US activists blast CIA's overseas drone attacks

American anti-war peace activists have rallied against the increasing use of unmanned drones by CIA around the world — especially in Pakistan.

Peace activists and anti-war advocates staged a protest rally on Sunday in the vicinity of the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Langley, Virginia.

"We're absolutely opposed to that (the use of drones), innocent people are killed as a result of that," a demonstrator told Press TV.

The use of predator drone attacks in the covert CIA war in Pakistan has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of civilians.

"And we know the fear that's created among the civilian population in Afghanistan, Pakistan, now they have been used in Yemen, Somalia and Syria. And where is this gonna stop? It really needs to stop now," said Debra Sweet, an activist from the World Can't Wait.

Alexis Miller from the Washington Peace Center said that President Barack Obama and his administration have proliferated the use of unmanned aerial vehicles.

"People don't realize that drone attacks kill hundreds of civilians every time they are executed, and with this policy of Obama, he has done three hundred in the last six [months], or in the first six months of his presidency more than [what] George Bush did in three years,” Miller said.

Peace activist Cindy Sheehan, whose Facebook page has been shut down for promoting the event, maintained that former President George W. Bush and his vice president Dick Cheney should also be held responsible for the drone attacks.

"Dick Cheney and George Bush started many of these programs under their regime, not only did they start them, they greatly increased them after the excuse of 9/11. And we believe that Dick Cheney, George Bush and the whole administration need to be held accountable," said Sheehan.

The veteran activists say the ongoing use of drone attacks is the CIA and military's new form of interventionism and since it is conveniently covert, it will be easier to keep off the radar, despite the fact that the civilian death toll is drastically increasing.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116467§ionid=3510203.