Latest in Targeted Killing
Run -- don't walk, run -- to your nearest movie theater and see Eye in the Sky. This new release is playing as an "artistic movie" with limited publicity and I do not know how long it will be in theaters. But its approach to law and war will be of interest to anyone who reads this blog. Plus, its a good movie (as it's 92% positive on Rotten Tomatoes will attest).
Just this morning, I was thinking that things have been rather quiet with respect to media coverage of U.S. operations against AQ and AQ affiliates in places like Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia. Well...
Last week, the Stimson Center released its “Report Card on The Recommendations of The Stimson Task Force on U.S. Drone Policy.” The report card unsurprisingly earned headlines like “Obama’s Drone Policy Gets an ‘F,’” mainly because it concludes that the “current U.S.
In his May 2013 speech at National Defense University, President Obama called for new ways to think about drones and the United States’ policy on using these systems in counterterrorism operations. Now, nearly 3 years later, the Obama administration is in danger of leaving a legacy on drones that is long on rhetoric but short on substance.
Yesterday, the ACLU filed a letter in the ongoing case ACLU v. CIA regarding the release of former CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden's autobiography, which according to the book's description, covers Hayden's role in the CIA's targeted-killing program, the expansion of that program, and the campaign's effectiveness in countering terrorism.
Recently, the Los Angeles Times reported that the U.S. Air Force had awarded civilian service contracts to include the operation of MQ-9 Reaper drones.
In something of a coda to last night's presidential address, the Pentagon has just issued press release confirming that a previously-reported November airstrike conducted by the U.S.
The Intercept yesterday released its latest scoop: a cache of leaked documents on the U.S. drone program, presented as a series of blockbuster stories.
Is the GWOT (Global War on Terrorism) coming back? Or did it never really end?
Editor’s Note: The U.S. drone program – as Lawfare readers well know – raises contentious policy issues as well as criticisms of its legality and morality. Many of these policy issues come to the fore in Yemen, where chaos and civil war are sweeping the land. Jillian Schwedler, a professor at Hunter College and expert on Yemen, argues that the U.S. drone campaign in Yemen is backfiring, enraging locals and contributing to a range of U.S. policy failures there.
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