Greenwald Drone Film Opens In Pakistan
Oct 23, 2013
In a unique film premiere for victims of drone strikes, Pakistani leader Imran Khan will host a screening of Robert Greenwald‘s new documentary “Unmanned: America’s Drone Wars” in Islamabad this Friday (25 Oct). Khan is the most popular political leader in Pakistan, and the elected leader of the region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where drone strikes are clustered. His former wife, the London-based, Jemima Khan, is co-executive producer. One of the deaths examined in the film is that of an innocent 16 year old Pakistani, Tariq Aziz, on October 31, 2011
. The victim had testified one week earlier at a public hearing, or jirga, in Islamabad where hundreds of people rallied and listened to eyewitness accounts of drone attacks in the tribal areas of Waziristan.
Aziz was targeted by an informant at the hearing, says Clive Stafford Smith of the London-based Reprieve
, a leading monitor of the strikes and their human rights impacts. The US relies on paid informants for gathering intelligence used in targeting in the remote tribal highlands region. Featured in the documentary is a former US drone technician, Brandon Bryant, who was told by his superiors that, “we kill people and break things.” Bryant was captivated by becoming a James Bond-style operative.
The US drones policy comes under severe attack this week with reports from the United Nations rapporteur, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International all being released in the same period. Both the film and the new reports strike heavy blows at the credibility of United States’ claims that the drone strikes are mistake-proof and aimed solely at known terrorist threats. The CIA has stretched the legal definition of “imminent threat” to include young males “associated” with jihadist groups, however vaguely, in virtually any theater of the Long War against terrorism.
Pressure against the US drones policy has caused the strike rate to be “dropped drastically in recent months”, according to the New York Times
. In addition, President Barack Obama and Congress have grappled over how to “rein in” the drift towards an imperial presidency.
The relative success of the anti-drone campaign suggests that US military policies can be opposed effectively even where massive costs and ground troop numbers are not in question. The anti-drone phenomenon consists of an unusual spectrum of anti-war groups like Code Pink, independent journalists and film-makers, civil liberties and human rights lawyers, and many professional counter-insurgency advocates who oppose using air strikes as a substitute for intervention on the ground.
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The documentary will screen in Washington D.C. on October 28 and in New York City on October 30. For information screenings email: Hamida@bravenewfoundation.org, or request
a free copy.
Follow Robert Greenwald on Twitter: http://www.twitter.
UNMANNED: AMERICA’S DRONE WARS
SECRET WARS AND NO ACCOUNTABILITY: 5 REASONS WHY 2013 IS ALREADY YEAR OF THE DRONE
For a war-weary American public, President Barack Obama’s inaugural address last month sounded perfect. “ A decade of war is now ending,” the president said. “We, the people, still believe that enduring security and lasting peace do not require perpetual war.”
DRONE MAKERS AND CONGRESS, WORKING TOGETHER TO GET PAID
The U.S. House drone caucus
is becoming an increasingly popular topic as the U.S. government looks to unmanned aerial vehicles for solutions to its problems at home and abroad. The technological advancements displayed by UAVs are undeniably impressive, but the motives behind them are questioned, mostly by privacy advocates for now. Continual pressure on the federal government from drone manufacturers and their defenders in Congress to open U.S. airways to drones helped push the passage of the FAA Modernization and Reform Act, which was signed earlier this year.
ROBERT GREENWALD APPEARS ON ‘THE THOM HARTMANN SHOW’ TO DISCUSS DRONES
The Obama administration maintains that drone strikes are precise, yet hundreds of innocent people have died in drone attacks.
This is a clear disconnect between what we’re being told and what we’re finding. It’s time for a deeper investigation; the evidence doesn’t match the claims.
MR. PRESIDENT: HOW DO YOU DEFINE PRECISE?
“I want to make sure that people understand actually drones have not caused a huge number of civilian casualties…. For the most part, they have been very precise, precision strikes against al- Qaeda and their affiliates. And we are very careful in terms of how it’s been applied.”
, January 2012
I have interviewed many people over the years of doing documentaries. Currently in Pakistan filming with victims of drone attacks (ahead of the film, follow my trip at warcosts.com
and
), I have never had a more haunting and harrowing experience than looking into the eyes of person after person, children and adults, and hearing them talk about their homes, villages and families destroyed by drone attacks. The pain is palpable, their fear still radiates. And even a question about the CIA sets off terror alerts in peoples’ eyes.
A CANDIDATE WHO WILL TALK ABOUT DRONES
So, yes, a candidate for president talks about drones in detail, with great awareness about how they are counterproductive to United States security concerns. Problem is, the candidate is running for president of Pakistan.
WHY I AM GOING TO PAKISTAN
In March 2009, I went to Kabul as part of my work on Brave New Foundation’s documentaryRethink Afghanistan
. My trip was an effort to understand the realities of life in an unrelenting warzone, and to find voices that weren’t yet heard eight years after U.S. forces invaded the country. In the same spirit, I am going to Pakistan to investigate what life is like for those living under drones.
