Drone Talking Points

The lobby group the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, along with
several drone manufacturers, spent at least $21,960,500 on lobbying in 2011 alone. 40
States are vying for the perceived economic benefits of becoming drone test sites without
discussing privacy implications.
8. OVERSEAS DRONES
Even potentially helpful domestic drone use is tainted by the largely civilian death toll
drones have had overseas. 41
The administration has secretly promulgated guidelines for the assassination of US citizens
abroad, under which it has killed at least four Americans, all without producing any public
evidence or justification, and while claiming to target only one of them. 42 This disregard for
constitutional restraints on killing and transparency leaves little reason to believe that the
Department of Justice would ensure local law enforcement’s use of drones abided by
constitutional and legal standards.
40 See First Street Research Group, Drones in U.S. Air Space: The Next Lobby Frontier (May 1, 2012),
http://firststreetresearch.cqpress.com/2012/05/01/drones-in-u-s-air-space-the-next-lobby-frontier/; Galius Publius,
Drone Industry Wrote the Legislation Governing Domestic Drone Use, AMERICABLOG (Feb. 17, 2012),
http://americablog.com/2012/02/drone-industry-wrote-the-legislation-governing-domestic-drone-use.html.
41 Living Under Drones: Numbers, STANFORD INT’L. HUMAN RTS. & CONFLICT RESOL. CLINIC,
http://www.livingunderdrones.org/numbers (last visited May 8, 2013) (“[D]rones have killed between 474 and 881
Pakistani civilians since 2004, out of 2,562 to 3,325 total deaths.”); See, also, Covert Drone War, BUREAU OF INVESTIGATIVE
JOURNALISM,
http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/category/projects/drones/ (last visited May 7, 2013).
42 Glenn Greenwald, Chilling Legal Memo from Obama DOJ Justifies Assassination of US Citizens, THE GUARDIAN (Feb. 5, 2013),
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/feb/05/obama-kill-list-doj-memo.
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