Theresa May is reportedly helping to put ordinary people onto a targeted ‘kill list’ under Donald Trump’s administration. And human rights organisation Reprieve has set up a quiz to show you how this happens; and how easy it is to get onto the list.
Are you safe?
The quiz asks users to answer seven questions, including:
- Have you ever answered a call from someone you don’t know?
- Have you ever taken or driven a taxi?
- Are you male and aged between 18 and 80?
Answering positively to these questions, which involve common behaviour for many, could see them as targets for killing. Because Trump inherited a covert kill programme from former US President Barack Obama, which has seen innocent people in Yemen and Pakistan killed by drone strikes. And it’s because they carried out these common activities. After each question in the quiz, Reprieve explains how this happens.
Male and use a taxi?
Reprieve says that US drones have hit targets while they’ve been travelling in cars or taxis despite the presence of civilian passengers. Salim al-Qawli, for instance, was killed in 2013 while giving his cousin and two other customers a ride in his taxi.
Furthermore, the US counts all males aged between 18 and 80 as combatants if they’re within a strike zone. It also uses mass surveillance of phone call data to to see if your activity is ‘suspicious’. And so does the UK…
The UK’s “secret policy”
Reprieve points out that Trump’s ‘kill list’ uses data that the British government gives to the US.
In 2016, the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Drones launched a new inquiry that included UK support for covert targeted killing outside armed conflict by the US. And as Reprieve states in its petition:
Our Government has refused to publish its secret policy for supporting Trump’s kill programme, despite the risk it could result in the killing of innocent people.
The US ‘kill list’ policy is disturbing. But the fact that the UK would potentially pass on our data for Trump to use in his killing programme is even more disturbing.
This is beyond chilling. And May should, at the very least, know that her own citizens are not on board.
Get Involved!
– Take Reprieve’s quiz. And sign its petition asking Theresa May not to pass lethal data to the US.
– Read more articles from The Canary Global; and follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more independent international coverage.
– Read this article from Labour MP Clive Lewis about why “Britain must resist colluding in US drone terror”.
Featured image via Flickr
