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UK: British role in CIA killer drones exposed

01 January 2006

The Observer newspaper has revealed the key role played by a British technology company in manufacturing the computer boards that control drones, which are deployed by the US military to attack political opponents in foreign countries in the fight terrorism. The drones are controlled remotely via satellite with a joystick and it is alleged to be able to identify a target before firing a Hellfire missile at it,

One of the more recent examples of drone's deployment was the slaughter of more than 20 innocent people in the small village of Damadola Bukanday in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan in January. The drone circled the village for days before delivering what George W. Bush described as "sudden justice".

Radstone Technology, which is based in Northamptonshire, was unable to comment on its contract with the US nor the role its equipment, described as the "brains of the predator", played in January's massacre. However, the incident did prompt Amnesty International and the Liberal Democrats to say that they would pressurise the government to reveal the truth about the UK's role. Amnesty International's UK campaigns director, Stephen Bowen said: "These kinds of targeted attacks - with surface to air missiles taking the place of the judicial process - appear to be in breach of international law" and called for the government to "investigate what role UK supplied technology has played in the attack."

The Liberal Democrats have written to Defence Secretary, John Reid, to demand whether British personnel and US military bases in the UK are being used to support the US assassination policy. The images taken by the drones are studied at the secret US base at RAF Molesworth in Cambridgeshire, and staff at the American Joint Analysis Centre then use this data to target their victims. A spokesman for the MoD was unable to comment on the issue as it was "a matter for the Americans". Amnesty International maintains that according to international law, extra-judicial killings are always unlawful; that is to say that they cannot be justified by invoking a spurious war on terror.