April, 11 2016, 08:45am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Reprieve's London office can be contacted on: communications [at] reprieve.org.uk / +44 (0) 207 553 8140.,Reprieve US,, based in New York City, can be contacted on Katherine [dot] oshea [at] reprieve.org
Meet Malik Jalal, Who is on the Drone Kill List
In the third revelation in recent days concerning a so-called 'Kill List' of individuals to be targeted in US strikes, today Reprieve client Malik Jalal took to BBC Radio 4's Today programme to ask the US and the UK to stop trying to kill him.
In the third revelation in recent days concerning a so-called 'Kill List' of individuals to be targeted in US strikes, today Reprieve client Malik Jalal took to BBC Radio 4's Today programme to ask the US and the UK to stop trying to kill him.
Invited by Lord Ken MacDonald, the former Director of Public Prosecutions, Malik Jalal has traveled from Waziristan, Pakistan's border area with Afghanistan, to ask parliamentarians and the government that he be taken off the Kill List.Today, Malik Jalal has served a letter on Home Secretary Theresa May, who has oversight of MI5 and the NCA and Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, who has responsibility for GCHQ and MI6, copied in to the US Ambassador. The letter details the prior attempts on his life, and the impact on him, his family and his colleagues in the NWPC. He asks for meetings to clear his name, and to get off the Kill List.
Malik Jalal ("Malik" is a term of respect for a local tribal leader) has been targeted for death four times, but the Hellfire missile has narrowly missed each time. He has told the BBC that his young children live in terror of dying in a missile attack, and that he has been warned by various authorities in the area that he is on the Kill List. He is being targeted because of his work for the North Waziristan Peace Committee (NWPC), trying to bring peace between the Taliban and the Government of Pakistan. Western intelligence agents believe that the NWPC allows the Taliban a safe haven in Waziristan.The NWPC has said they want peace for their community, their families and themselves.
His visit to Britain comes a day after Reprieve released a report - Britain's Kill List - which details the first Kill List of the so-called "War on Terror", where the UK worked with the US to target not just terrorist suspects, but also narcotics traffickers, in the area where Malik Jalal lives. While the Kill List was originally focused on terrorism, the Reprieve report reveals, in late 2001 UK officials are said to have "screamed" to include those they suspected of drug trafficking between Afghanistan and Pakistan. While they initially failed to persuade the US National Security Agency (NSA) to do this, with the support of the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) the UK later won the argument, and drug traffickers were included on the Kill List.
That report follows a Vice investigation, published last Thursday, which found that UK military personnel play a "critical" role in the US drone Kill List programme in Yemen. The UK activity is understood include so-called "hits", "triangulating" intelligence for kill lists, and preparing "target packages".
The reports have caused concern that Prime Minister David Cameron misled parliament on September 7th, 2015, when he said that the assassination of two British nationals in Syria was a "new departure" for the UK. It now appears Britain has been closely involved in Kill List activity for 14 years.
The Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) is scheduled to issue its own report on UK transparency in the use of drones soon.
Commenting, Malik Jalal said: "All I want is for the West to stop trying to kill me, my family and my colleagues with the North Waziristan Peace Committee. They have tried to kill me four times, and my children are terrified. This Kill List is just making things far worse in my homeland."
Shahzad Akbar, Malik Jalal's Pakistani lawyer, and Director of the Islamabad Foundation for Fundamental Rights, said: "Malik Jalal has come all the way to this country to try to speak with people about how he can get off their Kill List and try to protect his family and friends. He is willing to speak to anyone at any time in any place to convince them that this killing is both immoral and counterproductive."
Clive Stafford Smith, Director of Reprieve, said: "It is horrifying that, in the 21st Century, we have drawn up a list of people we want to kill. For a country that loudly proclaims its opposition to the death penalty even after a fair trial, the notion that we would execute him without a trial at all stunningly hypocritical. Malik Jalal puts a very human face on the horror of this policy. If democracy means anything at all, the Prime Minister must order a full and transparent inquiry into the Kill List, starting today."
