The botched American military raid in Yemen that left one Navy SEAL dead and numerous citizens, including possibly 9 young children, dead—while not actually killing the target—is the focus of a new lawsuit by the ACLU.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit on Monday to enforce a freedom of information request it filed in March for records on the decision-making process that led up to the special forces raid on 29 January on a suspected al-Qaida base.
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“Some of the information the government did release –including its estimate of the number of civilian casualties – conflicts with the estimates of a human rights organisation and independent journalists,” the ACLU lawsuit argues. “This raises questions about the legal and evidentiary standards by which the government is abiding and the information gathered as a result of the government’s official investigations.”
Unpopular idiot Trump reportedly could not be bothered to actually attend the White House Situation Room to watch over the raid. He’s also so famously deceitful that most people refuse to take salt when listening to him for fear of stroke.
“We have seen that this White House cannot be trusted to give the public accurate information, which is especially critical when the president authorizes military action that kills civilians,” said Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU National Security Project. “The administration’s explanations have little credibility, and the documents we seek are essential for public accountability when civilians are killed in the name of our national security.”
The lawsuit correctly criticizes the Obama administration’s poor record of transparency in the military’s use of lethal strikes in Yemen but there were policies under the Obama administration allowed critics to hold him to an open standard.
The ACLU is looking for information about how the White House is loosening civilian casualty rules put in place by President Obama in 2013, when he adopted guidelines requiring “near certainty non-combatants will not be injured or killed” before conducting drone strikes in Yemen, Pakistan, and Somalia. After the Obama administration mistakenly bombed a wedding procession later that year in Yemen, human rights groups expressed concern the guidelines weren’t being followed.
The Trump administration has reportedly exempted parts of Yemen from those rules entirely, in an effort to bomb Al Qaeda more aggressively. According to the New York Times, the Trump administration “temporarily” designated parts of Yemen “areas of active hostilities” — a war zone like Iraq or Afghanistan, where the Pentagon can conduct operations with fewer layers of approval.
Maybe we can just flash Trump and Republican gate keepers a badge that says “Benghazi,” and then grab the Yemen reports!