Perception vs. Reality: Who’s Really Dying in all those Drone Strikes?

by staff writer for the Sky Valley Chronicle:

The United States has conducted over 400 drone strikes on Pakistan and according to one consortium of investigative journalists, fewer than 12% of the people killed have been identified by available records as "militants." 

That's according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, a UK investigative/reporting group based at City University London that was started in 2010 as an independent, not-for-profit organization that pursues journalism in the public interest. 

The group undertakes in depth research into the governance of public, private and third sector organizations and their influence. 

Brave New Films, based in Culver City, California and that produces documentary films says BIJ's findings confirms what it already knew, "From our time in Pakistan filming Unmanned: America’s Drone Wars. 

"While on the ground, we interviewed real people whose innocent relatives like an elderly grandma and beloved children were killed in drone strikes, says a statement from BNF which adds, "All of this makes it clear that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s claim last year that only “confirmed terrorist targets at the highest level” were fired at is simply not true."

The company claims these covert and "murderous military strikes" end up creating more enemies for the American people who have little to no knowledge of the killings being carried out in their name. 

The two organizations claim, despite what is reported in American media and despite what the U.S. government says, the vast majority of those being killed in U.S. drone strikes are mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, grandmas, the old and the young as the film company demonstrates in the two minute, 52-second film shown below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OvhAFyeGk4

Brave New Films is asking Americans to sign a petition to President Obama here urging the President to oppose authorizing any more drone strikes that take the lives of civilians. 

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism's report on drone strikes in Pakistan and who they are primarily killing can be found here .