# The roadblock strike > **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou. > > Cite as: "The roadblock strike," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-roadblock-drone-strike/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *The drone strike Daniel Hale described at his own sentencing and that John Kiriakou retells as the reason Hale became a whistleblower: a car approaching a U.S. roadblock in Afghanistan, two girls aged six and nine visible inside, an order to fire given twice over Hale's objection, and a father who afterwards hid his daughters' bodies in a village dumpster for fear that special forces would take them.* - **Operator:** [Daniel Hale](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/daniel-hale), flying from Bagram Air Base - **Target:** A car approaching a U.S. roadblock at normal speed - **In the car:** A man, his wife, and two girls aged six and nine - **The rule:** No strike where children under 14 are present - **Outcome:** Both girls killed; the parents survived and were found innocent **The roadblock strike** is the episode [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) uses to explain why [Daniel Hale](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/daniel-hale) became a whistleblower. Hale cited it himself in court during his sentencing.[1] Hale was stationed at Bagram Air Base, about twenty miles north-west of Kabul, where the drone operators were based. His job was to take information from special forces in the field and control the drones flying above them.[2][1] Special forces on the ground radioed that a car was approaching a U.S. roadblock rapidly and asked him to take it out. Hale flew the drone over the car and could see inside it a man, a woman and two little girls — he later learned they were six and nine years old. He reported that there were children in the car. The programme's own rule, as Kiriakou states it, is that a rocket may not be fired where children under fourteen are present. He was ordered to fire anyway, because the car was approaching rapidly.[1][3] The driver was in fact confused and had not realised he was approaching an American roadblock; he was driving at a normal speed. Hale was ordered a second time to fire, and *"against his better judgment, he did."* The driver and his wife somehow survived. The girls were killed.[3][4] ## The dumpster What followed is the detail Kiriakou returns to. The parents panicked, afraid that the special forces would come and take their daughters' bodies, and the father dragged the two girls' bodies to a village dumpster alongside where the strike had happened and put them in it. It was later determined that both parents were innocent of any crime: *"They were just confused. Their daughters were killed for absolutely no reason."*[5] Kiriakou's closing point is that the episode was not exceptional. Hale said *"that was a normal part of the day — that our drone operators kill innocent people all the time, and the government just doesn't want you to know about it."*[5][6] ## See also - [Daniel Hale](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/daniel-hale) - [The Drone Papers](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-drone-papers) ## Sources 1. Daniel Hale and America's unending persecution of whistleblowers (2021-10-29), at 23:09. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rss365a647a&t=1389s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2021-10-29-scheer-intelligence-daniel-hale-and-america-s-unending-persecutio/ 2. Daniel Hale and America's unending persecution of whistleblowers (2021-10-29), at 22:38. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rss365a647a&t=1358s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2021-10-29-scheer-intelligence-daniel-hale-and-america-s-unending-persecutio/ 3. Daniel Hale and America's unending persecution of whistleblowers (2021-10-29), at 23:40. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rss365a647a&t=1420s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2021-10-29-scheer-intelligence-daniel-hale-and-america-s-unending-persecutio/ 4. Daniel Hale and America's unending persecution of whistleblowers (2021-10-29), at 24:14. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rss365a647a&t=1454s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2021-10-29-scheer-intelligence-daniel-hale-and-america-s-unending-persecutio/ 5. Daniel Hale and America's unending persecution of whistleblowers (2021-10-29), at 24:46. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rss365a647a&t=1486s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2021-10-29-scheer-intelligence-daniel-hale-and-america-s-unending-persecutio/ 6. Daniel Hale and America's unending persecution of whistleblowers (2021-10-29), at 25:19. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rss365a647a&t=1519s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2021-10-29-scheer-intelligence-daniel-hale-and-america-s-unending-persecutio/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-roadblock-drone-strike/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt