{"id":255236,"date":"2021-07-28T16:47:09","date_gmt":"2021-07-28T16:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/radiofree.asia\/?guid=de74244a04fd1cebee8c3ccdbd476b03"},"modified":"2021-07-28T16:47:09","modified_gmt":"2021-07-28T16:47:09","slug":"drone-whistleblower-gets-45-months-in-prison-for-revealing-ongoing-us-war-crimes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/07\/28\/drone-whistleblower-gets-45-months-in-prison-for-revealing-ongoing-us-war-crimes\/","title":{"rendered":"Drone Whistleblower Gets 45 Months in Prison for Revealing Ongoing US War Crimes"},"content":{"rendered":"\"Contract<\/a>

On July 27, a federal district court judge in Alexandria, Virginia, sentenced former U.S. Air Force intelligence analyst Daniel Hale to 45 months in prison for revealing evidence of U.S. war crimes.<\/p>\n

In 2015, Hale, whose job involved identifying targets for drone strikes, provided journalist Jeremy Scahill with secret military documents and slides that exposed shocking details about the U.S. drone program. Hale\u2019s revelations became the basis of \u201cThe Drone Papers<\/a>,\u201d which was published on October 14, 2015, by The Intercept<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Although the government admitted it had no evidence that direct harm resulted from Hale\u2019s revelations, in 2019, the Trump administration charged Hale with four counts of violating the Espionage Act and one count of theft of government property. Facing up to 50 years in prison, Hale pled guilty to one count with the assurance he would not be sentenced to more than 10 years.<\/p>\n

The leaked documents<\/a> disclosed the \u201ckill chain\u201d the Obama administration used to determine whom to target. Countless civilians were killed using \u201csignals intelligence\u201d in undeclared war zones: Targeting decisions were made by following cell phones that might not be carried by suspected terrorists. The Drone Papers divulged that half of the intelligence used to identify potential targets in Yemen and Somalia was based on signals intelligence.<\/p>\n

During one five-month period , nearly 90 percent of those killed by drone strikes were not the intended target, according to The Drone Papers. But civilian bystanders were nonetheless classified as \u201cenemies killed in action\u201d unless proven otherwise.<\/p>\n

Hale said<\/a>, \u201cIt\u2019s stunning the number of instances when selectors [used to identify \u201cterrorist\u201d targets] are misattributed to certain people.\u201d Calling a missile fired at a target in a group of people a \u201cleap of faith,\u201d he noted, \u201cit\u2019s a phenomenal gamble.\u201d Hale added, \u201cAnyone caught in the vicinity is guilty by association.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Drone Papers reveal that reliance on drones actually undermines U.S. intelligence gathering. Drones terrorize communities, breeding resentment against Americans and making the United States more vulnerable to violence. Indeed, Hale wrote in his 11-page pre-sentencing letter<\/a>, \u201cthe war had very little to do with preventing terror from coming into the United States and a lot more to do with protecting the profits of weapons manufacturers and so-called defense contractors.”<\/p>\n