For Our Allies, Death From Above

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/04/opinion/in-pakistan-drones-kill-our-innocent-allies.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=clive%20stafford%20smith&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Fri, Nov 4, 2011 at 9:59 AM
Subject: re: For Our Allies, Death From Above
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:
    The claim that "precision [drone] strikes" had killed "no innocent civilian" in fifteen months is the official U.S. position. It is an officially sanctioned lie. In 1987, attorney general issued a directive authorizing the CIA to lie. Although Meese may have intended only to castrate the Freedom of Information Act, he actually stuck his knife into American democracy.  No CIA statement since then should be taken at face value, and--while that directive remains in place--none of their lies are crimes. Twenty-four years later, our department of Justice is finally revisiting this outrage. It is twenty-four years too late for American democracy, and for our dead allies in Pakistan.
Barry Haskell Levine