Using Kids in the Drone War in Yemen

I have mixed feelings about this story-- on the one hand, the basic premise on using a child is very disturbing, on the other hand, the premise also serves to suck one into a long propaganda piece about al-CIA-duh and how they are on the rise in Yemen. The interview repeats every bogus terror plot from "al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula" as if it was gospel. Nauseating!

But this part is definitely disturbing any way you slice it:

GREGORY JOHNSEN: Right. This is something that the State Department documents every year in its Trafficking in Persons Report. And, in fact, in 2008, Congress passed a law, the Child Soldier Prevention Act. And this has been—this is a law that’s been in effect since 2010. And basically what it says it that any country that the U.S. designates as using children in conflict, the U.S. cannot then provide military training, and they can’t provide military weapons. Now, this is something that impacts a lot of different countries, but President Obama, for the past three years, has signed—each and every year that the law has been in effect, he’s signed a waiver exempting Yemen from that. And Yemen is the only country in the world that’s received a waiver each and every year, a full waiver.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: So, in essence, that waiver then allows Yemen to do something like they did in this case and employee an eight-year-old boy.

Gregory Johnsen is the propagandist... he apparently is a scholar on Yemen, and lately has been touting the idea of al Qaeda being resurgent in Yemen.  Perhaps this is just a way to make more money for himself, but still, propaganda is propaganda.