Even though it is President Obama who has ramped up the use of drone attacks to deal with militants in Pakistan, he is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit. A lawyer representing the plaintiffs admits that $500 million per victim is “very high” but he believes it is “appropriate.” Germany’s left-leaning Der Spiegel reports:
Almost every day, people in the Pakistani region of Waziristan are killed or seriously injured by drone attacks carried out by the CIA. Now a group of victims’ relatives is standing up to Washington — by suing the US government.
An eye and both legs: That was the price that 17-year-old Sadaullah Wazir paid for living in a part of the world that is deemed a “terrorist haven” and that has been a target for US drones over the past few years. Since Barack Obama became US president, these attacks have become increasingly frequent. The Pakistani newspapers now report daily on those killed and injured in the tribal areas in the west of the country…
Experts doubt the legality of the US strategy in Pakistan. Philip Alston, UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, has asked the US to make public their rules for the drone missions, give the numbers of civilian victims and prove that there were no other viable alternatives to the deadly aerial attacks. Up to now, Washington has been cautious about making any statements regarding the drone operations. The line is simply that there is a reliance on the weapons in order to prevent militants based in the Pakistan territory from being able to exert pressure in the war in Afghanistan. A CIA spokesman declared recently that “the CIA counterterrorism operations are precise, lawful and effective.” The intelligence agency maintains that many high-ranking extremists have been killed in the drone attacks, including the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Baitullah Mehsud.