Exposing Obama's Hypocrisy on Drone Warfare

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http://www.alternet.org/world/exposing-obamas-total-hypocrisy-drone-warfare



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Take a look back at some of the statements the Obama administration made about drones in 2013, and you'll see there’s a disconnect between what is said and what actually happens, as this brief timeline will show. Drone policy and reality are not the same. Increasingly, progressives want to know what they can do to reduce or do away with this weapon of mass destruction in 2014.

Winter 2013

What was said:

In March, during his confirmation hearings to become CIA director, John Brennan says this about drones: “We only use these authorities and these capabilities as a last resort.” President Obama says the U.S. government would rather capture and interrogate suspected terrorists than use targeted killings, but he echoes the Bush administration claim that it is not possible to use capture methods in the tribal areas of Pakistan. He says this is because the Pakistan government’s legal authority does not extend to federally administered tribal areas (FATAs).

What was done:

Recently, drones strikes have occurred outside of Pakistan’s tribal areas. They continue in Somalia, and in Yemen, where 15 civilians attending a wedding were reportedly killed by a drone strike in December.

Spring

What was said:

In May, during his speech on counterterrorism at the National Defense University at Fort McNair, President Obama first defended drone strikes as legal, and said we are still at war with Al Qaeda and its affiliates. He also said our use of drones was “heavily constrained” and only in the case where a “terrorist poses a continuing and immediate threat to the American people.” He predicted that by the end of 2014 there would be a “reduced need for unmanned strikes.” Finally, he said he was releasing the framework behind the administration’s use of drone strikes to provide greater transparency on the issue.

What was done:

Obama had said the Presidential Policy Guidance would provide clear guidelines, oversight and accountability of the drone program. The PPG was only two-and-a-half pages long and does not outline legal reasoning, how strikes are coordinated with broader foreign policy objectives or the scope of legitimate targets.