"Astonishingly Disturbing" - Endless War Across the Globe

[Lauren Johnson]

that's our guy

The speech served to counter critics who say the drone program has been bathed in secrecy, as Obama offered more details on when the U.S. will deploy drone strikes.

But Obama's speech appeared to expand those who are targeted in drone strikes and other undisclosed "lethal actions" in apparent anticipation of an overhaul of the 2001 congressional resolution authorizing the use of force against al Qaida and allied groups that supported the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

In every previous speech, interview and congressional testimony, Obama and his top aides have said that drone strikes are restricted to killing confirmed "senior operational leaders of al Qaida and associated forces" plotting imminent violent attacks against the United States.

But Obama dropped that wording Thursday, making no reference at all to senior operational leaders. While saying that the United States is at war with al Qaida and its associated forces, he used a variety of descriptions of potential targets, from "those who want to kill us" and "terrorists who pose a continuing and imminent threat" to "all potential terrorist targets."

The previous wording also was absent from a fact sheet distributed by the White House. Targeted killings outside of "areas of active hostilities," it said, could be used against "a senior operational leader of a terrorist organization or the forces that organization is using or intends to use to conduct terrorist attacks."

The preconditions for targeted killings set out by Obama and the fact sheet appear to correspond to the findings of a McClatchy review published in April of U.S. intelligence reports that showed the CIA killed hundreds of lower-level suspected Afghan, Pakistani and unidentified "other" militants in scores of drone attacks in Pakistan's tribal are during the height of the operations in 2010-11.

Nearly 4,000 people are estimated to have died in U.S. drone strikes since 2004, the vast majority if them conducted by the CIA in Pakistan's tribal area bordering Afghanistan.

The fact sheet also said that those who can be killed must pose a "continuing and imminent threat" to "U.S. persons," setting no geographic limits. Previous administration statements have referred to imminent threats to the United States the homeland or its interests.

"They appear to be broadening the potential target set," said Christopher Swift, an international legal expert who teaches national security studies at Georgetown University and closely follows the targeted killing issue.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/05/23/19...rylink=cpy