Syria: First UK drone attack on British citizens

The UK just created history on 21 and 24 of August 2015 by committing targeted assassinations of British citizens residing in Syria using drone strike.

"Cardiff-born Reyaad Khan, 21, and Ruhul Amin, from Aberdeen, died last month in Raqqa, alongside another fighter, in the first targeted UK drone attack on a British citizen, Cameron told MPs," reported the BBC. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-34178998

The British government claims the lads had been plotting "barbaric" attacks on UK soil and they had no other choice but to kill them just in case. The media called Junaid Hussain a "cyber jihadist" and pictured him with a rifle in a photo.

Both Khan and Hussain had been involved in actively recruiting IS "sympathisers" and plotting to attack "high-profile public commemorations" taking place in the UK this summer, the prime minister said.

"There was a terrorist directing murder on our streets and no other means to stop him."

This makes no sense. He was overseas. They could have just prevented them from returning to Britain, arrested him and given him a trial. And what do they mean by attacking? Like he might have gone there to pass out flyers about the Syrian situation? What exactly. I guess we will never know since he's dead. God rest his soul.

"Khan was killed in a precision strike on 21 August by a remotely piloted aircraft, "after meticulous planning" by the UK government, while he was travelling in a vehicle," reported BBC. Another British national, Junaid Hussain, 21 and from Birmingham, was killed in a separate air strike by US forces in Raqqa on 24 August.

Two years ago, Britain refused to enter the war to help Syrian refugees but last September approved British participation in air strikes against IS targets in Iraq only. This recent action is the first time Britain has droned anyone at all in Syria, so it is interesting that their first choice as a target was their own citizens. To spare themselves the hassles of being prosecuted or retaliated by a foreign government, the UK has simply taken to using their own citizens for target practice overseas. I guess that would limit the legal repercussions!

We do not know enough information right now to determine whether the UK was just practicing their weaponry on some soft targets or if any of the victims were potential political activists in some way. Officials told the media the UK would "act immediately [in Syria] and explain to Parliament afterwards."

The strike on Khan was "the first time in modern times that a British asset has been used to conduct a strike in a country where we're not involved in a war", said Cameron. "Britain has used remotely piloted aircraft in Iraq and Afghanistan but this is a new departure and that's why I thought it important to come to the House and explain why I think it is necessary and justified."

Shaker Smiles: He Was in Gtmo for 14 Years Without Charge.

The Obama administration finally yielded to a lengthy campaign to secure the British resident Shaker Aamed's release, after Guantanamo journalist Andy Worthington wrote an open letter to President Obama for Independence Day, which was signed by nearly a hundred celebrities, including Roger Waters, Sting, Patrick Stewart and London's Mayor Boris Johnson.

As a result, President Obama discussed the decision to move Aamer, whose case has become a cause celebre among rights groups in Britain, with Prime Minister David Cameron in a phone call. On November 11, 2015, a beautiful photo and statement from the brother was released by friends.

"I can't tell you how much I want to speak to all of you and stand with all of you, carrying on the struggle for justice for everybody who has been oppressed and needs our help. If there is one thing we can do to save the whole world it is to fight for justice. We will work hard together to close Guantánamo and every unlawful facility run by any government worldwide. Justice has no colour or religion or race.

"I promise all of you good people — those whose names I know, and those whose names I do not know — that my heart and my spirit feel your thoughts of justice. I care for you all.

Yours sincerely,

Shaker Aamer ISN 239"

PHOTO
AndyWorthington.co.uk/2015/11/11/a-photo-and-a-mesage-from-shaker-aamer-to-his-supporters/#sthash.JxodaWEp.dpf

Clive Stafford Smith predicted in the Guardian last September that when Shaker Aamer is free from Guantanamo, the slurs will start.

"My maternal grandmother once gave me some advice that has never left me: when someone does you wrong, bizarrely, they will invariably hate you for it. This stems from a very human desire not to admit mistakes. Therefore if you want to salvage a relationship with the person who wronged you, you must go out of your way to be kind to them."

Shaker Aamer, the last British resident in Guantánamo Bay has been done a terrible wrong - held for almost 14 years without charges, tortured over and over. He has never met his youngest son Faris, who was born on the very day he arrived in the notorious US military base.

"And why has he been held so long? Because not only was Aamer a victim of abuse but he also witnessed the torture of others, most catastrophically Ibn Sheikh al Libi, who "confessed" falsely that al-Qaida was in league with Saddam Hussein on weapons of mass destruction. This was repeated by President George W Bush himself as a reason to go to war in Iraq - so here we are, tens of thousands of dead people later, and we know it was false. Al Libi merely told his torturers what they wanted to hear, to try to end the pain," writes Smith.

There is one matter that is beyond all doubt: The US military and the UK intelligence services will start briefing against Aamer. They will do this because they know they have done him wrong, and they hate him for it. They feel a very human urge to prove that they were justified and, in their distorted morality, that can only be true if he is a very, very bad man indeed. They always do this.

"In Aamer's case, the defamation has already begun. The moment the 30-day notice was given, Texas Congressman Mac Thornberry sent a statement to the Washington Post that Aamer was far too dangerous to be released - apparently forever," reports Worthington.

You do not publish devastating rumours about a person who has no way to defend himself, without checking and double-checking your source - even when it concerns a powerless person held incommunicado for more than a decade, like Aamer.

"Those who wish to prove that they were right to indulge in a spot of torture are very sad and misguided people."

http://newtrendmag.org/ntma1628.htm