REMINDER: ‘According To The Washington Times Former President Obama Launched More Than 3,000 Strikes In Iraq And Syria without Congressional Authorization’
While his Republican critics described Obama as “weak” on counter-terrorism and accused him of being “anti-war,” former Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, pushed back on this notion stating, “President Obama has authorized more military actions in Muslim countries than any previous president and that the most conservative estimate identifies more than
3,000 drone strike fatalities during his tenure, including much of Al Qaeda’s leadership. He is the first president since the Civil War to authorize the assassination of another American — Anwar al-Awlaki, himself.” Jeffrey Goldberg of
The Atlantic similarly defended Obama saying, “this president who has this reputation [of being weak] is the greatest terrorist hunter in the history of the American presidency. I mean, we just saw in the last week the 150 militants in Somalia wiped out by a U.S. strike. Who ordered that strike?”
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President Obama's Super Aggressive Drone War In One Graphic
Michael B Kelley Dec 14, 2013, 7:16 PM
Earlier this week a U.S. drone
mistakenly targeted a wedding convoy in Yemen, killing 14 people.
It's not the first time U.S. hellfire missiles have
struck a wedding party, and far from the only time
civilians have been killed by U.S. drones in Yemen during the Obama administration.
In total there have been
upwards of 350 strikes targeting "
suspected terrorists" so far under President Barack Obama — killing
upwards of 4,000 people overall — compared to
52 strikes under George Bush.
During the 2012 campaign, the commander-in-chief commented on the White House's aggressive targeted killing policies when he reportedly told aides that he's "really good at killing people."
The claim is
as indisputable as it is grim, the death-from-above mentality has set a
dangerous precedent for the drone age.
Here's a Reuters graphic of the recorded U.S. drone strikes under Bush and Obama:
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While Obama praised the transparency of the response, secrecy still surrounds the vast majority of drone strikes that one senator estimated in 2013 had
killed 4,700 people.
This was only the second time, following a presidential speech that year, that Obama has acknowledged killing innocents. These have
included a 16-year-old boy with US citizenship.
Critics have lambasted Obama for conducting a counter-terrorism war almost entirely in secret.
The American Civil Liberties Union in March
sued the Obama administration for disclosure of critical legal documents underpinning what the administration calls its “targeted killing” program – including the criteria for placement on a list permitting the US to kill people, including its own citizens, without trial.
Giovanni Lo Porto, killed in US drone strike, was ‘incredibly loyal’ friend
Obama’s admission regarding the deaths of Weinstein and Lo Porto is likely to intensify criticism of the president’s drone strikes, conducted by the CIA and the military’s Joint Special Operations Command. A recent analysis by human-rights group Reprieve estimated that US drone strikes intending to
target 41 men had killed 1,147 people as of November.
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In Speech, President Obama Talks Drone War Policy | The New York Times:
Obama Jokes About Killing With Predator Drones
Obama’s Drone War Kills 178 Children with “Surgical” Precision
ACLU & CCR Lawsuit: American Boy Killed By U.S. Drone Strike
Is it Legal for the U.S. to Kill a 16-year-old U.S. Citizen with a Drone?
Watchdog groups are criticizing recently released numbers on the number of people killed by American drone strikes outside of war zones.
An
unprecedented report released Friday reveals the Obama administration has killed more than 2,300 so-called "enemy combatants." But critics say the report significantly undercounts the number of "non-combatant" deaths.
The news came Friday afternoon right before the July Fourth weekend, with the president signing an executive order aimed at creating more transparency for the drone program that he expanded. But it's precisely that transparency that now has critics asking whether the administration is revealing enough, reports CBS News correspondent Jan Crawford.
While the
Obama administration says it has killed over 2,300 enemy combatants by counterterror strikes, it acknowledged the harsh reality that the once-secret drone program may have been involved in anywhere from 64 to 116 civilian deaths since 2009 in areas outside active war zones.
"The president believes that our counterterrorism strategy is more effective when we're as transparent as possible," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said.
But critics say they aren't transparent enough and now it's the lack of precision in those numbers getting scrutiny.
"We're going to be asking really hard questions about these numbers. They're incredibly low for the number of people killed who are civilians," said Naureen Shah of Amnesty International.
Even the highest U.S. government estimates are significantly lower than death totals compiled by watchdog groups. One estimates a maximum of 801 civilian deaths.
Critics say the report also does not designate the region where the deaths occurred.
Since taking office, President Obama has significantly expanded the drone program. Earlier this year he
acknowledged there have been unintended consequences.
"There's no doubt that civilians were killed that shouldn't have been," Obama said.
In this latest reform of the program, Mr. Obama signed an executive order meant to protect civilians and make the public disclosure of civilian deaths by drone routine.
"It's a clear statement by the U.S. government that the protection of civilians is at the core of national interests, of legal obligations, and an ethical concern," said Federico Borello of the Center for Civilians in Conflict.
The
ODNI said it is open to revising its numbers on civilian deaths should new information come to light. They also said the discrepancy in numbers may be because they rely on information generally not available to the public and that some of those numbers may be "complicated" by misinformation spread by terrorist groups for propaganda purposes.
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