#Us drone strike obama full

'Americans were disturbed when information came to light about a secret policy of torture. The policy, they say, highlights the lack of transparency and accountability for the administration's secret drone program. Human rights advocates called the approach alarming, making it difficult to determine whether and how many noncombatants might have been killed. Who is on the ground at the time is often unknown.Īccording to the Times, the method 'in effect counts all military-age males in a strike zone as combatants, according to several administration officials, unless there is explicit intelligence posthumously proving them innocent.' These so-called 'signature strikes' hit targets based on evidence of suspicious behavior. Times: All Military-Age Males in Strike Zone Are 'Militants'īut the Times reports some of those strikes are made without positive, concrete confirmation of the identities of those in the strike zone.

#Us drone strike obama full

'In full accordance with the law - and in order to prevent terrorist attacks on the United States and to save American lives - the United States government conducts targeted strikes against specific al-Qaeda terrorists, sometimes using remotely piloted aircraft, often referred to publicly as drones,' he said in speech at the Woodrow Wilson Center in D.C. White House counterterrorism advisor John Brennan said last month - for the first time publicly confirming the existence of the drone operations - that the strikes have 'surgical precision' and that civilian casualties are 'exceedingly rare.' At least 153 civilians were also reported victims, with some estimates ranging far higher. While exact numbers are difficult to confirm, NAF estimates at least 1299 militants have been killed in drone strikes since 2009. But there have also been civilian casualties, cases which have enflamed relations between the U.S. The government has not put out its own totals, which are also said to include strikes in Yemen and Somalia, other known havens for suspected terrorists.Īs a result of the calls Obama has made, hundreds of militants are now dead. Bush's presidency - 2004-2008 - the group counted just 49. has launched at least 281 drone strikes in Pakistan alone, according to the New America Foundation, which has tracked them based on news reports and other sources. He often 'approves lethal action without hand-wringing,' the Times writes. He didn't like the idea of 'kill 'em and sort it out later,'' one source close to Obama told Klaidman.īut the president ultimately appears to have reconciled his principles with a form of pragmatism in fighting what is an unconventional war. The mission, described as highly nuanced and complex, reportedly weighs heavily on Obama, who has grappled with the moral and legal implications of making a decision to kill. Neither the evidence against the suspects nor the suspects' identities is available for public scrutiny. He personally vetted names on a 'kill list' of targets, authorizing dozens of drone strikes even in cases with only vague and inconclusive evidence about who's really on the ground, according to the report.

Yet over the past three and a half years, Obama has sat quietly 'at the helm of a top secret 'nominations' process to designate terrorists for kill or capture, of which the capture part has become largely theoretical,' according to the Times. For those efforts he won the Nobel Peace Prize. He pushed for an end to the use of torture on terror suspects, the closure of the Guantanamo Bay military prison, and for trying detainees in federal courts. The largely clandestine effort, profiled in a New York Times report and a forthcoming book by Newsweek's Daniel Klaidman, highlights a remarkable transformation for a man who campaigned four years ago as an anti-war Senator, former law professor and defender of Constitutional due process. Left unmentioned, however, is the war he's quietly escalating with an army of aerial drones. — - President Obama is running for a second term as a commander-in-chief who has ended one war and is bringing another swiftly to a close.