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joint investigation by the Intercept with the German news magazine
Der Spiegel
“A
TOP-SECRET U.S. intelligence document obtained by The Intercept
confirms that the sprawling U.S. military base in Ramstein, Germany
serves as the high-tech heart of America’s drone program. Ramstein
is the site of a satellite relay station that enables drone operators
in the American Southwest to communicate with their remote aircraft
in Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan and other targeted countries. The
top-secret slide deck, dated July 2012, provides the most detailed
blueprint seen to date of the technical architecture used to conduct
strikes with Predator and Reaper drones.”
“...
the slides show that the facilities at Ramstein perform an essential
function in lethal drone strikes conducted by the CIA and the U.S.
military in the Middle East, Afghanistan and Africa. The slides were
provided by a source with knowledge of the U.S. government’s drone
program who declined to be identified because of fears of
retribution. According to the source, Ramstein’s importance to the
U.S. drone war is difficult to overstate.”
“The
U.S. government maintains that its drone strikes against al Qaeda and
its 'associated forces' are legal, even outside of declared war
zones. But German legal officials have suggested that such operations
are only justifiable in actual war zones. Moreover, Germany has the
right to prosecute 'criminal offenses against international law …
even when the offense was committed abroad and bears no relation to
Germany,' [...] This means that American personnel stationed at
Ramstein could, in theory, be vulnerable to German prosecution if
they provide drone pilots with data used in attacks.”
“While
the German government has been reluctant to pursue such prosecutions,
it may come under increasing pressure to do so. 'It is simply
murder,' says Björn Schiffbauer of the Institute for International
Law at the University of Cologne. Legal experts interviewed by Der
Spiegel claimed that U.S. personnel could be charged as war criminals
by German prosecutors.”
“The
classified slide deck maps out an intricate spider web of facilities
across the U.S. and the globe: from drone command centers on desert
military bases in the U.S. to Ramstein to outposts in Afghanistan,
Djibouti, Qatar and Bahrain and back to NSA facilities in Washington
and Georgia. What is clear is that most paths within America’s
drone maze run through Ramstein.”
“Creech
Air Force Base in Nevada is central to multiple prongs of the U.S.
drone war. Personnel stationed at the facility are responsible for
drone operations in Afghanistan — which has been on the receiving
end of more drone strikes than any country in the world — and
Pakistan, where the CIA has conducted a covert air war for the last
decade. The agency’s campaign has killed thousands of people,
including hundreds of civilians. Some drone missions are operated
from other locations, such as Fort Gordon in Georgia and Cannon Air
Force Base in Clovis, New Mexico.”
“Internal
German government communications provided to The Intercept by Der
Spiegel show how some German officials tried and failed to get the
government to confront the U.S. about what connection facilities in
Germany had to drone strikes. According to a June 2013 document, a
senior Foreign Office official, Emily Haber, advocated demanding a
clear answer from Washington about the role U.S. facilities in
Germany played in drone strikes.”
“While
most, if not all, of the official statements by both governments may
be technically true, it is also true that without the base, it would
be very difficult for the United States to sustain the current drone
war. The slide deck contains an array of arrows showing the complex
system used to operate drones across the world. In the end, all
arrows point to Ramstein.”
“HUMAN
RIGHTS GROUPS in Germany, as well as opposition politicians, have
long suspected that Ramstein has played a direct role in the U.S.
drone war. They have called on the German government to stop allowing
the armed U.S. drone program to operate from German soil.”
“A new
report from The Open Society Foundations, published this month,
studied nine U.S. drone strikes in Yemen and found that 26 civilians
were killed, including several children and a pregnant woman.”
Full
investigation and details:
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