無人機戰爭的透明度 Transparency in the Drone Wars

The New York Times

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD MARCH 19, 2016

白宮下個月將要公開有多少作戰和非作戰政府官員，確信在宣戰區以外的地方，被無人機殺害。反恐計畫的道德性與合法性長期受到質疑，歐巴馬政府將以此揭開有爭議的反恐計畫的神秘面紗。那樣作還是太少，也太晚。

The White House is expected next month to disclose how many combatants and noncombatants government officials believe have been killed in drone strikes outside declared war zones. The Obama administration will bill this as an effort to peel back a layer of secrecy on a controversial counterterrorism program that has long been dogged by questions about its morality and legality. That will be too little, too late.

美國總統歐巴馬的國土安全與反恐顧問摩納可，在這個星期的演講中說，更大的透明度是應當做的正確事，是維持我們反恐動作合法性，必不可少的。這是合理的目標，但是歐巴馬當局用超過七年的時間，坦率地向美國人解釋，反恐計畫的範圍和法律基礎，以及美國在阿富汗、伊拉克和敘利亞的戰區以外的地區，採取的致命反恐行動。

Lisa Monaco, the assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, said in a speech this month that greater transparency “is the right thing to do” and is essential in order to “maintain the legitimacy of our counterterrorism actions.” That is a reasonable goal, but the administration has had more than seven years to forthrightly explain to the American people the scope and legal underpinnings of its drone program and other lethal counterterrorism operations outside war zones in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.

因為911的攻擊，五角大廈和中央情報局在巴基斯坦、索馬利亞、葉門和利比亞，發動數百次的攻擊。根據美國秘密反恐行動的編輯數據，這造成數百名的平民傷亡。

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency have launched hundreds of strikes in Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen and Libya. These have resulted in hundreds of civilian casualties, according to the which has compiled the most comprehensive data on secret American counterterrorism operations.

歐巴馬政府其中一個目標是要說明，自從白宮在2013年實行更嚴格的規則 後，無人機殺害公民的數量變得更少。 但是，官員沒有打算公布細節，說明被攻擊傷亡人數或攻擊的地方，那些資訊將揭露美國政府在那些地方犯下最嚴重的錯誤。白宮也沒有要釋出未經編輯的文檔，概述在宣戰區外執行殺人任務的規則，那些部分，歐巴馬總統在2013年5月的例行演說曾提及。 那份文件必須公開，揭露政府如何選擇反恐目標、定義攻擊與尋求避免傷及無辜者的細節。

One of the goals of the administration is to show that it has killed fewer civilians in drone strikes since the White House instituted more stringent rules of engagement in 2013. But officials are not expected to release a detailed breakdown of casualties by strike or geographic area, which would reveal where the gravest errors have been committed. Nor is the White House expected to release the unredacted document outlining rules for lethal missions outside declared war zones that Mr. Obama described in general terms in a speech in May 2013. That document, which should be made public, could reveal details about how the government picks targets, defines combatants and seeks to avoid killing innocent bystanders.

更進一步說，政府必須公布，或者至少提供更多早期法律備忘錄的資訊，這些早期法律備忘錄據信能夠幫助理解反恐的範圍，並且限制美國政府殺掉海外人士的權力。

Further, the government should release, or at least provide more information about, earlier legal memos that are believed to outline its understanding of the scope and limits of its authority to kill people abroad.

歐巴馬政府必須停止將無人機任務交給中央情報局處理，先前將無人機任務歸類為中央情報局，因此內容屬於機密。這樣，政府從一開始就沒有祕密，反恐計畫也沒有理由不被公眾監督。

The administration should also stop treating the drone operations carried out by the C.I.A. as presumptively classified, and therefore secret. They were hardly a secret to begin with, and there is no reason to keep the agency’s program shielded from public scrutiny.

雖然這份報告將會比較晚出現，也沒有巨大的啟示，白宮希望鼓勵未來的美國政府公布關於反恐任務的訊息。其中一個選擇是建立執法程序，作為報告要件；另一個是由立法委員要求政府提供這類的報告，雖然國會先前關於反恐計畫的提案已經消失無蹤了。

Even though the coming report will be late and, in all likelihood, not hugely revelatory, the White House hopes to encourage future administrations to release information about counterterrorism operations. One option is an executive order establishing a reporting requirement; another is to require such reports by legislation, though previous proposals in Congress for reports on counterterrorism programs have gone nowhere.

有些事情必須做，這是很重要的。其他的國家正在建立無人機隊，美國設立一個危險的先例。如果美國政府沒有建立一套透明程序，這是發出一個訊號，允許政府在沒有公開披露理由或任何可能產生的附帶損害下，讓無人機從空中殺人。

It’s important that something be done. Other nations are building fleets of drones, and America has set a dangerous precedent. It has signaled that it’s permissible to kill people from the sky without publicly disclosing the justification or any collateral damage that might result.