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The United States Makes Payment to Family of Italian Killed in CIA Air Strike

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 March 2017

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Extract

In January 2015, a CIA drone killed an Italian aid worker named Giovanni Lo Porto during a strike on an Al Qaeda compound in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region. In July 2016, the Obama Administration reached a settlement agreement with Lo Porto's family that included a payment by the United States of more than one million euros.

Type
Case Report
Information
American Journal of International Law , Volume 111 , Issue 1 , January 2017 , pp. 188 - 191
Copyright
Copyright © 2017 by The American Society of International Law 

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References

1 Peter Baker, Obama Apologizes After Drone Kills American and Italian Held by Al Qaeda, N.Y. Times (Apr. 23, 2015), at http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/24/world/asia/2-qaeda-hostages-were-accidentally-killed-in-us-raid-white-house-says.html.

2 Elisabetta Povoledo, Giovanni Lo Porto Was Known as Aid Worker Drawn to Needy, N.Y. Times (Apr. 23, 2015), at http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/24/world/europe/american-drone-strike-italian-aid-worker-giovanni-lo-porto.html.

3 Baker, supra note 1.

4 Cora Currier, One Year On, No Justice for Italian Hostage Killed in U.S. Drone Strike, Intercept (Mar. 15, 2016, 8:04 PM), at https://theintercept.com/2016/03/15/one-year-on-no-justice-for-giovanni-lo-porto-italian-hostage-killed-in-us-drone-strike.

5 See White House Press Release, Press Briefing by Press Secretary Josh Earnest (Apr. 23, 2015), at https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/04/23/press-briefing-press-secretary-josh-earnest-4232015 [hereinafter April 23, 2015, Press Briefing].

6 White House Press Release, Statement by the President on the Deaths of Warren Weinstein and Giovanni Lo Porto (Apr. 23, 2015), at https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/04/23/statement-president-deaths-warren-weinstein-and-giovanni-lo-porto [hereinafter Statement by the President on the Deaths of Warren Weinstein and Giovanni Lo Porto].

7 Id.

8 April 23, 2015, Press Briefing, supra note 5.

9 Id.

10 Id.

11 Baker, supra note 1; April 23, 2015, Press Briefing, supra note 5.

12 White House Press Release, Press Briefing by Press Secretary Josh Earnest (Apr. 24, 2015), at https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/04/24/press-briefing-press-secretary-josh-earnest-4242015.

13 Statement by the President on the Deaths of Warren Weinstein and Giovanni Lo Porto, supra note 6.

14 April 23, 2015, Press Briefing, supra note 5.

15 Presidential Policy Guidance, Procedures for Approving Direct Action Against Terrorist Targets Located Outside the United States and Areas of Active Hostilities (May 22, 2013), at https://www.justice.gov/oip/foia-library/procedures_for_approving_direct_action_against_terrorist_targets/download [hereinafter Presidential Policy Guidelines]. See Daugirdas, Kristina & Mortenson, Julian Davis, Contemporary Practice of the United States, 110 AJIL 811 (2016)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

16 Presidential Policy Guidelines, supra note 15.

17 Statement by the President on the Deaths of Warren Weinstein and Giovanni Lo Porto, supra note 6.

18 Id.

19 White House Press Release, Statement by the Press Secretary (Apr. 23, 2015), at https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/04/23/statement-press-secretary [hereinafter Statement by the Press Secretary].

20 April 23, 2015 Press Briefing, supra note 5.

21 Statement by the Press Secretary, supra note 19.

22 April 23, 2015 Press Briefing, supra note 5.

23 See Baker, supra note 1; Will Dunham & Julia Edwards, U.S. Strike Inadvertently Killed U.S., Italian Hostages; Obama Apologizes, Reuters (Apr. 23, 2015, 5:15 PM), at http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-security-hostages-idUSKBN0NE1MI20150423.

24 Baker, supra note 1.

25 Under the agreement, “[t]he United States of America . . . propose[s] to donate as an ex gratia payment in the memory of Mr. Giovanni Lo Porto, born in Palermo, on June 23, 1977, deceased in Pakistan, the amount of Euros 1,185,092.10 . . . to [two members of Lo Porto's family].” Instrument No. 1258, Proposal of Donation (July 8, 2016) at http://inchieste.repubblica.it/it/repubblica/rep-it/2016/09/15/news/morte_lo_porto_l_atto_di_donazione_degli_usa_alla_famiglia-147849038 [hereinafter U.S.-Italy Agreement]; Greg Miller & Greg Jaffe, U.S. Agrees to Pay Nearly $3 Million to Family of Italian Killed in CIA Strike, Wash. Post (Sept. 16, 2016), at https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-agrees-to-pay-nearly-3-million-to-family-of-italian-killed-in-cia-strike/2016/09/16/5c213af6-7c1a-11e6-bd86-b7bbd53d2b5d_story.html. See also Stephanie Kirchgaessner, US to Pay €1m to Family of Italian Aid Worker Killed in Drone Strike, Guardian (Sept. 16, 2016), at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/sep/16/us-to-pay-1m-euros-family-italian-giovanni-lo-porto-drone-strike.

26 U.S.-Italy Agreement, supra note 25, Art. 10.

27 Kirchgaessner, supra note 25.

28 Id. (“Experts say it is already understood that the US offers condolence payments to the families of civilian casualties of airstrikes in Afghanistan and Iraq, but that the Lo Porto agreement stands out because he was killed in Pakistan and because documents show the US was directly involved in the payment.”).

29 Miller & Jaffe, supra note 25.