 |
|
|
The British government
has been asked to investigate whether the country’s major provider of
telecommunications networks and services, BT, is aiding US drone strikes, RT reports.
According to a complaint filed by the charity group Reprieve,
BT has built a military internet cable connecting US air force facilities in
Northamptonshire to a base for unmanned craft in Djibouti on the Horn of Africa.
The human rights group
alleges that the US$23 million (£13 million) fiber-optic circuit built by BT in
2012 was installed to facilitate air strikes in Yemen and Somalia by US Air
Force drones.
Reprieve investigator
Kevin Lo said: “Between this new
evidence, and BT’s claim to work with ‘any government that pays the bills’,
it’s now clear there are serious questions to be asked about BT’s possible
support for US drone strikes. The government should reopen its investigation as
soon as possible, and demand some answers on behalf of the strikes’ civilian
victims.”
The fiber-optic cable
runs from the Royal Air Force Station (RAF) Croughton in central UK to Camp
Lemonnier in Djibouti, which houses the Pentagon’s most important base for
drone operations outside Afghanistan.
BT, however, said the
circuit is a general purpose system not specifically designed or adapted by BT
for military purposes, including drone strikes.
Reprieve said that since
the strikes take place in countries with which the US is not at war and have
killed civilians, "they
violate international and domestic law.”
There have been as many
as 60 confirmed drone attacks in Yemen since 2012, with 385 killed, including
47 civilians and five children, according to the Bureau of Investigative
Journalism.
BT’s contract is set to
run until October 2017. The circuit apparently not only connects Djibouti to
the UK, but also to Capodichino near Naples in Italy, where the US navy has its
European and African command centres.
Reprieve is acting on
behalf of two Yemeni men whose relatives were accidentally killed by drones.
The complaint also
includes evidence of BT’s apparent complicity with intelligence agencies GCHQ
and the NSA to engage in covert mass surveillance, “providing information that is used to target the victims of
drone strikes.”
Reprieve is urging BT to
follow Vodafone in publishing a transparency report, detailing the extent of
its cooperation with government intelligence agencies around the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment