Former US drone sensor operator Brandon Bryant admitted he “couldn’t stand” himself for his participation in the country’s drone program for six years – firing at targets whose identities often went unconfirmed.
“There was no oversight. I just know that the inside of the entire program was diseased and people need to know what happened to those that were on the inside,” he told RT. “People need to know the lack of oversight, the lack of accountability that happened.” Bryant, who worked as a sensor operator, manning drones’ cameras and other intelligence gathering hardware, worked from an airbase in Nevada.
Since 2001, the US has been carrying out drone strikes against targets believed to be affiliated with terrorist organizations in countries like Afghanistan, Yemen, Pakistan and Somalia. The program, shrouded in secrecy, has been routinely criticized for the high number of resultant civilian casualties.
Pakistan’s Peshawar High Court ruled in 2013 that the attacks constitute a war crime and violate the UN Universal Declaration on Human Rights. Meanwhile the US has insisted that drone warfare is a precise and effective method of combat.
According to data collected by the human rights group Reprieve and published last November, attempts to kill 41 targeted individuals across Pakistan and Yemen resulted in the deaths of some 1,147 people. Often a kill requires multiple strikes, the group noted.
