DHS Plans to Merge With Local/State Law Enforcement with the use of Drones

[Malsua]

So I guess camo nets are going to be back in vogue.

[American Patriot]

Funny name.

The system I work on is called "Argus" (and it's NOT an acronym). Argus was the one hundred-eyed guardian of the Greek gods. My system is a security system.

They had to pull an acronym out of their asses which to most people would see a simple acronym. To anyone who is well-read it's the hundred-eyed-spy-in-the-sky and they are spying on YOU.

[American Patriot]

Obama is supposed to "give a long speech" today in regards to "drones" and the killing of terrorists and "Americans".

I can't WAIT to hear that it's open season on all of us now.

I have a feeling that what he says today will be very, very chilling....

Four Americans have died in U.S. strikes: White House

Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday that four American citizens have been killed in drone strikes since 2009.

Comments (35) By Joseph Straw / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Published: Wednesday, May 22, 2013, 5:03 PM

Updated: Thursday, May 23, 2013, 7:35 AM

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J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Attorney General Eric Holder says four American citizens have been killed in drone strikes since 2009.


Related Stories

• Attorney General Eric Holder justifies government killing U.S. citizens on foreign soil if person poses imminent threat of violent attack
• Justice Department memo justifies killing Americans abroad if they are an 'imminent threat'
• ACLU suing U.S. over drone killings of citizens in Yemen
• Former Bush Adviser: Drone Strikes are 'Obama's Guantanamo'

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration acknowledged for the first time Wednesday that American citizens have been killed in U.S. drone strikes overseas.


Attorney General Eric Holder disclosed the four deaths in a letter to Congress in advance of a major national security speech that President Obama is scheduled to give on Thursday.


The four killings occurred in counterterrorism operations against Al Qaeda and other suspected terrorist forces.


In the letter, Holder said the administration targeted Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical cleric who died in a drone strike in Yemen on Sept. 30, 2011. The killing was widely reported at the time — but until now, the administration had not formally taken responsibility for it.


The other three Americans “were not specifically targeted by the United States,” Holder wrote.


Holder identified them as as Queens-raised propagandist Samir Khan, who was killed in the same drone strike as Awlaki; Awlaki’s 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman, who was killed two weeks later, also in Yemen; and Jude Mohammad, a Florida native who left the U.S. for Pakistan in 2008 to wage jihad.


Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP

Drones killed U.S.-born terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki along with three Americans “not specifically targeted by the United States," the White House said.

Human rights groups and lawmakers in both parties have been pressing the administration to disclose information about government’s targeting of suspected terrorists outside the U.S.


Under the secret program, unmanned aircraft have been used to kill enemy combatants in countries from Pakistan to Yemen.


Obama promised in his State of the Union address in February to explain how the U.S. was targeting, detaining and prosecuting terrorists. “I recognize that in our democracy, no one should just take my word that we’re doing things the right way,” he said.


In his letter Wednesday, Holder said that a “small number” of American extremists sealed their fate by plotting against their country overseas.


Based on “generations-old legal principles” and World War II-era Supreme Court decisions, “it is clear and logical that United States citizenship alone does not make such individuals immune from being targeted," Holder said.


Awlaki, who fled the U.S. soon after 9/11 to produce radical online sermons, influenced terrorists, including failed underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmuttallab. He allegedly also influenced Boston bombers Zhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev.


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/poli...#ixzz2U7cQShkM

[American Patriot]

Justice Department memo justifies killing Americans abroad if they are an 'imminent threat'

The document explains that an American can be deemed an 'imminent threat' if he or she is the leader of Al Qaeda or an 'associated force.' The American Civil Liberties Union called the memo 'profoundly disturbing.'

Comments (115) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: Tuesday, February 5, 2013, 10:31 AM

Updated: Tuesday, February 5, 2013, 2:48 PM

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Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born leader of a Yemen-based Al Qaeda offshoot, was killed by a U.S. drone strike in September 2011.


An unclassified Justice Department memo reveals that the Obama administration has had more lenient rules than publicly known for when drone attacks can be launched to kill U.S. citizens working abroad with terrorists.

The government does not need evidence that a specific attack is imminent, the newly disclosed Justice Department white paper says, only that the targeted suspect is involved in ongoing plotting against the United States.

