CIA drone attacks are criminal

Last week, the Los Angeles Times reported that, since 2008, the CIA received "secret permission" to kill "suspected militants whose names are not known, as part of a dramatic expansion of its campaign of drone strikes in Pakistan's border region."

It should be deeply troubling to us all that the CIA has been given permission to murder unidentified people who are merely "suspected" of militancy.

CIA spokesperson George Little declined to comment to the Corsair on what criteria the agency employs to determine if someone is a militant. However, to assuage any fear of wrongdoing, he did address the agency's behavior in drone attacks.

"The CIA's counterterrorism operations are conducted with extreme precision and in strict accord with the law," he said.

The agency's assertion they are following the law is not enough to provide solace. The CIA has a checkered history of coups d'état (Iran 1953, Congo 1965, Chile 1973, among others); subverting democratic elections (in Italy, Greece and Central America, for example); and human experimentation like Project MK-ULTRA, where the CIA covertly influenced the mental state of American and Canadian test subjects.

In short, the CIA is a criminal organization that should have been disbanded years ago. It is the antithesis of democracy, human rights and morality. And it should never be trusted.

The House Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs has recently debated the legality of the CIA participating in such attacks, considering the agency is a civilian, rather than a military, organization.

However, they are missing a very important point. It is wrong to murder people for "suspecting" them of something. The CIA's activity opens the door wide-open to killing innocent human beings, something that has already been well documented in America's war on the people of Afghanistan.

Human rights activist and Office of the Americas Director Blase Bonpane says CIA drone attacks work against the U.S.'s stated goals in the region. "It's creating tremendous opposition with the Taliban and other groups," he said. "It's counter-productive."

So much for winning "hearts and minds," but that really never was their intention. The CIA has an objective all its own, and legality, morality and human life have nothing to do with it.