Drone operators accused of using bath salts, synthetic marijuana and alcohol on the job, while calling children “fun-size terrorists”

November 25th, 2015, by Julie Wilson

A group of four former Air Force drone operators and technicians are speaking out against what they say is an ineffective and overly cruel U.S.-led assassination program, that’s creating a cold-blooded insensitivity towards humanity, as it routinely murders far more innocent civilians than it does suspected militants.

The former drone operators came forward with several shocking allegations, including that a significant number of their colleagues are abusing drugs while on the job in an attempt to escape the reality of what they’re doing – killing innocent women and children, that as a result, is breeding more terrorists and further endangering American lives, according to a report by The Intercept.

Drone operators aren’t just using low-level drugs either, say the whistle-blowers, but dangerous mind-altering bath salts, a central nervous system stimulant that may cause hypothermia, seizures, convulsions and even death. The operators are also accused of using synthetic marijuana and alcohol in order to avoid detection during potential drug screenings.

Operators taking bath salts before launching drone strikes

Michael Haas, a former senior airman in the Air Force, says “he knew at least a half-dozen people in his unit who were using bath salts and that drug use had ‘impaired’ them during missions.” Drone operators used the drugs to try and “bend that reality and try to picture yourself not being there,” he added.

Joining Haas are former Air Force Staff Sgt. Brandon Bryant along with former senior airmen Cian Westmoreland and Stephen Lewis – all of whom have conducted kill missions in the post-9/11 war on terror in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Together, they have served more than 20 years in the U.S. military’s covert assassination program, killing hundreds of people in conflict zones, a majority of which were likely civilians, reports The Guardian.

The veterans felt even more compelled to come forward with their allegations following the terror attacks in Paris as they strongly believe the U.S. drone program is directly contributing to the rise of ISIS and potential future attacks in the west.

“We have seen the abuse firsthand,” Bryant said, “and we are horrified.”

Drone operators equated killing children to “cutting the grass before it grows too long”

The veterans, who denounced the drone program in an interview with The Guardian and through an open letter addressed to President Obama, say that the targeted assassination program is “aiding terrorist recruitment and thus undermining the program’s goal of eliminating such fighters,” The Intercept reports.

“We kill four and create 10 [militants],” said Bryant in a press conference exposing the program’s failures. “If you kill someone’s father, uncle or brother who had nothing to do with anything, their families are going to want revenge.”

Equally disturbing, is the “colorful language” being used by drone operators who refer to children as “fun-size terrorists,” and equate killing them to “cutting the grass before it grows too long,” or “pulling the weeds before they overrun the lawn,” according to Haas,” who admits he had to kill part of his conscience to continue doing his job.

This callous attitude towards killing innocent people is evidently preferred by the U.S. military.

“Haas said operators become acculturated to denying the humanity of the people on their targeting screens. ‘There was a much more detached outlook about who these people were we were monitoring,’ he said. ‘Shooting was something to be lauded and something we should strive for.’

“The deaths of children and other non-combatants in strikes were rationalized by many drone operators, Haas said. As a flight instructor, Haas claimed to have been non-judicially reprimanded by his superiors for failing a student who had expressed ‘bloodlust,’ an overwhelming eagerness to kill,” The Intercept reported.

http://www.evil.news/2015-11-25-drone-operators-accused-of-using-bath-salts-synthetic-marijuana-and-alcohol-on-the-job-while-calling-children-fun-size-terrorists.html