Reprieve is a UK-based human rights organization that uses the law to enforce the human rights of prisoners, from death row to Guantanamo Bay.
LATEST NEWS
'For the Workers, Not the Billionaires': Bernie Sanders to Join Nationwide Rallies for May Day
"Bernie knows that when the working class—labor, immigrants, community members—stand together, we are force that can defeat any bad boss," said the Philadelphia chapter of the AFL-CIO.
Apr 29, 2025
As U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders continues his nationwide Fighting Oligarchy tour, the longtime economic justice advocate is joining forces with organizers of another major mass mobilization against the "Billionaire Agenda" that has left working families struggling to afford healthcare, education, and the rising cost of living.
On Thursday, one of more than 1,100 May Day rallies will be held at Philadelphia City Hall, where Sanders (I-Vt.) will join the city's AFL-CIO chapter under the banner, "For the Workers, Not the Billionaires."
Announcing that Sanders will speak at the rally at 4:00 pm Thursday, the union said on Facebook that "Bernie knows that when the working class—labor, immigrants, community members—stand together, we are force that can defeat any bad boss... When workers fight, workers win!"
As Common Dreams reported last week, labor unions and advocacy groups are planning rallies in nearly 1,000 cities across all 50 states to mark May 1 or May Day, which commemorates the struggles and victories of the labor movement throughout history.
The events are taking place more than two months into Sanders' Fighting Oligarchy tour, during which he and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) have drawn crowds of thousands in Republican districts in Nebraska, Iowa, Idaho, and other states—addressing a total of 250,000 people, about a third of whom are not registered Democrats, according to Sanders' office.
Advocates say the tour has demonstrated the broad appeal of the progressive lawmakers' prioritizing of issues that impact working families, their demand that the Democratic Party aggressively fight the Trump agenda in any way that they can, and their rejection of billionaires' and corporations' encroachment on the U.S. political system and hoarding of wealth.
Like the Fighting Oligarchy tour, the May Day 2025 rallies aim to "unite working people across race, immigration status, and geography," according to organizers, with attendees demanding:
- An end to the billionaire takeover and government corruption, including tech mogul Elon Musk's spearheading of efforts to slash hundreds of thousands of federal jobs and dismantle agencies;
- Full funding for public schools, healthcare, and housing;
- Protection and expansion of Medicaid, Social Security, and other essential programs that have been attacked by Musk and Trump;
- A halt to attacks on immigrants, Black, Indigenous, trans, and other targeted communities; and
- Strong union protections, fair wages, and dignity for all workers.
After the May Day rally, Sanders is expected to hold events in Harrisburg and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania—located in two of the state's most competitive swing districts that are represented by Republican Reps. Scott Perry and Ryan Mackenzie.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Trump 'Took a Hatchet' to Major US Climate Report by Dismissing All Its Authors
"The only beneficiaries of disrupting or killing this report are the fossil fuel industry and those intent on boosting oil and gas profits," said one person who was working on the 6th National Climate Assessment.
Apr 29, 2025
Hundreds of scientists and experts working on the National Climate Assessment were dismissed by the Trump administration via email on Monday, casting doubt on the future of the federal government's flagship climate report, which was slated to come out by 2028.
On Monday, those working on the 6th version of the report received an email from the Trump administration that the scope of the assessment is being "reevaluated in accordance with the Global Change Research Act of 1990"—in reference to the legislation that mandated the creation of the National Climate Assessment.
"We are now releasing all current assessment participants from their roles," continued the email, the text of which was included in a Monday statement from the group the Union of Concerned Scientists.
"Today, the Trump administration senselessly took a hatchet to a crucial and comprehensive U.S. climate science report by dismissing its authors without cause or a plan," said Dr. Rachel Cleetus, a senior policy director at the Union of Concerned Scientists and an author for the 6th National Climate Assessment (NCA) on the coasts chapter, said on Monday. "People around the nation rely on the NCA to understand how climate change is impacting their daily lives already and what to expect in the future. While not policy prescriptive, the findings of previous reports underscore the importance of cutting heat-trapping emissions and investing in climate resilience to protect communities and the economy."
