Multi-faith Anti-Drone Conference
Stony Point, New York, April 8, 2016
Panelists: Kambale Musavuli, Christopher Aaron, Ray McGovern
April 8 happened to be the 53rd anniversary of Ray’s entry on duty at the CIA. There have been some changes – among them, the agency assuming titular responsibility for Air Force “pilots” killing “militants” in the Middle East by remote controlled drones.
In a speech the day before, President Obama had trivialized drone killing with a lame joke, saying he’d much rather be “fighting terrorists not with drones but with the Marvel comics superhero Iron Man.” As is well known, Iron Man is not constrained by any Constitutional or moral concerns. Neither is Obama, the reluctant executioner, who did his customary handwringing over “circumstances” that dictate “wielding kinetic power” and end up hurting people “who shouldn’t have been hurt.”
Videographer Wilton Vought filmed the panel with his usual high-quality work (see the YouTube link below). The two panelists who spoke before Ray are well worth watching and learning from. Ray’s segment and the first Q&A question go from minute 17:50 to 30:45.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uwTdaRW6PY&feature=youtu.be