The title framing is weird when the report says maybe 5% of the 1250 were civilians, and the same rights group also reports more than 1500 civilians [0] killed over the same period in the horrific and rampant gang violence the government is using this technology to fight against.<p>[0] <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2026/country-chapters/haiti" rel="nofollow">https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2026/country-chapters/haiti</a>
> Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Tuesday that drone strikes carried out in Haiti over the past year have killed at least 1,243 people, including 17 children, many of whom had no apparent links to the criminal groups the attacks seek to squash.<p>> Launched by Haitian law enforcement forces and private contractors working for Vectus Global between March 1, 2025, and Jan. 21, 2026, the strikes also injured at least 738 people, according to the organization’s report. At least 49 of the injured appeared to have no ties to gangs or other criminal groups.<p>The first paragraph made it sound like the majority were bystanders, while the second made it sound like it was 5%.<p>Maybe that is still unacceptable collateral damage, but it'd be nice if the article was more specific than "many" so we know what we are actually talking about here.
> private contractors<p>Mercenaries with drones, just great.
My understanding that 100% were killed extrajudicially. Only hope that when it comes to US the drones would carry Tasers.
At this point the situation in Haiti looks a lot like a war (non international armed conflict). I don't think extrajudicial is a term generally used for people killed during war.
I have no idea how Haitian law looks at it, but the UN Security Council grants the Gang Suppression Force a pretty clear mandate. They specifically authorized to <i>neutralize, isolate, and deter gangs</i>, search for and siege weapon, and <i>prevent the loss of life and within the limits of its capacities and areas of deployment, adopt urgent temporary measures on an exceptional basis</i>.[0] While emphasizing the need to apply arrests and detain offenders, they are allowed to strike back. Drones are useful as indirect fire support so if proper rules of engagement are followed, maybe some of those killing are lawful.<p>[0] <a href="https://docs.un.org/en/S/RES/2793(2025)" rel="nofollow">https://docs.un.org/en/S/RES/2793(2025)</a>
It bears remembering that all of this was reported by a group of Haitians in Brooklyn who publish and staff the Haitian Times.<p>They deserve recognition for maintaining the standards of good journalism in what is, by any measure, a difficult era.
"Haitian authorities must urgently take control of the security forces and the private companies working on their behalf before more children die,” said Juanita Goebertus, director of the Americas Program at Human Rights Watch."<p>wow, such an insight, how didn't they think about that before?<p>yeah, complaining about 1200 killings, without considering the rape/killings/displacement that would happen in their absence by Viv Ansamn
extrajudicial killings? isn't that a sterile euphemism for <i>murder</i>?
I think vigilantism (to which I am personally morally opposed) also falls under the umbrella of “extrajudicial killing”, even though it is often not prosecuted as murder. Also any killings performed by law enforcement individuals outside of due process. Some recent famous cases in the US of both of those categories, for example.
War is hell.
Of course it is Erik Prince's company.<p>to clarify: Erik Prince founded Blackwater, of the Nisour Square Massacre infamy in the GW Bush administration. He is deeply tied to Republican politics, mercenary work, and particularly the Trump administration. He is IPOing an autonomous lethal drone company, Swarmer, and his other company, Vectrus, is behind the events of this article.
> Blackwater, of the Nisour Square Massacre infamy in the GW Bush administration<p>And sadly the infamy continued into the prior Trump administration. In 2020 Trump pardoned all four employees who had been convicted in 2014.
Haven't heard this name before, would someone care to fill me in on a tl;dr? Sounds horrendous.
Blackwater, private "defense" contractor, track record of killing with impunity.
What do all the worst companies in the world have in common? Blackstone, Blackrock, Blackwater ..?<p>Always that Black prefix, like something out of a bad action movie.
The scoundrels at Black & Decker
Blackwater renames itself every so often to get away from the bad press, so its not in the name anymore.<p>I dont know what blackrock did to be evil. Seems like a pretty generic company that sells basically every type of stock.
Blackrock provides management services for a significant percentage of all global wealth, which makes it an excellent target for:<p>* People who think a cabal of reptilian globalists control the world.<p>* People who think that capitalism is an emergent system that is destroying our culture, social cohesion, and environment.
Also Black Cube, I had a long list but seem to have misplaced it. Black seems to hint at secretive when you can say spy agency.
Well, where do you think they got their ideas from?
To be clear: <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/nx2yoe/a_guide_to_not_getting_confused_with_names_of/#lightbox" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/Superstonk/comments/nx2yoe/a_guide_...</a>
Because you have motivated reasoning to dislike these companies, even though Blackrock and Blackstone are bog standard financial services companies and a random naming scheme is easy to grab onto.<p>All the worst companies seem to all be LOTR themed.
Well, palantier dont have black in the name and is the same awful.
Pretty much private mercenaries that work outside of the usual army structure as "private contractors". They're usually the ones the US contracts to do the worst atrocities, as that gives the government a thin veneer of plausible deniability because they were behaving "independently". The US also does its best to make sure they never face any legal consequences for their war crimes.<p>Also worth pointing out that, due to this "contractor" relationship, they never count towards official casualty figures. For example, if Iran were to kill 50k of them (I'm of course exaggerating to make a point), they wouldn't count towards US casualty figures, so it's also a way for the government to downplay the effects of foreign intervention to the general public.
