Drones are killing innocents, allies
In The New York Times, Clive Stafford Smith disputes the CIA’s claim that innocents are spared by precision strikes against terrorists using unmanned drones. Drones are killing innocent civilians, he...
View ArticleDrone capture is a risk of spying
In Foreign Policy, Micah Zenko compares the Iran’s capture of a drone to the downing of a U2 spy plane over the USSR in 1960. “As was true in 1960, the benefits of spying on Iran outweigh the dangers...
View ArticleComing to air space near you: drones
“The business of marketing drones to law enforcement is booming,” says Jefferson Morely in Salon. But even as aerial surveillance technology moves from war zones to U.S. air space, “the language of...
View ArticleTargeted killings are justified, effective
Despite objections from human rights activists, the targeted killing of terrorists has been an effective strategy in the war on terror, says Robin Simcox in the L.A. Times. By killing Al Qaeda’s...
View ArticleWorried about your privacy? Don’t forget to look up
Come 2015, drones — those unmanned flying machines better known for spying on and killing people in Afghanistan and Pakistan — are coming to America. Congress has recently pushed for more drones to...
View ArticleVideo was not the spark for violence
A YouTube video is not the sole spark for riots, protests and violence in the Middle East, says Robert Wright in The Atlantic. Other factors may actually be more important, like drone strikes and the...
View ArticleNew rules needed for modern warfare
New high-tech military weaponry is destabilizing the “established laws of war,” say Brad Allenby and Carolyn Mattick in Slate. We need new laws that reflect changes in conflict, combatants and the...
View ArticleDrone strike violates constitutional law
The government’s argument for killing U.S. citizens abroad is troubling, says Jeffrey Rosen in The New Republic, not only because such reasoning could apply to the “assassination of Americans at home,”...
View ArticleNation’s values part of citizenship debate
In debating immigration policy we need to decide who qualifies for citizenship and voting rights, whether U.S. companies with a global presence should be able to influence elections, and whether...
View ArticleHas Obama earned that Nobel Peace Prize?
For many people, it is hard to remember that President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize back in 2009. Oh, did I just jog your memory? Don’t worry, you are not alone. Even the president himself joked...
View ArticleAre jobs more important than personal privacy?
Personal privacy may be sacrificed for economic prosperity as the drone industry is projected to become “a $90 billion-plus industry over the next decade,” says Don Campbell in USA Today. States and...
View ArticleDrones useful for taking the glory out of warfare
Traditional warfare “distorts our moral reasoning” because in supporting our troops, we avoid analyzing the morality of their actions in battle, says Kiel Brennan-Marquez in Salon. But when drones do...
View ArticleDrones? They’re not really all that bad
From delivering the mail to monitoring the weather, drones can be used for more than counterterrorism and law-enforcement efforts, says Pierre Hines in the Daily Beast, which is why too much...
View ArticleDrone strikes may qualify as war crimes
America’s use of drones for “so-called targeted killings” in Northwest Pakistan may qualify as war crimes, according to a new report from Amnesty International. The report criticizes the U.S. for...
View ArticleLong story short
Our opinions, briefly, on improvements to Lake George boat inspections, Amazon’s drone idea, and the decision by many Moreland Commission members to pass on their own public disclosure. Protecting Lake...
View ArticleAmerica takes top honors in killing wedding celebrants
If a wedding party were accidentally obliterated in America the media would make it a cause célèbre, but when wedding celebrants are killed in the Middle East by U.S. military attacks, the news is...
View ArticleEven U.S. terror suspects are entitled to due process
It’s wrong for the Obama administration to kill American citizens suspected of terrorism without conducting a trial, says Conor Friedersdorf in the Orange County Register. Is killing a few terrorists...
View ArticleThe silence on the drones
Our opinion: What happened to Barack Obama’s promise of greater diligence and accountability on drone strikes? President Barack Obama gave an encouraging speech last year in which he vowed tighter...
View ArticleThe limits of free speech
Our opinion: The ideal of equal justice for all requires more consistency and from the bench. Two recent court decisions, one by the highest court in the land, the other from a town justice in central...
View ArticleLong story short
Cuomo’s weather prediction plans ‘off’ In January, during Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s State of the State address, it sounded logical to invest $15 million in a weather detection system that would increase...
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