"The only beneficiaries of disrupting or killing this report are the fossil fuel industry and those intent on boosting oil and gas profits at the expense of people's health and the nation's economic well-being," added Cleetus.
Since entering office, Trump has signed executive orders aimed at bolstering oil, gas, and coal and installed Cabinet members with ties to the fossil fuel industry.
The assessment, which is required by Congress, has been released every few years since 2000 and gives a rundown of how global warming is impacting different sectors of the economy, ecosystems, and communities. The energy and environment focused outlet E&E Newsreported Tuesday that the report is "seen by experts as the definitive body of research about how global warming is transforming the country."
The report last came out in 2023. That National Climate Assessment established that the "effects of human-caused climate change are already far-reaching and worsening across every region" of the United States. The report's authors warned that absent deeper cuts in fossil fuel emissions and accelerated adaption efforts compared to what's currently underway, "severe climate risks to the United States will continue to grow."
Earlier in April, the Trump administration enacted cuts to the U.S. Global Change Research Program, which oversees the production of the National Climate Assessment.
Keep ReadingShow Less
'This Will Gut the FTC': Republicans Push Musk-Backed Plan to Kill Key Antitrust Law
"Jim Jordan and House Judiciary Republicans are directly undermining both current and future litigation against the monopolies that gouge and censor Americans."
Apr 29, 2025
House Republicans are set to consider legislation on Wednesday that experts say would effectively eliminate a law that gives the Federal Trade Commission sole authority to protect the American public from corporations engaging in "unfair methods of competition."
The GOP-controlled House Judiciary Committee, led by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), released the bill Monday as part of a sweeping, filibuster-proof reconciliation package that Republicans are looking to pass as soon as next month.
The new bill states that "all FTC antitrust actions, all FTC antitrust employees, all FTC antitrust assets, and all FTC antitrust funding" must be "transferred to the attorney general." The proposal is virtually identical to Republican legislation that Elon Musk, a lieutenant of President Donald Trump and the richest person in the world, endorsed earlier this year.
Matt Stoller, research director at the American Economic Liberties Project, observed Monday that the House Judiciary Committee measure is "not just a bill to change the office locations and reporting structures." Specifically, Stoller noted that the bill doesn't explicitly transfer to the Justice Department the FTC's authority under Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act to combat "unfair methods of competition."
"That authority," Stoller wrote, "remains with an agency that has no staff and no capacity to litigate, which means it could die."
Alvaro Bedoya, who is currently engaged in a legal fight to get his job back at the FTC after Trump fired him and another Democratic commissioner last month, echoed Stoller's concerns, writing on social media that the Republican bill "doesn't transfer the laws that FTC enforces, or authority to enforce those laws."
"This will gut the FTC," Bedoya wrote, noting that the agency's legal action against pharmacy benefit managers—pharmaceutical industry middlemen—would likely be among the casualties of the Republican bill, given that "the sole law that the FTC alleges was broken in all three counts was that core prohibition against 'unfair methods of competition.'"
Stoller pointed out in his blog post that Section 5 is also used "in the antitrust case against Amazon" and "another case against Corteva/Syngenta over exclusive dealing in seeds and chemicals." It was also "the authority used to ban noncompete agreements," he wrote.
"These cases, as well as every consent decree ever reached under Section 5, are now at risk," Stoller added.
The House Judiciary Committee is slated to mark up the legislation on Wednesday afternoon, starting at 2:00 pm ET.
Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen, said in a statement Monday that the measure as a whole is "laden with language attempting to protect corporate wrongdoers."
"One provision appears to effectively eliminate the FTC pro-competition division," said Gilbert. "Another set of provisions makes significant changes to the already overreaching Congressional Review Act. One measure says that major rules that raise revenue go into effect only if Congress proactively approves them. Another section says for the next four years Congress has to affirmatively approve rules for them not to expire."
"If made law," she warned, "this would sign a death warrant for a slew of important consumer, worker, and environmental protections."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular