White House approves broader Yemen drone campaign

[The Northerner]

The United States has begun launching drone strikes against suspected al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen under new authority approved by President Obama that allows the CIA and the military to fire even when the identity of those who could be killed is not known, U.S. officials said.

The policy shift marks a significant expansion of the clandestine drone war against an al-Qaeda affiliate that has seized large ­pieces of territory in Yemen and is linked to a series of terrorist plots against the United States.

U.S. officials said that Obama approved the use of “signature” strikes this month and that the killing of an al-Qaeda operative near the border of Yemen’s Marib province this week was among the first attacks carried out under the new authority.

The decision to give the CIA and the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) greater leeway is almost certain to escalate a drone campaign that has accelerated significantly this year, with at least nine strikes in under four months. The number is about equal to the sum of airstrikes all last year.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/white-house-approves-broader-yemen-drone-campaign/2012/04/25/gIQA82U6hT_story.html?hpid=z5

...under new authority approved by President Obama that allows the CIA and the military to fire even when the identity of those who could be killed is not known, U.S. officials said.

So, can anyone justify why it's reasonable to increase the amount of civilian-slaughtering drone strikes and why it's reasonable to target and kill those whose identities are unknown?

Is the ever-increasing anti-US sentiment in Yemen, the Middle East, and the world worth the drone-strike slaughters at all?

[msanthrope]

1. Your source described the authority as more limiting than what is currently allowed in Pakistan

drone strikes. Did you not find that significant?

In Yemen, by contrast, signature strikes will only be allowed when there is clear indication of the presence of an al-Qaeda leader or of plotting against targets in the United States or Americans overseas. In recent months, U.S. spy agencies have collected intelligence indicating plots against American diplomats or U.S. special operations troops who are working alongside Yemeni counter-terrorism units.

I suppose sending PETN bombs on cargo planes to the US, and targeting synagogues here has a price...

http://www.juancole.com/2010/10/saudi-arabia-saves-chicago-synagogue-from-al-qaeda-bomb-plot.html

[kenny blankenship]

2. So what if we don't know anything about the people we're shooting missiles at in Yemen?

Did we know the names of the people whose villages we bombed and shelled to flaming splinters in Vietnam and Cambodia and Laos? Fuck no! It didn't stop us then and it won't stop us now.

I support President [s]Johnson[/s], [s]Nixon[/s], Obama fully. He's doing what has to be done.