Germany is the Tell-Tale Heart of America’s Drone War
A TOP-SECRET U.S. intelligence document obtained by The Intercept confirms that the sprawling U.S. military base in Ramstein, Germany serves as the high-tech heart of Americas drone program. Ramstein is the site of a satellite relay station that enables drone operators in the American Southwest to communicate with their remote aircraft in Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan and other targeted countries. The top-secret slide deck, dated July 2012, provides the most detailed blueprint seen to date of the technical architecture used to conduct strikes with Predator and Reaper drones.
Amid fierce European criticism of Americas targeted killing program, U.S. and German government officials have long downplayed Ramsteins role in lethal U.S. drone operations and have issued carefully phrased evasions when confronted with direct questions about the base. But the slides show that the facilities at Ramstein perform an essential function in lethal drone strikes conducted by the CIA and the U.S. military in the Middle East, Afghanistan and Africa.
The slides were provided by a source with knowledge of the U.S. governments drone program who declined to be identified because of fears of retribution. According to the source, Ramsteins importance to the U.S. drone war is difficult to overstate. Ramstein carries the signal to tell the drone what to do and it returns the display of what the drone sees. Without Ramstein, drones could not function, at least not as they do now, the source said.
The new evidence places German Chancellor Angela Merkel in an awkward position given Germanys close diplomatic alliance with the United States. The German government has granted the U.S. the right to use the property, but only under the condition that the Americans do nothing there that violates German law.
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/04/17/ramstein/
libdem4life
(13,877 posts)scscholar
(2,902 posts)Great. More PowerPoint PowerPoint PowerPoint. That's all these people know how to do. They waste our money on PowerPoint. They shovel billions of dollars worth of our money to Microsoft for that scam, and then they waste trillions in labor making useless presentations. That's how they do.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)2. They *really* cheapen the news value and seriousness of their coverage with corny headlines like "GAME OF DRONES"...Are you fuckin' kidding me???
https://twitter.com/FranticGoat/status/589124966903316480
jakeXT
(10,575 posts)Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)claim U.S. personnel could be charged as war criminals under German law...I'm going to just label that "bullshit" until someone puts their name to it...
reorg
(3,317 posts)are
Prof. Dr. Claus Kreß LL.M. (Cambridge), Cologne
http://www.uni-koeln.de/jur-fak/kress/index_leh.html
Dr Björn Schiffbauer, Cologne
http://www.voelkerrecht.uni-koeln.de/3051.html?&L=0
Wolfgang Kaleck, Berlin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_Kaleck
Der Spiegel also mentions that you will have a hard time finding any European experts on international law at all who are ready to accept the 'Wild West' view that killings in the name of a ubiquitous 'war' (the so-called war on terror) all around the globe are legally justified.
The German government is actually duty-bound to investigate if there is any suspicion that Ramstein is used in the drone killings or if somebody sues. But when charges were filed, and the State Department was confronted with a catalogue of questions, the issue quickly died once Ms Nuland, of all people, had asserted that the drone killings are not being carried out or controlled from Ramstein.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)and suffer the granddaddy of political shitstorms by letting a NATO ally be tried for war crimes? OK, whatever...
Merkel herself would have to go on trial as well, because there is ZERO chance she doesn't know what's already going on (with her full approval)...