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WATCH: The Case Against Drones

While the use of un-manned drones indeed protects American soldiers, the growing number of casualties has prompted a United Nations investigation into both the legality and the deadly toll of these strikes.
Bill Moyers
By 

Managing Editor, Moyers & Company

Managing Editor, Moyers & Company
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FILE - In this Jan. 31, 2010 file photo, an unmanned U.S. Predator drone flies over Kandahar Air Field, southern Afghanistan, on a moon-lit night. A U.N. expert on Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013 launched a special investigation into drone warfare and targeted killings, which the United States relies on as a front-line weapon in its global war against al-Qaida. The civilian killings and injuries that result from drone strikes on suspected terrorist cells will be part of the focus of the probe by British lawyer Ben Emmerson, the U.N. rapporteur on Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights. His office announced the investigation in London. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)
FILE - In this Jan. 31, 2010 file photo, an unmanned U.S. Predator drone flies over Kandahar Air Field, southern Afghanistan, on a moon-lit night. A U.N. expert on Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013 launched a special investigation into drone warfare and targeted killings, which the United States relies on as a front-line weapon in its global war against al-Qaida. The civilian killings and injuries that result from drone strikes on suspected terrorist cells will be part of the focus of the probe by British lawyer Ben Emmerson, the U.N. rapporteur on Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights. His office announced the investigation in London. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)

In the fight against terrorism, the American military's escalating drone program has become the face of our foreign policy in Pakistan, Yemen and parts of Africa. And while the use of un-manned drones indeed protects American soldiers, the growing number of casualties -- which include civilians as well as suspected terrorists -- has prompted a United Nations investigation into both the legality and the deadly toll of these strikes.

Here, Vicki Divoll, a former general counsel to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and former deputy legal adviser to the C.I.A.'s Counterterrorism Center, and Vincent Warren, Executive Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, discuss the legal, ethical and judicial issues involved in U.S. drone attacks and whom they target, including their concern about U.S. citizens placed on the "hit list," as well as an alarming lack of government disclosure on its drone policy.

Watch the whole conversation this weekend on Moyers & Company. Check here for times and channels.

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