Botched Drone Strike (with Joe Cirincione)
Skullduggery
Michael Isikoff, Daniel Klaidman, Victoria Bassetti
4.0 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 21 September 2021
⏱️ 43 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
US Central Command’s top general Kenneth McKenzie last week had to make one of the most painful mea culpas in the history of the US Government’s war on terror. A drone strike intended to save the lives of US soldiers had ended up taking the lives ten innocent Afghan civilians. Seven of them were children.
A rare acknowledgment that a tool the Pentagon and CIA have relied on for years to target terrorists was in this instance tragically botched thanks to sketchy intelligencethat confused a civilian aide worker with an ISIS suicide bomber. McKenzie came clean, only after reporters on the ground exposed the Pentagon’s mistake raising new questions about how many other civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen have also been killed in US drone strikes. And how does this affect the Biden administrations planned use of “over the horizon” drone strikes to prevent Al-Qaeda resurgence in the country we just abandoned?
Joe Cirincione joins to discuss the botched strike and where we go from here.
GUEST:
- Joe Cirincione (@Cirincione), Analyst, Author, Distinguished Fellow @QuincyInst, Fmr. President @plough_shares, VP @amprog, Hill rat.
HOSTS:
- Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News
- Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News
- Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)
RESOURCES:
- The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft - Here.
- Yahoo News' Dylan Stableford and Chris Wilson's original piece on the bothced drone strike - Here.
- Dan Klaidman's book Kill or Capture on focusing on drone strikes - Here.
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| 0:00.0 | Good afternoon. I'm here to brief the results of the investigation I directed |
| 0:05.3 | following the report of civilian casualties from our strike and Kabul on 29 |
| 0:09.4 | August. Having thoroughly reviewed the findings of the investigation and the |
| 0:14.1 | supporting analysis by interagency partners, I am now convinced that as many as |
| 0:18.9 | 10 civilians including up to seven children were tragically killed in that |
| 0:23.3 | strike. Moreover, we now assess that it is unlikely that the vehicle and those |
| 0:28.8 | who died or associated with ISIS-K or were a direct threat to US forces. I all |
| 0:34.7 | from my profound condolences to the family and friends of those who were killed. |
| 0:38.7 | Those the US Central Command's top general, Kenneth McKenzie, last week making |
| 0:44.0 | one of the most painful meoculpas in the history of the US government's war on |
| 0:48.7 | terror. A drone strike intended to save the lives of US soldiers had ended up |
| 0:54.1 | taking the lives of 10 innocent Afghan civilians, seven of them children. It was a |
| 1:00.7 | rare acknowledgement that a tool the Pentagon and CIA have relied on for years |
| 1:05.2 | to target terrorists was in this instance tragically botched thanks to sketchy |
| 1:10.6 | intelligence that confused a civilian aid worker with an ISIS suicide bomber. |
| 1:15.2 | But McKenzie came clean only after reporters on the ground in Kabul exposed |
| 1:20.0 | the Pentagon's mistake raising new questions about how many other civilians in |
| 1:24.6 | Afghanistan and Pakistan and Somalia and Yemen have also been killed in US |
| 1:30.0 | drone strikes. And what does this say about the Biden administration's plans on |
| 1:33.9 | using over-the-horizon drone strikes to prevent an al-Qaeda re-assurgence in the |
| 1:38.8 | country we just abandoned? We'll discuss with Joe Cerencioni a national security |
| 1:43.7 | and proliferation expert with the Quincy Institute and we'll also talk to him about |
... |
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