Drone Victims Have No Right to Complain

Will Grigg
Oct. 16, 2013

Pakistani citizen Rafiq ur Rehman watched as his mother was blown apart by a drone-fired missile. He and his two children were severely wounded. Rehman was invited by Florida Democratic Congressman Alan Grayson to offer testimony. He would have been the first survivor of a US drone attack to do so.

Rep. Grayson’s invitation came to naught, however, when the State Department denied a visa to Rehman’s attorney, Shahzad Akbar. Mr. Akbar, the founder and director of a Pakistani human rights group, is an internationally respected jurist who has visited the US on several previous occasions.

Akbar once held a diplomatic visa while working as a consultant to the US Agency for International Development. He has never been accused of corruption, criminal acts, or affinity for terrorism. Two years ago, when he started speaking out against drone strikes in his country, Akbar began to experience visa difficulties. Now he is effectively banished from the United States.

Similar treatment has been inflicted on other Pakistani officials and activists who have objected to the drone onslaught on their country.

Every imperial elite believes it is entitled to kill. The Regime in Washington may be the first to insist that its victims have no right to complain about their suffering.