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United Nations special Rapporteur on Human Rights, Ben Emmerson, called on the US for transparency on the use of drones as news of intensified bombings surfaced in Pakistan. Thirteen people were killed in several air raids in northern Waziristan over the weekend. Emmerson writes about the lack of bombing footage from the unmanned vehicles, saying “[w]e can’t make a decision on whether it is lawful or unlawful if we do not have the data.”

Unmanned Air Vehicles, or UAVs were first implemented under George W. Bush in 2004 as a necessary tool in the War on Terror. Under President Obama, UAV attacks have increased significantly, peaking at 118 attacks in 2011. Those attacks were reported to have resulted in at least 600 deaths. UN Rapporteur Emmerson states that he had been working with other countries such as Russia, China and Pakistan at the UN Human Rights council to call for an “end to the conspiracy of silence,” on drone attacks.

Drone attacks have always been a controversial topic, straining US-Pakistan relations. The strikes are extremely unpopular in Pakistan, amid reports that the attacks kill civilians. However, US officials defend the attacks as an effective tool to minimize civilian casualties.

It was recently reported that one influential research center has misattributed the civilian death toll for these air strikes. New America Foundation, a center-right think tank has been found to have included civilian deaths as counting towards the number of militants eliminated. While the NAF claims that only 30% of the casualties from drone strikes were attributed to civilian deaths, testimonies from the families of victims indicate that number to be at least 74%.

GUEST: Gareth Porter, investigative journalist and historian specializing in U.S. national security policy. Gareth also recently won the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism for 2012 for his investigation of the US’s ‘killing strategy’ in Afghanistan. He is a frequent guest on Uprising.