The Most Revolutionary Act

Mail Online photo

According to the British Mail Online, Pakistani human rights lawyer Shahzad Akbar has filed two separate court cases intended to trigger a formal murder investigation into the roles of two US officials responsible for ordering drone strikes which killed teachers, students and policemen in the tribal areas of Pakistan. The officials are Jonathan Banks, former head of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Islamabad station, and John A. Rizzo, the CIA’s former chief lawyer. Rizzo is named because of an interview he gave after he retired as CIA General Counsel last year. In it, he boasts that he personally authorized every drone strike in which America’s enemies were ‘hunted down and blown to bits’.

The first case which has already been heard by a court in Islamabad and judgment is expected imminently. If the judge grants Akbar’s petition, an international arrest warrant will be issued via Interpol against the  two Americans.

The second case is being heard in the city of Peshawar. In it, Akbar and the families of civilian drone victims civilians are seeking a ruling that further strikes in Pakistani airspace should be viewed as ‘acts of war’. For this reason, they argue that the Pakistan Air Force should try to shoot down the drones and that the government should sever diplomatic relations with the US and launch murder inquiries against those responsible.

According to a report last month by academics at Stanford and New York universities, between 2,562 and 3,325 people have been killed since Pakistan drone strikes began in 2004. According to the report, up to  881 were civilians, including 176  children. Only 41 people who were killed were confirmed as ‘high-value’ terrorist targets.

Read more here: CIA Chiefs Face Arrest

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To provide some historical context, I have embedded the 1998 documentary about five brave whistleblowers (Ralph McGhehee, Verne Lyon, Mary Embree and Phillip Agee), who left the Agency owing to disgust with CIA policies involving the torture and assassination of innocent civilians and subsequently went public. Agee, especially, experienced major retaliation for writing about his past CIA work. Roetinger’s account is most interesting, as he was in charge of organizing the coup in Guatemala that removed democratically elected Jacobo Arbenz from the presidency. The manner in which Roetinger was recruited is extremely comical. This CIA officer comes to the door, refuses to identify himself and tells him they want him to overthrow an unnamed government in Latin America.

YouTube video is in 6 parts. Full video can also be seen at http://www.personalgrowthcourses.net/video/secrets_cia