As promised last week, the first magazine of the new Omidyar-Greenwald-Poitras-Scahill First Look Media venture is out today. It is called The Intercept and has an article The NSA’s Secret Role in the U.S. Assassination Program by Glenn Greenwald and Jeremy Scahill on how the drones target cell phones not people.
According to a former drone operator for the military’s Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) who also worked with the NSA, the agency often identifies targets based on controversial metadata analysis and cell-phone tracking technologies. Rather than confirming a target’s identity with operatives or informants on the ground, the CIA or the U.S. military then orders a strike based on the activity and location of the mobile phone a person is believed to be using.
…In one tactic, the NSA “geolocates” the SIM card or handset of a suspected terrorist’s mobile phone, enabling the CIA and U.S. military to conduct night raids and drone strikes to kill or capture the individual in possession of the device.
The former JSOC drone operator is adamant that the technology has been responsible for taking out terrorists and networks of people facilitating improvised explosive device attacks against U.S. forces in Afghanistan. But he also states that innocent people have “absolutely” been killed as a result of the NSA’s increasing reliance on the surveillance tactic.
One problem, he explains, is that targets are increasingly aware of the NSA’s reliance on geolocating, and have moved to thwart the tactic. Some have as many as 16 different SIM cards associated with their identity within the High Value Target system. Others, unaware that their mobile phone is being targeted, lend their phone, with the SIM card in it, to friends, children, spouses and family members.
…“People get hung up that there’s a targeted list of people,” he says. “It’s really like we’re targeting a cell phone. We’re not going after people – we’re going after their phones, in the hopes that the person on the other end of that missile is the bad guy.”
Already the site has been down intermittently. It may be due to heavy traffic or a system glitch. Or it may be the victim of a DDOS attack. We’ll know later.
often identifies targets based on controversial metadata analysis
Hey, it’s “just” metadata!
“People get hung up that there’s a targeted list of people,” he says. “It’s really like we’re targeting a cell phone. We’re not going after people – we’re going after their phones, in the hopes that the person on the other end of that missile is the bad guy.”
So let’s see if I got this right: we’re not just executing people without a trial. Instead, we’re executing people who may or may not be the intended targets, who themselves are being found guilty without a trial.
we’re going after their phones, in the hopes that the person on the other end of that missile is the bad guy
That’s admitting to a war crime.
We have seen example after example of the inverse of “not in my backyard” where political figures change their stance because a loved one is harmed by their political views. Nancy Reagan embracing stem cell research, several politicians with gay offspring endorsing SSM. With any luck the child of a senator will borrow a phone from the child of a terrorist and we will finally see the reins tightened on this type of nonsense. If the child (or better yet the terrorist) drops the phone directly into the senators pocket so much the better. Outside of this somewhat unlikely scenario, I don’t see these people voluntarily giving up Godlike powers of life and death.