I want to respond to your column by Sam Carrigan on drone warfare ("Attack of the drones") in the Friday, Feb. 10 issue of The Cavalier Daily.
A bit of personal introduction beforehand: I graduated from the University in 1972 and served in the army until 1992 in Special Forces and intelligence assignments around the world. I ran drones during the Gulf War of 1991, so I know a little something about them.
I really don't know where to begin because your column is so misleading it would take a much longer letter to deal with all your misinformation.
1. The drone program is no more "unaccountable" than any other secret program of any of the armed services. They are accountable to Congressional oversight and hence to the American people.
2. There is a reason for the secrecy of the "black" programs. Did you forget that we are at war? Anwar Al-Awlaki was not an "alleged" terrorist "executed without a fair trial," as the columnist claims. He was identified by the government as an actual terrorist and was killed in an act of war.
3. The president is correct when he says that the strikes are "precise."
Read More
GARVIE: Let clubs be about interests, not interviews
By Adeline Garvie | YesterdayThe Second-Year Council should not be alone in interrogating these systems, but rather, the University must earnestly recognize the stressors these processes mount on students.
TAYLOR: Charlottesville’s asylum seekers are trapped by a DHS legal loophole
By Nat Taylor | 2 days agoWith more immigrant constitutional rights being under fire from loopholes like automatic stay provisions, communities that take many asylum seekers like Charlottesville suffer.
BROWN AND FORD: U.Va.’s Board of Visitors cannot escape accountability with silence
By Ann Brown and Chris Ford | 2 days agoWhile the faculty, alumni, students and multiple university organizations call for accountability and demand the resignation of the Board’s leaders, the remaining members of the Board — 11 persons in all — remain silent, unmoved, perhaps inactive.