WHEN THE DEFENSE INDUSTRY AND CONGRESS ARE INDISTINGUISHABLE: DRONE EDITION
It’s moments like this that underscore the near, if not complete, evaporation between the interests of the war industry and the public entity that’s supposed to have oversight over it, the U.S. Congress. Read this post from Colorlines’ Seth Freed Wessler
and try to describe where the drone lobby and industry end and where the House of Represenatives Unmanned Systems (or Drone) Caucus begins:
GROUNDBREAKING REPORT AND VIDEO ON DRONE STRIKES DOCUMENTS HARM TO PAKISTANI CIVILIANS AND U.S. SECURITY
Brave New Foundation has the honor of releasing a video to accompany a seminal report by human rights law experts at Stanford and New York University law schools. The report, entitled “Living Under Drones
” presents chilling first-hand testimony from Pakistani civilians on the humanitarian and security costs of escalating drone attacks by the United States. The report uncovers civilian deaths, and shocking psychological and social damage to whole families and communities – where people are literally scared to leave their homes because of drones flying overhead 24 hours a day.
NEW REPORT HEATS UP SPOTLIGHT ON DRONE POLICY IN THE MEDIA
, a new report by human rights law experts at Stanford and New York University, counters the common rhetoric that the use of drone stikes is a precise and effective tool for making the U.S. a safer place. The report, along with a video produced by Brave New Foundation
, aims to open up public discussion on the incendiary U.S. drone policy in Pakistan incorporating the devastating, virtually hidden side effects. Above, John Amick discussed with RT America
the importance of Living Under Drones in a media climate more or less dry of any critical reporting on the issue.
THIS IS IT: AMERICA NEEDS TO HEAR OBAMA, ROMNEY TALK ABOUT DRONE STRIKES IN LAST DEBATE
If the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee – and a member of Congress – claims unfamiliarity with possibly the major plank of U.S. drone policy, as Debbie Wasserman-Schultz did last week
when asked about President Obama’s “kill list” of those open for assassination based on U.S. intelligence, then what makes anyone believe the average American voter has a grasp on the killing done in their name in the likes of Pakistan and Yemen?
LAW AND ORDER: SVU FEATURES ‘DOUBLE-TAP’ PROCEDURE OF DRONE STRIKES
Law & Order: SVU recently ran an episode
that was likely inspired by the Stanford and NYU report, Living Under Drones
, about U.S. drone attacks currently taking place in Pakistan. In the episode, a character plotting a terrorist attack in the U.S. reveals that her father was killed by a “double-tap” strike in North Waziristan.
Robert Greenwald is a producer, director, political activist, and the Brave New Films + Brave New Foundation founder and president. He is currently focused on the WAR COSTS (WarCosts.com) investigative campaign to challenge runaway, wasteful war spending – particularly in relation to job creation; KOCH BROTHERS EXPOSED (KochBrothersExposed.com) to illustrate the Kochs’ effort to buy democracy and control public policy from every direction; and CUENTAME (MyCuentame.org), which is at the forefront of investigating corruption at private prisons. He has also produced and distributed short viral videos and campaigns like RETHINK AFHANISTAN (2009, RethinkAfghanistan.com)
Greenwald is also the director/producer of IRAQ FOR SALE: THE WAR PROFITEERS (2006), a documentary that exposes what happens when corporations go to war and WAL-MART: THE HIGH COST OF LOW PRICE (2005), a documentary that uncovers the retail giant’s assault on families and American values and OUTFOXED: RUPERT MURDOCH’S WAR ON JOURNALISM (2004). He also executive produced a trilogy of political documentaries: UNPRECEDENTED: THE 2000 ELECTION; UNCOVERED: THE WAR ON IRAQ (2003), which Greenwald also directed; and UNCONSTITUTIONAL (2004).
BRAVE NEW FILMS (BraveNewFilms.org), Greenwald’s new media company, uses film to tell stories that build movements and influence debate about the most important issues of the day. Brave New Films released the THE BIG BUY: TOM DELAY’S STOLEN CONGRESS in May 2006 and recently produced two TV series: ACLU FREEDOM FILES and THE SIERRA CLUB CHRONICLES – which can be seen on Link TV, Court TV (ACLU) and via the internet.
In addition to his documentary work, Greenwald has produced and/or directed more than 50 television movies, miniseries and feature films, including: The Book of Ruth (2004), based on the best selling book by Jane Hamilton; The Crooked E: The Unshredded Truth About Enron (2003); The Burning Bed, starring Farrah Fawcett as an abused housewife; Shattered Spirits, starring Martin Sheen, about alcoholism; and Forgotten Prisoners, about the work of Amnesty International. Greenwald also produced and directed the feature film, Steal This Movie, starring Vincent D’Onofrio as 60’s radical Abbie Hoffman, as well as Breaking Up, starring Russell Crowe and Salma Hayek.
Greenwald’s films have garnered 25 Emmy nominations, four cable ACE Award nominations, two Golden Globe nominations, the Peabody Award, the Robert Wood Johnson Award, and eight Awards of Excellence from the Film Advisory Board. He was awarded the 2002 Producer of the Year Award by the American Film Institute. Greenwald has been honored for his activism by the ACLU Foundation of Southern California; the L.A. chapter of the National Lawyers Guild; Physicians for Social Responsibility; New Roads School, Consumer Attorney’s Association of Los Angeles, Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy and the Office of the Americas. Greenwald has lectured at Harvard University for the Nieman Fellows Foundation for Journalism and speaks frequently across the country about his work.
Follow Robert Greenwald on Twitter: http://www.twitter.
