The ACLU has filed its reply brief in the D.C. Circuit in its FOIA case against the government, which seeks information about CIA use of drones for targeted killing.   I have discussed this case briefly here and here (the ACLU reply brief refers to these posts) and I will try to say more before oral argument.  Jefferson Morley at Salon refers to my second post, and its tentative support for the ACLU position, as evidence of “another right-wing drone skeptic.”  For the record, I am not a particular drone skeptic, and indeed have written in defense of the legality of the USG’s use of drones.  But I am a secrecy skeptic, in this context and others, especially when the government manipulates secrecy rules opportunistically.  It seems to me that the long-term legitimacy and efficacy of the USG’s expansive use of drones depends on maximum possible public scrutiny of their use.

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