Election Prompts Effort to Formalize Drone Policy
Posted at 12:15 p.m. on Nov. 26, 2012
The New York Times has an interesting look at how elections influence policy, looking at how the Obama administration ”accelerated work in the weeks before the election to develop explicit rules for the targeted killing of terrorists by unmanned drones.”
“The Defense Department and the C.I.A. continue to press for greater latitude to carry out strikes; Justice Department and State Department officials, and the president’s counterterrorism adviser, John O. Brennan, have argued for restraint… Though national security officials insist that the process is meticulous and lawful, the president and top aides believe it should be institutionalized.”
“In the early years, most strikes were aimed at ranking leaders of Al Qaeda thought to be plotting to attack the United States… But for at least two years in Pakistan…most strikes have been directed at militants whose main battle is with the Pakistani authorities or who fight with the Taliban.”
