Key admits role in illegal drone wars

"John Key must be held responsible for New Zealand´s involvement in the US´s illegal secret drone war that is murdering thousands of people," says OASIS member Valerie Morse. "His proud admission that the GCSB has been providing information used by the US in drone wars in Afghanistan and elsewhere shows what a sycophant he is."

John Key today admitted that the GCSB is supporting the US state sanctioned assassination programme. He said that the GCSB provided information to the United States that was used to conduct drone strikes in Afghanistan and possibly elsewhere.

"Under the continued guise of `fighting terrorism´ or `bringing stability´, the US has simply replaced the heavy tanks with which it invaded Iraq and Afghanistan with drones that strike in any country where it suspects `enemies´," said Ms Morse. "New Zealand and the Five Eyes signals intelligence partners are complicit in this assassination programme."

"The US drone war has no legal basis under international law. The UN´s Special Rapporteur on extra-judicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Philip Alston, has said that the use of drones is not combat as much as `targeted killing´. He has repeatedly tried to get the US to explain how it justifies the use of drones to target and kill individuals under international law. The 2011 murder of US citizen Anwar al-Awlaki and his son in Yemen caused serious debate in the US, and the murder of Daryl Jones should do the very same here."

"John Key obviously thinks the US government has the right to decide who - including NZ citizens - is allowed to live and who has to die."

"On June 14, we are calling for NZ actions as part of the international day against the drone wars and against the surveillance state. If the National or Labour parties imagine that being part of the US´s `Dirty Wars´ is perfectly OK, they clearly need a little education. Thousands of New Zealanders took the streets last year to protest the extension of GCSB powers of surveillance. People are totally opposed to the involvement of the GCSB with the NSA and their mass surveillance programmes."

ENDS

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