Farea al-Muslimi
Farea al-Muslimi is a Yemeni youth activist who spent a year living with an American family and attending high school here. He has returned to attend the Senate’s first-ever public hearing on the Obama administration’s targeted killing program. The White House did not send an official to defend the program’s legality.
“This is not an isolated incident. The drone strikes are the face of America to many Yemenis. I have spoken to many victims of U.S. drone strikes, like a mother in Jaar who had to identify her innocent 18-year-old son’s body through a video in a stranger’s cellphone, or the father in Shaqra who held his four- and six-year-old children as they died in his arms. Recently in Aden, I spoke with one of the tribal leaders present in 2009 at the place where the U.S. cruise missiles targeted the village of al-Majalah in Lawdar, Abyan. More than 40 civilians were killed, including four pregnant women. The tribal leader and others tried to rescue the victims, but the bodies were so decimated that it was impossible to differentiate between those of children, women and their animals. Some of these innocent people were buried in the same grave as their animals. In my written testimony, I provided detail about the human cost of this and other drone strikes based on interviews I have conducted or have been part of.”
You can hear his story in full on Democracy Now!
