President Donald Trump signed an executive order last month which removed a policy brought in by the Obama administration which attempted to bring transparency to counterterrorism operations.
US Intelligence officials will no longer be required to publicly announce how many civilians are killed in covert airstrikes outside of the US official War Zones.
Jennifer Gibson who runs the Drones Project told The Bureau Investigates:
“President Trump’s announcement is yet another attempt by this administration to move America’s drone programme back into the shadows.”
The order will mean that any deaths and injuries caused by the US in Countries like Yemen and Pakistan will no longer be recorded, keeping the truth hidden from the public eye.
Counter Terrorism expert Alan Moorehead from Columbian Law School said:
“Trump’s move to hide the number of civilians killed in US airstrikes is a damaging move, harmful to public accountability and US standing in places it is fighting terrorism.” [source]
The transparency order that was signed in the Obama era was far from perfect but at the very least it did give us some data on the number of deaths and injuries caused by the US in their overseas operations, now however, even this small amount of transparency has been removed.
CENTCOM, the US military command responsible for Yemen, said that it deemed civilian casualty allegations “non-credible” if there was not sufficient information about them.
Further Reading: The Bureau of Investigative Journalism
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