|
 |
 |
|
US open to cooperating with UN probe into drone strikes
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations says the White House has not ruled out cooperating with a pending U.N. probe into the Obama administration's use of drone strikes.
“Well, we have questions about the appropriateness of that approach,” Ambassador Susan Rice told reporters on Monday. “But we will look at it on its merits, and as we do with all the work of the rapporteurs, we’ll judge their work on the substance of their products.”
Rice’s comments came after the U.S. won a second three-year term on the U.N. Human Rights Council on Monday, beating out Greece and Sweden.
Two U.N. experts announced last month that a panel would likely investigate civilian deaths caused by the drone strikes, which are immensely unpopular in Pakistan and other countries where they're carried out.
The probe comes as President Obama's counterterrorism strategy of beefed-up drone strikes is coming under increased scrutiny both in the United States and abroad. A study by human-rights researchers at Stanford University and New York University published in September concluded that they kill far more civilians than commonly acknowledged and haven't made America any safer.
But the administration has defended the use of drones as an effective force, recently expanding their use to northern Yemen in October, where strikes killed three suspected al Qaeda members.
