Drone Whistleblower: Pilots High on Drugs; Refer To Kids As "Fun Size Terrorists"

[dirtpig67]

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-1...ize-terrorists

The killings, part of the Obama administration’s targeted assassination program, are aiding terrorist recruitment and thus undermining the program’s goal of eliminating such fighters, the veterans added. Drone operators refer to children as “fun-size terrorists” and liken killing them to “cutting the grass before it grows too long,” said one of the operators, Michael Haas, a former senior airman in the Air Force. Haas also described widespread drug and alcohol abuse, further stating that some operators had flown missions while impaired.

Haas also described widespread alcohol and drug abuse among drone pilots. Drone operators, he said, would frequently get intoxicated using bath salts and synthetic marijuana to avoid possible drug testing and in an effort to “bend that reality and try to picture yourself not being there.” Haas said that he knew at least a half-dozen people in his unit who were using bath salts and that drug use had “impaired” them during missions.

– From the Intercept article: Former Drone Operators Say They Were “Horrified” by Cruelty of Assassination Program

I’ve highlighted the plight of several brave drone whistleblowers over the years who came forth to decry the barbaric and likely illegal nature of the U.S. drone program. Recently, four of them came together to denounce it more forcefully and provide more disturbing information. They also wrote a letter to Obama.
The Intercept published a powerful story on them the other day, here are a few excerpts:

U.S. DRONE OPERATORS are inflicting heavy civilian casualties and have developed an institutional culture callous to the death of children and other innocents, four former operators said at a press briefing today in New York.

The killings, part of the Obama administration’s targeted assassination program, are aiding terrorist recruitment and thus undermining the program’s goal of eliminating such fighters, the veterans added. Drone operators refer to children as “fun-size terrorists” and liken killing them to “cutting the grass before it grows too long,” said one of the operators, Michael Haas, a former senior airman in the Air Force. Haas also described widespread drug and alcohol abuse, further stating that some operators had flown missions while impaired.

In addition to Haas, the operators are former Air Force Staff Sgt. Brandon Bryant along with former senior airmen Cian Westmoreland and Stephen Lewis. The men have conducted kill missions in many of the major theaters of the post-9/11 war on terror, including Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“We have seen the abuse firsthand,” said Bryant, “and we are horrified.”

Recall Bryant was the guy who quit after a supervisor tried to tell him a little kid they killed was just a dog.

Haas also described widespread alcohol and drug abuse among drone pilots. Drone operators, he said, would frequently get intoxicated using bath salts and synthetic marijuana to avoid possible drug testing and in an effort to “bend that reality and try to picture yourself not being there.” Haas said that he knew at least a half-dozen people in his unit who were using bath salts and that drug use had “impaired” them during missions.

The operators said that they felt increasing urgency to speak out in the wake of the deadly terrorist attacks in Paris last week; they believe drone assassinations have fed the rise of the extremist group the Islamic State, which has claimed responsibility for the attacks.

In their open letter to Obama, the former drone pilots made a similar point, writing that during their service they “came to the realization that the innocent civilians we were killing only fueled the feelings of hatred that ignited terrorism and groups like ISIS,” going on to describe the program as “one of the most devastating driving forces for terrorism and destabilization around the world.”

Read the full letter the drone whistleblowers sent to Obama here.

[ku commando]

....said one of the operators, Michael Haas, a former senior airman in the Air Force.....

Something doesn't add up here.....and that is enlisteds don't do the flying....only officers....even drones.

That being said, I have no doubt about the hardening of these peoples hearts to senseless death, sitting in a room 1/2 a world away like a video game. There was a movie earlier this year called "Good Kill" that pretty much show this inner turmoil going on in the pilot's psyche.

For myself, I don't subscribe to the US's "nation building" thru a barrel of a gun....it's just as immoral as the antics of the followers of "allah"

[TheSearcher]

Anything is possible, but from what I know from some drone operators personally, I'd say this is most likely a giant lump of crap masquerading as journalism. Expressed another way, Bryant sounds like a John Kerry for the 21st century.

[Samuel Adams]

Anything is possible, but from what I know from some drone operators personally, I'd say this is most likely a giant lump of crap masquerading as journalism. Expressed another way, Bryant sounds like a John Kerry for the 21st century.

John Adams in a speech to the military in 1798 warned his fellow countrymen stating, "We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion . . . Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

[TheSearcher]

John Adams in a speech to the military in 1798 warned his fellow countrymen stating, "We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion . . . Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

Honestly, I'm having difficulty in linking your response to my post. Could you elaborate?

[Samuel Adams]

The men sitting in those operator seats are subject to the nature of power.

Power corrupts.

Quite frankly, I'm surprised that my meaning came across so vaguely, to you.

[1Ms. America]

Something doesn't add up here.....and that is enlisteds don't do the flying....only officers....even drones.

That's NOT true.

[TheSearcher]

The men sitting in those operator seats are subject to the nature of power.

Power corrupts.

Quite frankly, I'm surprised that my meaning came across so vaguely, to you.

Military is the foreign policy instrument of our government, I had always thought that John Adam's words to the military of the time were a caution for them to watch what the government closely in it's immorality and lust for power. In light of that, given what I WROTE, your response made little sense to me. As I said, I know some of these drone operators, and know them fairly well, and the attitude described by Bryant is nothing at all like I've experienced myself.

As I said, it smacks of the same sort of opportunistic "Winter Soldier" stuff of which John Kerry was swiftboated.

[Samuel Adams]

It could be said that my take on the entire drone scenario is the absolute knowledge that those machines are being tested abroad, for use at home, as is the mentality of the operator.

I have friends and acquaintances too.....doesn't make them saints.

[Seditious]

The technicians that operate these machines, like the rest of the military, are tools that are used by those who control them. Tools that wear and break...