoned leaders in Europe and the Middle East on Wednesday to lay the groundwork for a conference between rebels and the Syrian government, sponsored by the United States and Russia, that he hoped would begin within a month. (New York Times) 8. Afghan president ready to let U.S. have 9 bases. The U.S. wants to keep nine bases in Afghanistan after American combat troops withdraw in 2014 and the Afghan government will let them as long as it gets "security and economic guarantees," President Hamid Karzai said Thursday in his first public offer in talks about the future relationship between the two uneasy allies. (Associated Press) 9. Senate bill aims to toughen Iran sanctions. A bipartisan group of senators introduced legislation Wednesday that would sharply toughen U.S. economic sanctions on Iran despite administration calls for Congress to delay penalties that could disrupt diplomacy aimed at resolving the dispute over Iran's nuclear program. (Chicago Tribune/Los Angeles Times) 10. World Bank turns to hydropower to square development with climate change. The World Bank is making a major push to develop large-scale hydropower projects around the globe, something it had all but abandoned a decade ago but now sees as crucial to resolving the tension between economic development and the drive to tame carbon use. (Washington Post)

China is rapidly developing a fleet of drones, some of which are already patrolling its borders. The number of drones and their capabilities remains unknown, but other countries in the region are watching closely. The AP reports:China's move into large-scale drone deployment displays its military's growing sophistication and could challenge U.S. military dominance in the Asia-Pacific. It also could elevate the threat to neighbors with territorial disputes with Beijing, including Vietnam, Japan, India and the Philippines. China says its drones are capable of carrying bombs and missiles as well as conducting reconnaissance, potentially turning them into offensive weapons in a border conflict.China's increased use of drones also adds to concerns about the lack of internationally recognized standards for drone attacks. The United States has widely employed drones as a means of eliminating terror suspects in Pakistan and the Arabian Peninsula.Read more here.

Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, reviews a new book in Al Jazeera — Akbar Ahmed's The Thistle and the Drone: How America's War on Terror Became a Global War on Tribal Islam.In the Cold War, the US funded and supported any regime, dictatorship or democracy, that opposed communism. From US support for the cruel and brutal dictator in Cuba, Fulgencio Batista, to the Shah of Iran whose support by the US still haunts US-Iran relations, to the leader of Iraq whom the US first supported and then overthrew, Saddam Hussein, there was no virtue not sacrificed in the American quest to subvert and defeat communism. Today, that zeal - and the money and effort backing it - has morphed into US tactics to defeat terrorism.Under the Obama administration, the principal instrument of these tactics is the drone. Professor Ahmed's book provides a searing indictment of the use of that instrument.Read more here.

Quote of the day. “Sometimes, when what is officially the law is wrong, you try to get the law changed. But if you can’t, you break it.” Rev. Dr. Thomas W. Ogletree, a minister in the United Methodist Church and a retired dean of Yale Divinity School, who is facing a possible canonical trial for officiating at his son’s same-sex marriage. (New York Times)

 Quote of the day. “The future of Islam here in Mali rests on many things, and it is threatened. We need a stable government, a functioning democracy and an end to illiteracy so that people can actually read the Qu''ran for themselves. Our Islam needs to continue to be an Islam of tolerance or we will all be pushed towards violence." Shiekh Thiermo Thiam, head of the Sufi Tidjania sect in Mali, on the threat of extremist ideologies to a tradition of religious tolerance. (Guardian)

Quote of the day. “We’re helping poor people; before we were fighting rich people. It’s still the same equation. But it’s much more glass half full, optimistic, giving, and legal.” Goldi Guerra, 45, who camped at Zuccotti Park with Occupy Wall Street, and since Hurricane Sandy has spent nearly every day helping victims on Staten Island; a shift some activists see as a sellout of the core message of income inequality. (New York Times)

This weekend saw protests on both sides of the Atlantic against drone killings.In the U.S., more than 250 people marched on an Air National Guard Base at Hancock Field in Syracuse, N.Y. At the end of a funeral procession, 30 people were arrested at the gates of the base. According to the Syracuse Post-Standard:“Protesters pounded drums, chanted and carried mock coffins. A baby doll smeared with fake blood was suspended from a tall poll carried by one protestor. A sheriff’s deputy speaking through a bullhorn warned protesters laying on the driveway in front of the gate to get up off the ground or face arrest for disorderly conduct. After they refused, the protesters were handcuffed and escorted to a Sheriff’s Department van.”The protest was organized by the Upstate NY Coalition to Ground the Drones & End the Wars.In the U.K., 700 people participated in a demonstration outside a Royal Air Force base north of London to protest the U.K.'s use of armed drones in Afghanistan. The action came two days after the news that the Royal Air Force had begun flying drones from the Waddington Base. CNN reported:"People are pretty upset about the idea that Britain will be developing this drone warfare," said John Hilary, executive director of War on Want. … The coalition also includes members of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the Drone Campaign Network and Stop the War Coalition.”

The U.S.-Mexico border is currently patrolled by 10 Predator surveillance drones. The immigration reform bill introduced in the Senate would increase that in order to provide constant coverage. ABC/Univision reported:“Unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, could soon be patrolling the United States border with Mexico 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That's what the major immigration reform bill introduced last week by a bipartisan group of senators proposes.“The goal: 'effective control' of the border. Under the bill, no immigrant granted provisional legal status would be eligible to apply for a Green Card until the Department of Homeland Security shows it's made substantial progress toward that goal. Border hawks want the pathway to citizenship more firmly tied to border security success.”But, as Common Dreams reports:“As the new immigration reform bill moving through the US Senate puts aerial drones at the center of a beefed-up militarized approach to border security, a new report shows that the existing drone-border program has proved an 'inefficient, costly and absurd approach' to monitoring the border or enforcing current immigration laws.”The report was produced by the Center for International Policy, you can read it at Drones over the Homeland.

