Documentary reveals US Air Force unit recruits gamers to kill with drones
in
Pakistan
18 April, 2014
A new documentary by Norwegian filmmaker Tonje Hessen Schei called “Drone which premiered in Europe on April 15”, reveals that regular US Air Force Unit from Nevada took part in CIA assassination program in Pakistan and recruited gamers for this purpose.
The documentary, which took three years to make, tells the stories of several former drone pilots who conducted CIA targeted killings in Pakistan’s tribal areas. All of them are officers of the regular Air Force Unit and not the civilian contractors, whom the CIA usually employs to fly the Predator missions in Pakistan, RIA reports. The documentary also shows that young gamers were recruited to operate drones. In the film, we look at how militaries now across the world are targeting gamers in their recruiting strategies.
“The US military has been doing this for a long time with games like America’s Army. And in the film, we visit several Scandinavian gaming conferences, where the militaries very actively recruit gamers as our new warriors for the modern warfare not just drone war, but also cyber warfare”, film’s director Tonje Hessen Schei told in an interview to Democracy Now on Thursday.
The US started unmanned aerial vehicles strikes during the George W. Bush administration in 2004. Under President Barack Obama the frequency of attacks has increased significantly. According to the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism, up to 3,613 people, including at least 416 civilians, have been killed in drone strikes since the launch of the first operation.
US drone campaigns are widely condemned by the international community. The Pakistani government sees them as a violation of territorial integrity and has repeatedly called for an end to the strikes. In December, the United Nations passed the resolution urging the US and other countries that use drone strikes for counter-terrorism in foreign territories to comply with international law, underscoring the need for an agreement among member states on legal questions about drone operations.
