Drone Wars
Cheap and Lethal: The Pentagon’s Plan for the Next Drone War
UAVs continually kill civilians, but the U.S. military wants to expand its arsenal with an army of new, mass-produced kamikaze AI drones.
Nick Turse
Nick Turse is a contributing writer for The Intercept, reporting on national security and foreign policy. He is the author, most recently, of "Next Time They’ll Come to Count the Dead: War and Survival in South Sudan," as well as "Tomorrow's Battlefield: U.S. Proxy Wars and Secret Ops in Africa," and "Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam." He has written for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, The Nation, and Village Voice, among other publications. He has received a Ridenhour Prize for Investigative Reporting, a James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Turse is a fellow at The Nation Institute and the managing editor of TomDispatch.com.
Contacts:
- @nickturse on X
- SecureDrop
Posts:
After Training African Coup Leaders, Pentagon Blames Russia for African Coups
The U.S. has trained 15 coup leaders in recent decades — and U.S. counterterrorism policies in the region have failed.
Pentagon Compensated Zero Civilian Victims in 2022 — Despite Evidence That the U.S. Killed a Mom and Child in Somalia
The 22-year-old woman and her child were civilian casualties of a U.S. drone strike, but the Pentagon won't return the family's messages.
Biden Says He Told Nigeria to Kill Fewer Civilians — but Nigeria Keeps Killing Lots of Civilians
Nigeria has gotten billions in U.S. security assistance, even as its counterterrorism campaign has a massive civilian death toll.
U.S.-Trained Burkina Faso Military Executed 220 Civilians
A new report reveals details of the massacres by a longtime U.S. ally and counterterrorism partner.
U.S. Troops in Niger Say They’re “Stranded” and Can’t Get Mail, Medicine
U.S. military service members interviewed for a congressional inquiry said intelligence reports about how bad the situation is were being suppressed.
Pentagon Ignores Law Calling for Report on How It Trained So Many African Coup Leaders
The Defense Department blew the deadline for a mandatory briefing to Congress on coups by U.S.-trained African military officers.
Squeezed by African Coups, Biden Cozies Up to the World’s Worst Dictator
Famous for its repression and torture, Teodoro Obiang’s Equatorial Guinea got an aid delivery from U.S. Special Operations forces.
U.S.-Trained Niger Junta Kicks Out U.S. Troops, Drone Base
The junta denounced the “condescending attitude” of an American delegation that tried to save a quarter-billion-dollar U.S. base in Niger.
Who Could Have Predicted the U.S. War in Somalia Would Fail? The Pentagon.
A 2007 Defense Department study found glaring problems with America’s Horn of Africa campaign plan. The U.S. military plunged ahead anyway.