An Israeli jet shot down a drone off its northern coast on Thursday. While some Israeli officials said they believed it was an Iranian-manufactured aircraft sent by Hezbollah, that group denied it. The Associated Press reported:Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said the unmanned aircraft was detected as it was flying over Lebanon and tracked as it approached Israeli airspace.He said the military waited for the aircraft to enter Israeli airspace, confirmed it was “enemy,” and then an F-16 warplane shot it down, smashing its wreckage into the sea about five miles (eight kilometers) off the northern port of Haifa. Lerner said Israeli naval forces were searching for the remains of the aircraft.He said it still was not clear who sent the drone, noting it flew over Lebanese airspace, but that it could have originated from somewhere else.

Quote of the day. "We’re doing the right thing today. They must be looked upon as those who gave their blood to help redeem the soul of America." Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), as the House voted to posthumously award the Congressional Gold Medal to four black girls killed in the explosion at a Birmingham, Ala., church in September 1963. (Chicago Tribune)

Quote of the day. “It’s been Obama versus Obama on whistleblower policy. Until recently, there was a virtual free-speech advocacy for whistleblower job rights that’s unprecedented, more than any other president in history. At the same time, he has willingly allowed the Justice Department to prosecute whistleblowers on tenuous grounds.” Tom Devine, legal director of the nonprofit Government Accountability Project. (Washington Post)

Quote of the day. "What we really do when we conserve all these varieties is conserve options for adapting agriculture in the future. It’s very clear that agriculture is facing major challenges these days." Marie Haga, executive director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, on why thousands of varieties of seeds are being saved in a global seed vault so they can be studied and used for future food needs. (McClatchy News)

Quote of the day. "I''ve been policing for 32 years and seen some pretty rough stuff in that time. I''ve never seen anything of this magnitude." Sgt. Patrick Swanton, a police spokesman, speaking of the devastation following  a fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas (USA Today)

Ten major human rights and civil rights organizations have sent a statement to President Obama expressing their “shared concerns” about the U.S. targeted killing program using drones. The signatories included the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Human Rights Watch, and others.The statement begins by summarizing the organizations’ concerns, and then elaborates on each point.“The undersigned human rights and civil rights groups urge the United States to take essential steps to ensure meaningful transparency and legal compliance with regard to U.S. targeted killing policies and practices, particularly those outside the internationally-recognized armed conflict in Afghanistan. In particular, we call on the administration to: publicly disclose key targeted killing standards and criteria; ensure that U.S. lethal force operations abroad comply with international law; enable meaningful congressional oversight and judicial review; and ensure effective investigations, tracking and response to civilian harm."

Quote of the day. "As we come into springtime, there is a bit less focus on the issue of hunger. Fighting Hunger Together is intended to remind people that the demand is the same all year long." Bob Aiken, president of Feeding America, which is launching its second annual April food drive in cooperation with a growing number of food companies. (USA Today)

 On Sunday evening, the first U.S. drone attack in nearly a month killed at least four people in Pakistan. The attack took place in Datta Khel town, 22 miles west of Miranshah, the main town in the North Waziristan region. According to Agence France-Presse:Six US drones flew over the area when one of them fired two missiles at a compound in the Manzarkhel area of the town. "The drones kept hovering at the compound for a while and then one drone fired two missiles at the time of sunset," a local security official said. "At least four militants were killed in the strike," said the official. 

Quote of the day. “It was obvious, Father said, that we must either steal food or slowly starve. And in that dangerous enterprise we must have the help of some power beyond ourselves. So, standing before us all, he said a prayer to St. Dismas, the Good Thief, who was crucified at the right hand of Jesus, asking for his aid. I’ll never doubt the power of prayer again.” Mike Dowe, 85, a prisoner of war during the Korean War, speaking of Father Emil Kapaun, who died in 1951 in a North Korean prison and is being awarded the Medal of Honor today for his ministry to fellow POWs. (Washington Post and Saturday Evening Post)

After years of secrecy, the leaks of classified information on the drone killing program in Pakistan have turned into a torrent. Today, it was the McClatchy Newspapers, running two stories by national security and intelligence reporter Jonathan S. Landay.The first examines in depth intelligence reports that covered most of the drone strikes in 2006-2008 and 2010-2011. Reviewing the killings covered in these reports, Landay concludes that:“Contrary to assurances it has deployed U.S. drones only against known senior leaders of al Qaida and allied groups, the Obama administration has targeted and killed hundreds of suspected lower-level Afghan, Pakistani and unidentified “other” militants in scores of strikes in Pakistan’s rugged tribal area, classified U.S. intelligence reports show.”The second, apparently using some of the same reports, reveals the history and extent of cooperation between the CIA and Pakistani intelligence. While Pakistan was aiding the U.S against al Qaida, CIA drones were aiding the Pakistani military against the Taliban.“Even as its civilian leaders publicly decried U.S. drone attacks as breaches of sovereignty and international law, Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency secretly worked for years with the CIA on strikes that killed Pakistani insurgent leaders and scores of suspected lower-level fighters, according to classified U.S. intelligence reports. Dozens of civilians also reportedly died in the strikes in the semi-autonomous tribal region of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan that is a stronghold of al Qaida, Afghan militants, other foreign jihadists and a tangle of violent Pakistani Islamist groups.”Both stories are long, both are well worth reading. Taken together, they reveal more secret details of the drone killing program.