Jemima Khan demands Hillary Clinton review drone strikes if she becomes President

Activist: Jemima Khan is a critic of robotic warfare
Dave Benett
Rashid Razaq31 October 2016

Jemima Khan today called on Hillary Clinton for an urgent review of America’s “drone war” if she becomes president ahead of a new play about the human cost of the conflict.

Khan is co-producing Drones, Baby, Drones which opens at the Arcola Theatre in Dalston on Wednesday in a production directed by Nicolas Kent and Mehmet Ergen.

The journalist and campaigner, and now theatre and TV producer, has been an outspoken critic of the rise of robotic warfare and the US policy of carrying out extrajudicial killings of suspected militants in countries such as Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen.

Khan said: “The US has a policy of signature strikes, which is essentially killing people on the back of a guess. It’s justified by their supposed suspicious behaviour. There has been a ten-fold increase in the use of drones under Obama. It’s ironic that someone who came into power with the explicit aim of closing Guantanamo has found it legally and morally justifiable to kill suspects rather than prosecute them. Hillary Clinton has been part of that regime and she has to be held accountable for her role.”

Together: Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama on the stump in North Carolina
AP Photo/Chuck Burton

Khan, who recently auctioned off her Donald Trump “groper” Halloween costume for charity, said it was obvious she was “no fan” of the Republican presidential candidate, but Mrs Clinton would have to show greater “transparency” on the use of drone strikes if she wins the election.

“It really stayed with me when I met a young boy from Waziristan the same age as my son and a few days later he was killed in a drone strike. There needs to be public debate in this country, as well as the US, about the changing rules of warfare,” said Khan.

The title of the show is a quote from former US defence secretary Robert Gates about the future of warfare. The production is a double-header with This Tuesday by Ron Hutchinson and Sunday Times foreign correspondent Christina Lamb focusing on the decision to launch a drone strike at the Pentgaon. The Kid by David Greig looks at the impact of a missile hitting a wedding in Pakistan.

Kent said: “In the last few years for every ‘high value terrorist’ target killed by drones in Wazaristan (in Pakistan) the US has accidentally killed nine children - this turns whole communities against the West and breeds more terrorism.”

The play runs until November 26.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in