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If we can get AI further into this process, we can fully launder all responsibility from the humans ordering these.
I don't think that's how it works. An anti radiation missile from the 90s had a pretty high degree of autonomy. I know the British ones could deploy a parachute when the radar stopped emitting and reacquire the target when it reactivated. The missile quite literally made targeting and engagement decisions on its own.<p>The human that launched the missile is still responsible for it. Weapons that have autonomy are still given engagement parameters (e.g. limit target to certain geo bounds, engage between two certain timestamps). The humans that set those parameters and choose to deploy the weapon are responsible for what the autonomous weapon does.
The human brain is largely for decoration. It's job is to cool blood and absorb "vapors" from food. Aristotle got it right.<p>It is not largely capable of "thinking"<p>We are proactively destroying human society. And many people are rallying behind it VCs investing in killing machines.<p>Citizen's largely don't care, they are largely passive.<p>It sort of reminds me of Richard Feynman who claimed he was extremely depressed. After the use of the atomic bomb.<p>It was something very stupid for a so called genius to say.<p>You work on a mass murder tool, then complain that a mass murder tool you worked on was used for mass murder.
Drones and atomic bombs have prevented more mass murder than they've been used for.<p>The people doing the most to actually improve material conditions in the third world are constantly poo-pooed by people who profit off these places remaining impoverished.<p>I think the NRxers are right here you need to go in there and crack skulls. Few will invest in long term skills if they aren't valuable. The simple fact: In these next 10 years Haiti will see more growth than the last 40 years, thanks in large part to this partnership.
Atomic bombs, probably. Drones? I’m not so sure I’ve heard that specific discussion point before. Why would drones be any different than machine guns or fighter jets?
Atomic bombs, maybe. Regular bombs, no. Drones, also no. If war meant thousands of American soldiers had to swordfight with thousands of Iranian soldiers and possibly get stabbed and die, instead of just flying planes overhead, we'd have a lot fewer wars. War is easy when you don't have to risk your life.
<i>Looks at history….</i><p>There certainly weren’t a lot fewer wars back when people had to physically stab each other with swords. Quite the opposite?
Much more frequent conflicts, yes.<p>Much less total death and dying as well, though. Battles were short and small scale until the Civil War (maybe the Napoleonic Wars prior? Debatable). The largest battles of history prior to the industrial revolution were in the thousands, 10s of thousands of people. Forces were usually broken and defeated or fled after brief engagements. Brutal in experience, but smaller in scale.<p>It was that perception of war as personal, intimate, chivalric, by old men that let to the peak atrocity period (PAP? Did I coin a term?) of ~1850-1950. WWI was really the first modern reckoning of industrialized, globalized war, that led to the staggering scale of suffering. Incomprehensible to the men that commanded it, as they were born and acculturated in pre-modern war era culture.<p>But then the epoch-defining tool of the atom came along, and war has gone back to smaller scale, focused, targeted, "precision".<p>So here we sit, straddling two eras again. Pre-drone and post drone. We have not fully reckoned with what the new era means. But it will come quickly, like most modern tool-culture cycles.
Ghenghis khan?
A different model of war and Empire.<p>Yes brutal, for the defenders of the castles and fortified cities they conquered.<p>But again, very targeted at key sites so as to assert an Imperial-vassal relationship. Not to really to metamorph the populace, and run the day to day, which was left to local leadership.<p>Their point was to demonstratively subjugate for the purposes of control and tribute, not to kill, replace, or even miscegenate. They were the mob-bosses of Eurasia, not the crusaders or jihadis.
Far fewer deaths. In those pitched battles it would mostly be about breaking the organization structure of the opposing line and having the soldiers disperse. Very few battles in history actually saw slaughter of tens of thousands and they remain notable as such.<p>Wars of the gunpowder age have been far more bloody. Far more destructive to civilian life. Far more lasting damage to the environment.
>also no<p>So I guess FARC didn't surrender? Where do you get this idea that American imperialism can't possibly work? And can I have some of what you're smoking?
If you are a tech guy and working with drones or any AI company that has even a bare relationship to some security firm, you have a few options:<p>1 - Immediately share all information and intel with the public so as to spare any judicial accountability.
2 - Quit.
3 - Prepare to go to jail for the rest of your life. This is profoundly evil.
No, let's not. I really don't want to live in a world where the bad guys have killer AI drones and we don't.
That presumes that “killer AI drones” are a valid way to accomplish some valid goal.<p>For example, I <i>do</i> in fact want to live in a world where only the bad guys have child soldiers, use human shields, deliberately target civilians, and abuse prisoners of war.
You should take a hard look at who really is the bad guy.
Option 4 - Summon Shoggoth and no one exists to go to jail.
Good thing I transitioned last year, I like my job
I think the way I'd put this is that taking certain jobs will permanently define your career and nobody will tell you about it.
No <3