The chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on International Justice and Peace is questioning the morality and lawfulness of President Obama’s policy for using drones.
Roman Catholic Bishop Richard E. Pates of Des Moines has sent a letter to White House National Security Adviser Thomas Donilon as well as to the chairmen and ranking members of the congressional committees dealing with national security issues arguing in his capacity as chairman of the USCCB Committee on International Justice and Peace that the administration’s policies for using armed drones in its counter-terrorism efforts “seem to violate the law of war, international human rights law, and moral norms.”
Bishop Pates sent the letters on May 17 and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops released them on May 21. That was two days before Obama delivered a major speech at the National Defense University in which he sought to defend and explain his drones policy, while conceding that the use of this new technology “raises profound questions–about who is targeted, and why; about civilian casualties, and the risk of creating new enemies; about the legality of such strikes under U.S. and international law; about accountability and morality.”
