Contact: Gabe Cahn, [email protected], 202.776.7700, c: 202.412.1678, @AIUSAmedia
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – In response to reports that the Obama administration may disclose more information about the legal rationale for killing U.S. citizens with drones, Steven W. Hawkins, executive director of Amnesty International USA, issued the following statement:
"More transparency is good, but it is not the end goal. President Obama must commit to following international law restricting state killing. The President should disavow the radical redefinition of the term "imminence" used in the leaked Department of Justice 'white paper' to expand the scope of who may be killed. The President should also support impartial investigations of the cases that Amnesty International documented in its report "Will I Be Next? U.S. Drone Strikes in Pakistan."
"Furthermore, we need far more information made public. What about the memos on killing people who are not Americans? What about the total number of people killed, and their names? President Obama claims to have the most transparent administration in U.S. history. He can prove it by declassifying the drone strike program as a whole."
For more information, please see Amnesty International's report "Will I Be Next? U.S. Drone Strikes in Pakistan."
Mr. Hawkins and Zeke Johnson, director of Amnesty International USA's Security & Human Rights Program, are available for interviews.
Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with more than 3 million members in more than 150 countries campaigning for human rights worldwide. The organization investigates and exposes abuses, educates and mobilizes the public, and works to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied.