cp-Ed Contributor

The Drone That Killed My Grandson 

By NASSER al-AWLAKI
Published: July 17, 2013 10 Comments

SANA, Yemen — I LEARNED that my 16-year-old grandson, Abdulrahman — a United States citizen — had been killed by an American drone strike from news reports the morning after he died.

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The missile killed him, his teenage cousin and at least five other civilians on Oct. 14, 2011, while the boys were eating dinner at an open-air restaurant in southern Yemen.

I visited the site later, once I was able to bear the pain of seeing where he sat in his final moments. Local residents told me his body was blown to pieces. They showed me the grave where they buried his remains. I stood over it, asking why my grandchild was dead.

Nearly two years later, I still have no answers. The United States government has refused to explain why Abdulrahman was killed. It was not until May of this year that the Obama administration, in a supposed effort to be more transparent, publicly acknowledged what the world already knew — that it was responsible for his death.

The attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., said only that Abdulrahman was not “specifically targeted,” raising more questions than he answered.

My grandson was killed by his own government. The Obama administration must answer for its actions and be held accountable. On Friday, I will petition a federal court in Washington to require the government to do just that.

Abdulrahman was born in Denver. He lived in America until he was 7, then came to live with me in Yemen. He was a typical teenager — he watched “The Simpsons,” listened to Snoop Dogg, read “Harry Potter” and had a Facebook page with many friends. He had a mop of curly hair, glasses like me and a wide, goofy smile.

In 2010, the Obama administration put Abdulrahman’s father, my son Anwar, on C.I.A. and Pentagon “kill lists” of suspected terrorists targeted for death. A drone took his life on Sept. 30, 2011.

The government repeatedly made accusations of terrorism against Anwar — who was also an American citizen — but never charged him with a crime. No court ever reviewed the government’s claims nor was any evidence of criminal wrongdoing ever presented to a court. He did not deserve to be deprived of his constitutional rights as an American citizen and killed.

Early one morning in September 2011, Abdulrahman set out from our home in Sana by himself. He went to look for his father, whom he hadn’t seen for years. He left a note for his mother explaining that he missed his father and wanted to find him, and asking her to forgive him for leaving without permission.

A couple of days after Abdulrahman left, we were relieved to receive word that he was safe and with cousins in southern Yemen, where our family is from. Days later, his father was targeted and killed by American drones in a northern province, hundreds of miles away. After Anwar died, Abdulrahman called us and said he was going to return home.

That was the last time I heard his voice. He was killed just two weeks after his father.

A country that believes it does not even need to answer for killing its own is not the America I once knew. From 1966 to 1977, I fulfilled a childhood dream and studied in the United States as a Fulbright scholar, earning my doctorate and then working as a researcher and assistant professor at universities in New Mexico, Nebraska and Minnesota.

I have fond memories of those years. When I first came to the United States as a student, my host family took me camping by the ocean and on road trips to places like Yosemite, Disneyland and New York — and it was wonderful.

After returning to Yemen, I used my American education and skills to help my country, serving as Yemen’s minister of agriculture and fisheries and establishing one of the country’s leading institutions of higher learning, Ibb University. Abdulrahman used to tell me he wanted to follow in my footsteps and go back to America to study. I can’t bear to think of those conversations now.

After Anwar was put on the government’s list, but before he was killed, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights represented me in a lawsuit challenging the government’s claim that it could kill anyone it deemed an enemy of the state.

The court dismissed the case, saying that I did not have standing to sue on my son’s behalf and that the government’s targeted killing program was outside the court’s jurisdiction anyway.

After the deaths of Abdulrahman and Anwar, I filed another lawsuit, seeking answers and accountability. The government has argued once again that its targeted killing program is beyond the reach of the courts. I find it hard to believe that this can be legal in a constitutional democracy based on a system of checks and balances.

The government has killed a 16-year-old American boy. Shouldn’t it at least have to explain why?

Nasser al-Awlaki, the founder of Ibb University and former president of Sana University, served as Yemen’s minister of agriculture and fisheries from 1988 to 1990.

A version of this op-ed appeared in print on July 18, 2013, on page A23 of the New York edition with the headline: The Drone That Killed My Grandson.
    • Kevin Rothstein
    • Jarama Valley
    • Verified

    Life is cheap. Governments can do what they want. Ours is no different. We’ve killed millions of innocents directly or indirectly, citizens or not. If we start a war based on lies, and send our people off to fight, and soldiers and civilians die, we are murderers. The Vietnam War was based on lies; the War in Iraq was based on lies. Over 60,000 soldiers died and hundreds of thousands more were wounded. Millions of civilians were killed. maimed and displaced. The guilty remain unpunished. What’s one more life? I’m sorry that young boy was murdered. He’s in fine company.

    • tom mcmahon
    • millis ma
    • Verified

    While redress is legal, and possible, was there any redress from Egypt, or Saudi Arabia after their citizens took over 3000 American lives that started this whole charade of killing ? Was there even an offer ? No there was not, and every person who died on 9/11 was innocent too.
    So how many innocent civilians have died in drone strikes ? How many were Americans who had crossed the line, and how many were not.
    Terrorism is more than a crime, it is a form of warfare. Get that straight.
    Mr. Awlaki if you enjoyed and loved the United States the way you claim to, how did your son manage to become a wanted terrorist,??
    I am sorry for the loss of your innocent son, and hope you do find redress.

    Remember who started killing who, who helped Muslims in Bosnia, Afghanistan saving tens of thousands from the swift death the Taliban was bringing down.
    Is the U.S. guilty of killing hundreds of thousands of Iraqi’s, yes we are, and those responsible should be war criminals and tried as such.

    This war is not ending anytime soon despite what Obama says, not until terror against Americans ends.

    Sorry for your loss, sorry for every innocent Iraqi killed, sorry our country kills indiscriminatly, I wish I heard from Muslims the same I sorry my Islamic brethren are idiots for terror.

    • Tim B
    • Seattle
    • Verified

    This administration and the previous one have willfully executed many innocents, then using antiseptic terms like ‘collateral damage’ to describe these horrific actions. I say willfully because they know full well that these strikes will not only kill a possible intended ‘target’ but all those near the person targeted.

    The supposed goal of all this killing, now by remote control drones, is to quell terrorism, but in the end, these unwarranted deaths create far more ‘terrorists’ and a deep and abiding dislike and disgust toward this country which will last generations.

    Whatever this country once stood for has been abandoned in its reckless pursuit for revenge after the attacks of 9-11.

    • DGA
    • NY
    • Verified

    The US killed an unarmed, 16 year old teenager “not intentionally targeted”.

    Mistakes can happen but the US government owns the family an apology and compensation for an unlawful death. It is regrettable that President Obama, for whom I voted, is unwilling to do so.

    So far, US drone strikes have killed 5 US citizens, of which only was “intentionally targeted”. A kill ratio of 20% indicates that the drone program is handled without due care required by the exceptional circumstance of killing US citizens without the due process required by the US constitution.

    • Anetliner Netliner
    • Washington, DC area
    • Verified

    Mr. al-Awlaki, I am sorry for the tragic loss of your grandson and understand your grief at the death of your son. I, too, am concerned about the U.S.’s use of drones outside of declared war zones.

    I fully support your right to seek legal redress for your grandson’s death and feel that the arrest and extradition of your son for trial in the U.S. would have been the best way of addressing the U.S. government’s claims against him. Had your son been prosecuted for terrorism in the U.S., the best possible defense would have been appropriate, as would have been a full and fair trial.

    I am glad that you retain fond memories of your time in the United States, and hope that you continue to press your claims through the U.S. legal system. By so doing, you reinforce respect for the rule of law.

    At the same time, I would be remiss if I did not express my belief that many of your son’s published views appear to undermine respect for the rule of law and appear to encourage the commission of violence against innocent people. I am vehemently opposed to such views. That said, the U.S. government’s case against your son should have been pursued through the courts.

    Please know that this American supports and respects your use of the American legal system and hopes for peace and healing for you and your family.

    • Bill Appledorf
    • British Columbia
    • Verified

    Drones, like death squads, are instruments of terror.

    Their message is: “Resistance is futile,” which translates readily to “Dissent is futile.”

    Now that NSA databases map every person’s social networks, slaughter of dissidents in the USA — as occurred in Chile, Argentina, Indonesia, Greece, and many other 3rd world countries where U.S.-backed military dictators came to power in the 1970’s — will, once drones fill the skies over the United States, be easy as pie.

    • SW
    • San Francisco
    • Verified

    Sir, you are absolutely entitled to answers from the Obama administration. Your letter clarifies that Obama’s answer to “sanitized” warfare in the form of killing machines in the sky has human consequences, and that he is not to be praised for warmongering simply because it’s by different means than Bush. If someone can be found and targeted, then by all means they can be arrested and brought to trial. That was true for OBL and for your son. It is just as frightening to realize that those of us who are US citizens living on our own soil can be arrested and indefinitely detained on the sole say so of Obama, who blithely states that he would never use such a power. America has created and enabled a dictator, and he’s sitting in the WH.

    • Karen Garcia
    • New Paltz, NY
    • Verified

    A government has the power to declare anything legal. In the case of torture and targeted killings, a bunch of lawyers have secretly drafted new laws simply to give both the Bush and Obama administrations cover for their crimes. Secret courts then rubber-stamp individual “legalities” as added insurance against future prosecution. Just because something is deemed legal does not make it moral. A.G. Holder can parse and pick till he’s blue in the face over the imaginary difference between “due process” and “judicial process.”

    Thanks to the revelations of Edward Snowden, our government should no longer have the luxury of using “national security” as the excuse for their craven secrecy. The American Civil Liberties Union is already bringing a case against the government for its massive collection of phone records, because it can indeed finally prove “standing” to sue. The document, heretofore rendered top secret, is now public. We have the irrefutable evidence. The surveillance guys are even being forced to admit their wrongdoing before an increasingly fed-up Congress.

    So, I hope that Mr. al-Awlaki can also get some honest answers and a measure of justice for what happened to his grandson. I hope he never gives up. Our elected officials need as many thorns in their sides as we can give them.

    • Mark Thomason
    • Clawson, MI
    • Verified

    I could understand Bush doing this or something like it. He was this sort of fool.

    Obama knows better. I went to Harvard Law School, before he did. I lived with guys on the Law Review, and knew one of the Presidents of it. I know from personal experience just what to expect of Obama. He knows just how wrong this is, in great and exacting detail. He could rattle it off without effort. He has no excuse for this.

      • SW
      • San Francisco
      • Verified

      As Obama knows better due to his legal training, he is even more culpable than Bush for twisting the law to meet his own ends. On top of that, he lied and continues to lie to the public. And to think America was outraged when critics started to call his bluff years ago…


Drones (Pilotless Planes) Targeted Killings
Civilian Casualties Obama, Barack