I am at the Drone Summit.

A well-known peace group, CODEPINK, the legal advocacy organizations, Reprieve and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and others are gathering now in Washington, DC, for the first international summit on drones. The summit brings together lawyers, journalists, activists, human rights advocates and robotics technology experts, who will all be speaking about several issues that stem from the development, evolution and proliferation of drone technology.

A well-known peace group, CODEPINK, the legal advocacy organizations, Reprieve and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and others will be gathering in Washington, DC, this weekend for the first international summit on drones. The summit will bring together lawyers, journalists, activists, human rights advocates and robotics technology experts, who will all be speaking about several issues that stem from the development, evolution and proliferation of drone technology. Personal stories from Pakistani drone strike victims are also going to be shared.

Twenty-eight protesters were preemptively arrested in DeWitt, New York as they tried to reach Hancock Air Force Base for a demonstration outside the gates against the us of drones. The protesters were charged with “failing to obtain a town permit,” according to the Post-Standard.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) have filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for information on the legal basis for a strike that occurred in Yemen on December 17, 2009. While allegedly targeting a “terrorist,” the strike also killed 41 civilians, including women and 22 children. A cover up has been in effect ever since.

The government of Pakistan has presented the United States government with a list of demands that includes ending CIA drone strikes in the country immediately. The New York Times reports the government has also called on the Obama administration to apologize for “air strikes in November that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.” But, based on the track record of indifference the Obama administration has shown toward a country that has been destabilized by the continued use of drones to attack “militants” or alleged Taliban and Al Qaeda targets, it is unlikely the people of Pakistan get any reprieve at all.

Pakistani lawyer Shahzad Akbar, who sued the United States government over family members of civilian victims of US drone attacks, was invited to participate in an upcoming International Drone Summit in Washington, DC, on April 28, but, the peace group CODEPINK reports the US is refusing to grant him a visa. This continues of a pattern since the Bush Administration of denying visas to anyone who might question the legality and consequences of US military policies.

Dayen’s news roundup from April 3, 2012, including links to stories on foreclosures, drones, Van Jones, Obama second term?, unions, DADT, Jared Berstein, economic recovery, UN, Syria, auto sales, Hillman Prize, Xavier University, Palestine, Newt, pink slime, and more.

A new study out from the UK-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) provides some of the clearest accounting yet of the United States’ covert war on terror in Yemen, including the use of drone strikes. It shows that seventy-five percent of US drone attacks there have taken place since May 2011 during the instability created by the uprising in Yemen.

Hysterical and improbable, it may be, but John Villasenor, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, is convinced that the oncoming proliferation of drone use in the United States will mean Americans have to fear terrorists might use drones. How should we evaluate such claims?

A friend-of-the-court brief supporting a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit was filed last week to help the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) force the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to release records on the agency’s drone program. The organizations’ brief argued that much information had been disclosed on the program already so there was no justification for refusing to acknowledge that records on the program exist.