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What we can learn from Ingrid Loyau-Kennet's grace under pressure - The Guardian

Posted: 23 May 2013 05:12 AM PDT

Link to video: Ingrid Loyau-Kennet on her confrontation with alleged Woolwich attacker

At the scene of Wednesday's killing in Woolwich, Ingrid Loyau-Kennet got off a bus and spoke to the two killers, seemingly concerned only to keep them calm and stop them hurting anybody else. In photographs taken by other witnesses, we see her standing just a few feet away from a man holding a huge knife. Later, in an interview, she said she wasn't scared because the men didn't seem to be drunk or on drugs, but appeared extremely normal. They wanted to speak, so she let them. When her bus started to move off, she asked if there was anything she could do before politely taking leave. She then calmed the people on the bus, some of whom had, understandably, become hysterical.

Loyau-Kennet's only formal preparation for this moment seems to have been a course in first aid for her work as a Brownie leader. Still, she was somehow instinctively able to perform the task of an experienced hostage negotiator, even delicately asking one of the killers if he wanted to give her "what he was holding in his hand"– phrased in less discreet terms, a blood-soaked cleaver. In those few minutes Loyau-Kennet showed something like a super-human fortitude and presence of mind. To many of us, what she did may seem unthinkable. She somehow managed to draw on huge inner reserves of courage, to pull together a lucid understanding of the situation, and to act accordingly. Although, in clinical work, one often hears of people's surprisingly equanimous reactions to catastrophe, Loyau-Kennet's behaviour is striking because of the way in which it may have influenced the unfolding of events.

One of the most extraordinary aspects of yesterday's attack was perhaps the behaviour of everyone involved. The two killers didn't run away from the scene but stayed to explain themselves to anyone who would listen. One of them even apologised for exposing passersby to such horror. Witnesses later spoke to news cameras with a kind of numbed perplexity. The murder was presented to them as the logical outcome of an unjust situation, not as a bloodthirsty attack. The witnesses themselves apparently weren't in any danger at the time – although the assault wasn't necessarily over. The two men let everyone know that they planned to kill police who arrived at the scene. If the onlookers had in any way seemed to side with the law, they may very well have found themselves in trouble. Loyau-Kennet knew better than to show allegiance with the dead or dying soldier by tending to his body. She simply continued to treat the killers as human beings, even showing them kindness.

Hollywood films are full of scenes of heroism in extreme circumstances. We are fed endless representations of brave people doing the right thing. But something about the events in Woolwich doesn't fit the Hollywood pattern. First, the murderers are too civil, too "normal", not nearly furtive enough. And secondly, the witnesses appear to be affected by this matter-of-factness. Instead of panicking and running away they stay to speak, listen and even make films.

Of course, it's impossible to know how one would respond to such an unprecedented situation, but it would seem that the normal reaction to a man holding a bloodied weapon is to escape at speed. This is precisely what didn't happen yesterday. This must be, in part, because of the highly unusual stance taken by the killers, but also perhaps because of the exceptional nature of some of the people who happened to be there at the time. Rather than the macho, hyper-trained, lean-jawed heroes relentlessly dished up by Hollywood, we saw an exceptionally humane middle-aged mother act in a way that may very well have prevented further tragedy.

In terms of dealing with conflict, and limiting catastrophe in real-time, perhaps Ingrid Loyau-Kennet's behaviour can teach us a great deal. By acting with phenomenal generosity, grace and understanding, she seems to have helped to contain a situation that may easily have spun out of control. If only politicians and military leaders the world over could be so intelligent and careful.

Obama to bring US drone programme out from 'legal shadows' of the CIA - The Guardian

Posted: 23 May 2013 09:09 AM PDT

Dan Roberts in Washington

Barack Obama at a White House press conference

US military likely to now work within a new set of legal guidelines agreed by Obama this week. Photograph: Larry Downing/Reuters

The White House was due to announce a series of measures aimed at moving the controversial US drone killings programme out of the "legal shadows" on Thursday.

In a major counter-terrorism speech billed as marking the end of an unfettered "war" on terror, Barack Obama was expected to reveal that he will move responsibility for future drone operations from the CIA to the Pentagon so they can be more closely monitored by Congress.

A more limited range of strikes in countries such as Yemen are likely to be carried out by the US military working within a new set of legal guidelines agreed by Obama this week, giving greater clarification on how and when officials can target suspected terrorists operating abroad.

Attorney general Eric Holder told congressional leaders in a letter on Wednesday that they would be briefed in private on whether future drone attacks on suspected terrorists passed the new legal threshold.

Both the White House and the CIA declined to comment on details of the policy ahead of the speech but government sources told the Guardian they would add to existing congressional oversight measures in place. Until recently the administration did not even publicly admit the existence of the drone programme.

Human rights campaigners have cautiously welcomed the attempt to bring US drone warfare policy into the open, but called on President Obama to publish the new legal tests that he was due to announce later on Thursday.

Dixon Osburn, a director at Human Rights First, said: "On its own, it is not clear that taking things away from the CIA makes a difference – the special operations command at the Pentagon is also secret – but at least the military are schooled in the rules of war."

"It looks like Obama is trying to return his counter-terrorism strategy to something that operates within the law. We want to know what that legal framework is though."

Earlier, the White House marked this new effort to draw a line under the controversial drone-strike policy by admitting for the first time that four American citizens were among those killed by its covert attacks in Yemen and Pakistan since 2009.

In a letter to congressional leaders sent on Wednesday, attorney general Eric Holder Holder claimed one of the US citizens killed, Anwar al-Awlaki, was chief of external operations for al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (Aqap) and had been involved in plots to blow up aircraft over US soil.

However, Holder said three others killed by drones – Samir Khan, Abdul Rahman Anwar al-Awlaki and Jude Kenan – were not "specifically targeted". The second of these victims, Anwar al-Awlaki's son, is said by campaigners to have been 16 when he died in Yemen in 2011.

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism estimates that between 240 and 347 people have been killed in total by confirmed US drone strikes in Yemen since 2002, with a further 2,541 to 3,533 killed by CIA drones in Pakistan.

"The president will soon be speaking publicly in greater detail about our counter-terrorism operations and the legal and policy framework," Holder told 22 senior members of Congress in Wednesday's letter.

"This week the president approved a document that institutionalises the administration's exacting standards and processes for reviewing and approving operations to capture or use lethal force against terrorist targets outside the United States and areas of active hostilities."

The attorney general said this document would remain classified, but relevant congressional committees would be briefed on its contents. No further details were given of other killings in the five-page letter.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama would also outline his renewed attempt to shut the Guantánamo Bay detention centre in the speech, and seek to explain why previous efforts had failed.

The White House said Thursday's speech will cover "broad counter-terrorism policy, including military, diplomatic, intelligence, and legal efforts".

"[Obama] will review the state of the threats that we face, particularly as the al-Qaida core has weakened but new dangers have emerged," it added. "He will discuss the policy and legal framework under which we take action against terrorist threats, including the use of drones.

"He will review our detention policy and efforts to close the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay. And he will frame the future of our efforts against al-Qaida, its affiliates and its adherents."