Camp Lemonnier: Drone Central

Legionnaire Eugene Bullard

Once it was the marching grounds of the French Foreign Legion, but the desert outpost is now drone central in America's secret war in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian peninsula. The operations are so secret that even the drone flyers use noms de guerre with the other marines and soldiers stationed in the back of beyond. A glimpse into the murky world of drone warfare, increasingly America's weapon of choice against an enemy that wears no uniform and crosses state boundaries at will, was obtained by the Washington Post which examined unclassified procurement documents and crash reports. Apparently the drones crash frequently; five drones have crashed while returning to base since January 2011. The Camp located in Djibouti has grown to a 500 acre facility with 3200 troops exclusively dedicated to counterterriorism, making it unique in the Pentagon's globe spanning empire. Three hundred Special Operations personnel ensconced in buildings sprouting satellite dishes behind concertina wire plan and execute raids in the failed state of Somalia and civil-war torn Yemen where Al Qaeda is active. Both the CIA and increasingly the Pentagon's Joint Special Operations Command are conducting sorties. Camp Leonnier is no longer just a Marine expeditionary camp, it is becoming a hardened US military base. About $1.4 billion in construction projects are planned over the next twenty-five years including facilities that could house up to 1,100 Special Operations forces.

Of course the Navy is not to be outdone in the drone war race. It is currently testing a drone for aircraft carrier landings that can cary 4,000 pounds of munitions (XB-47B).  It is also testing a drone helicopter. If these tests are successful, then the United States could carry out remote controlled air strikes anywhere in the world without seeking permission to use airbases on foreign soil or risking pilots' lives. Not quite Zeus hurling lightning bolts, but a reasonable facsimile. The ethical questions of remote controlled killing of enemies that may include US citizens* have been thrust aside in the search for efficient weapons that are relatively riskless for their operators. A Harvard law professor said Obama's brutal embrace of a legal theory that allows the assassination of citizens anywhere in the world "a repudiation of the Magna Carta". Divine right of the emperor, anyone?

*Obama ordered the killing of US citizen and Al Qaeda propagandist Anwar Awlaki in 2009 using a ship launched Tomahawk cruise missile armed with cluster bombs, The cruise missle missed Awlaki but 52 Yemenis were killed, more than half of which were women and children. The United States is not a signatory to the international convention against cluster munitions. Awlaki was killed by a drone strike in September 2011. Two weeks later Obama killed his 16 year old son in another drone strike. Abdel-Rahman Awlaki was born in Denver.  His father was born in New Mexico.  Regardless if Anwar Awlaki was a bad actor who deserved death, the slippery slope has been institutionalized in the course of two administrations making a mockery of the Bill of Rights.