U.S. Blocks Entry for Pakistani Lawyer, Outspoken Critic of Drone Attacks

The U.S. government is preventing a Pakistani lawyer and outspoken critic of drone attacks from entering the country. Rights groups say the move further silences the U.S. drone program's impact on civilians across the world.

The lawyer, Shahzad Akbar, has been invited to speak at the International Drone Summit this month organized by CODEPINK and the legal advocacy organizations Reprieve and the Center for Constitutional Rights. But Akbar has not received the necessary visa nor any information regarding his application for the visa filed in May 2011.

"Denying a visa to people like me is denying Americans their right to know what the U.S. government and its intelligence community are doing to children, women and other civilians in this part of the world," Akbar said. "The CIA, which operates the drones in Pakistan, does not want anyone challenging their killing spree. But the American people should have the right to know."

Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CODEPINK and Global Exchange, notes that Akbar had previously traveled to the U.S. and worked for the U.S. government. "But his relationship with the US government changed in 2010," Benjamin writes, "when he took on the case of Karim Khan, a resident of a small town in North Waziristan who claimed that his 18-year-old son and 35-year-old brother were killed when a CIA-operated drone struck his family home." "Akbar helped Khan sue the CIA and the US Secretary of Defense for the wrongful deaths of his relatives. Since then, dozens of families have come forward and joined the legal proceedings."

The drone program has been particularly deadly for Pakistanis.

"The Obama administration has already launched six times as many drone strikes as the Bush administration in Pakistan alone, killing hundreds of innocent people and devastating families," said Leili Kashani, Advocacy Program Manager at the Center for Constitutional Rights. "By refusing to grant Shahzad Akbar a visa to speak about this abhorrent reality in the United States, the Obama administration is further silencing discussion about the impact of its targeted killing program on people in Pakistan and around the world."

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CODEPINK and Center for Constitutional Rights: Pakistani Lawyer Representing Victims of Drone Strikes Prevented From Speaking in U.S.

Pakistani lawyer Shahzad Akbar has been invited to speak at an International Drone Summit in Washington DC on April 28, but the U.S. government is failing to grant him a visa.

The Summit is organized by the peace group CODEPINK and the legal advocacy organizations Reprieve and the Center for Constitutional Rights. Akbar, co-founder of the Pakistani human rights organization Foundation for Fundamental Rights, is important to the Summit because of his work providing legal aid to victims of CIA-operated drone strikes. Akbar filed the first case in Pakistan on behalf of family members of civilian victims and has been a critical force in litigating and advocating on victims' behalf.

While Akbar has traveled to the United States in the past, he has not been granted permission to return since becoming an outspoken critic of drone attacks in Pakistan that have killed hundreds of civilians. He was previously invited to speak about drone strikes at Columbia University in New York, but he never received a response to the visa application he filed in May 2011. One year later, he is still waiting for a response, and he has been unable to get an answer from the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad as to why his application is being held up.

"Denying a visa to people like me is denying Americans their right to know what the U.S. government and its intelligence community are doing to children, women and other civilians in this part of the world," Akbar said. "The CIA, which operates the drones in Pakistan, does not want anyone challenging their killing spree. But the American people should have the right to know."

The CIA's secret drone program has killed hundreds of people in Pakistan with no due process and no accountability. Akbar represents families whose innocent loved ones have been killed and maimed in these drone attacks.

"Shahzad is the voice for these poor tribal people who have had no recourse," said CODEPINK co-director Medea Benjamin. "It's outrageous that our government is trying to keep him from speaking at the Drone Summit."

"The Obama administration has already launched six times as many drone strikes as the Bush administration in Pakistan alone, killing hundreds of innocent people and devastating families," said Leili Kashani, Advocacy Program Manager at the Center for Constitutional Rights. "By refusing to grant Shahzad Akbar a visa to speak about this abhorrent reality in the United States, the Obama administration is further silencing discussion about the impact of its targeted killing program on people in Pakistan and around the world."

The Drone Summit's organizers vow to keep pressuring the U.S. government to grant Akbar a visa.

In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. government has increasingly deployed unmanned drones in the Middle East, South Asia and Africa. While drones were initially primarily used by the U.S. military and CIA for surveillance, these remotely controlled aerial vehicles are currently routinely used to launch missiles against human targets in countries where the United States is not at war, including Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. As many as 3,000 people, including hundreds of civilians and even American citizens, have been killed in such covert missions.