The American
Civil Liberties Union will go to court on Thursday in an attempt to get the CIA
to hand over documents related to President Barack Obama's controversial
"targeted killing" program that uses unmanned drones to strike suspected
militants.
The program has
been repeatedly referenced in public by numerous senior officials, including by
Obama himself and defense secretary Leon Panetta, but the spy agency has refused
to comply with a Freedom of Information Act request from the civil liberties
group because it says it will not confirm the secretive use of
drones.
As a result the
ACLU has gone to court to argue that the CIA cannot deny the existence of a
program that has been so widely reported, including in great detail in
off-the-record briefings by administration and agency officials. Jameel Jaffer,
the deputy legal director of the ACLU, said: "It is preposterous. The assertion
that this program is a secret is nothing short of absurd.
"For more than
two years, senior officials have been making claims about the program both on
the record and off. They've claimed that the program is effective, lawful and
closely supervised. If they can make these claims, there is no reason why they
should not be required to respond to [FOIA] requests."
The so-called targeted killing program has become one of the most controversial aspects of Obama's national security policy. It has been used in countries such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia to strike at suspected terrorists and their supporters.
Proponents of
the program say attacks can be highly accurate and come at little risk to
American forces as there is no need for ground forces. Critics point out that
there are often civilian casualties and little is known about how targets are
identified and targeted.
The London-based
Bureau of Investigative Journalism tracks the strikes and has calculated that
there have been 344 CIA drone hits in Pakistan alone since 2002, killing up to
3,325 people, including 881 civilians. Another area of concern is the use of
drones to kill American citizens, such as radical American cleric Anwar
al-Awlaki and his 16-year-old Colorado-born son. Both died in drone strikes in
Yemen and relatives have sued top Pentagon and CIA officials for
damages.
The ACLU's
demand for details of the program – including documents related to its legal
justification drawn up by the department of justice – is aimed at prompting a
national debate on the scope of the drone program and how it is used. Its
legality is a particular issue. The memorandum justifying the legal basis for
the targeted killing has now been requested by at least 10 members of Congress
and three different lawsuits but it remains so secret that acknowledging its
existence is a classified matter. "The public has a right to decide for itself
whether or not the program is lawful or moral," Jaffer
said.
Some legal and security experts agree and believe that the current boom in drone warfare is only likely to increase the demand for greater openness about how and why the weapons are used. Professor Amos Guiora, a national security and legal expert at the University of Utah, said: "Given that the drones are the warfare of the future you need a public debate about what's being done in the public's name." Guardian
The United
States was identified in June 2010 as the world's No. 1 user of targeted
killings -- largely as a result of its dependence on unmanned drone attacks.
CNN The U.S.
government is known to have used drones to carry out lethal attacks in at least
six countries: Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. Washington
Post In 2008,
after Barack Obama won the presidency, U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan escalated
and soon began occurring almost weekly, later nearly daily, and so became a
permanent feature of life for those living in the tribal borderlands of northern
Pakistan. CBS News The United
States has quietly stepped up its secret war in Yemen, launching dozens of
airstrikes, including drones, according to a report by the Bureau of
Investigative Journalism. U.S. drone attacks in Yemen are now as common as those
in Pakistan. AllGov In May, U.S.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta described the use of American drone strikes in
Pakistan and Yemen as "absolutely essential to our ability to defend Americans."
The Nation
HJ/HJ
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