A US Predator drone at Bagram air base in Afghanistan in November 2009. Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud escaped a US drone strike on a militant camp that killed 10 people, the militia said after reports he may have been among the dead. Photo from France24U.N. Official Set To Ask U.S. To End C.I.A. Drone Strikes -- New York Times
WASHINGTON — A senior United Nations official is expected to call on the United States next week to stop Central Intelligence Agency drone strikes against people suspected of belonging to Al Qaeda, complicating the Obama administration’s growing reliance on that tactic in Pakistan.
Philip Alston, the United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said Thursday that he would deliver a report on June 3 to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva declaring that the “life and death power” of drones should be entrusted to regular armed forces, not intelligence agencies. He contrasted how the military and the C.I.A. responded to allegations that strikes had killed civilians by mistake.
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My Comment: The short answer is obviously no, but the groundwork is now being laid to give cover to those who want to stop UAV operations conducted by intelligence agencies.
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