"The threat posed by al-Qaida and its associated forces demands a broader concept of imminence in judging when a person continually planning terror attacks presents an imminent threat," the document says.
DAD OF U.S. TERRORIST ANWAR AL-AWLAKI: 'MY SON'S BLOOD WILL NOT GO IN VAIN'

The undated document surfaced as Obama administration official John Brennan, who helped manage the drone program, heads to Capitol Hill on Thursday for his confirmation hearing to become CIA director. The hearing will take place as a growing number of senators are asking to see a still-classified Justice Department legal opinion that justifies the administration's position on drones and is binding on the entire executive branch.

White House press secretary Jay Carney declined Tuesday to discuss details, saying only that President Barack Obama takes seriously his responsibility to protect the United States and its citizens from al-Qaida terrorists.

"He also takes his responsibility in conducting the war against al-Qaida as authorized by Congress in a way that is fully consistent with our Constitution and all the applicable laws," Carney said.

Carney said care is taken to execute the strikes with precision and avoid the loss of innocent life.

"These strikes are legal, they are ethical and they are wise," Carney said.

Controversy over U.S. policy for drone attacks mushroomed after a September 2011 drone strike in Yemen killed Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan, both U.S. citizens.

In a speech last March, Attorney General Eric Holder said that in assessing when a targeted killing against a U.S. citizen is legal, the government must determine after careful review that a citizen poses an imminent threat of violent attack against the U.S. Brennan had made a similar speech justifying the strikes as self-defense against imminent threat of attack.

Asked Tuesday about the definition of "imminent threat" at a news conference on an unrelated topic, Holder said that "so many of these things are fact-based" and that "you can't examine the terms without reference to the facts." He said such details can be discussed only in a classified setting.

"Our primary concern is to keep the American people safe, but do so in a way that is consistent with our law and our values," Holder said.
ANWAR AL-AWLAKI: FIERY CLERIC'S PATH FROM LOW-KEY FIGURE TO TERRORIST SUPERSTAR

The Justice memo says that delaying action against U.S. citizens who are linked to al-Qaida would create an unacceptably high risk because some al-Qaida leaders are continually plotting attacks on the U.S. and the U.S. may not always be aware of each specific plot as they develop.

This week, a bipartisan group of 11 senators asked President Barack Obama for all legal opinions underlying the authority to kill American citizens. The newly disclosed Justice Department document, first reported by NBC News on Monday night, represents an unclassified summary of those legal opinions and may have been prepared to deflect demands to see the actual classified legal opinions.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Tuesday that her panel received the unclassified document, and others, from the administration in June 2012 on a confidential basis. She said this document, coupled with other documents and closed briefings, "has allowed the Intelligence Committee to conduct appropriate and probing oversight into the use of lethal force."

Noting that she had been calling for public release of the legal basis for using lethal force, particularly against U.S. citizens, for more than a year, Feinstein said with disclosure of the white paper "the American people can review and judge the legality of these operations."

She added, however, that the committee continues to seek the actual legal opinions that provide details not contained in the white paper.

The Justice memo does require that capture of a terrorist suspect not be feasible and that any such lethal operation by the United States targeting a person comply with fundamental law-of-war principles.

"A decision maker determining whether an al-Qaida operational leader presents an imminent threat of violent attack against the United States must take into account that certain members of Al-Qaida ... are continually plotting attacks against the United States" and that "al-Qaida would engage in such attacks regularly to the extent it were able to do so," says the document.

The document also says that a decision maker must take into account that "the U.S. government may not be aware of all al-Qaida plots as they are developing and thus cannot be confident that none is about to occur; and that ... the nation may have a limited window of opportunity within which to strike in a manner that both has a high likelihood of success and reduces the probability of American casualties."
ANWAR AL-AWLAKI AND SAMIR KHAN DEAD, AL QAEDA PROPAGANDISTS KILLED BY U.S. MISSILE STRIKES IN YEMEN
With this understanding, the document added, a high-level official could conclude, for example, that an individual poses an imminent threat of violent attack against the United States where he is an operational leader of al-Qaida or an associated force and is personally and continually involved in planning terrorist attacks against the United States.

The American Civil Liberties Union said the document is "profoundly disturbing."

"It's hard to believe that it was produced in a democracy built on a system of checks and balances," the ACLU said.

The document says that the use of lethal force would not violate the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution when a targeted person is an operational leader of an enemy force and an informed, high-level government official has determined that he poses an imminent threat of violent attack against the U.S.

The document said the courts have no role to play in the matter.

"Under the circumstances described in this paper, there exists no appropriate judicial forum to evaluate these constitutional considerations. It is well established that 'matters intimately related to foreign policy, and national security are rarely proper subjects for judicial intervention,'" the document said.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/poli...#ixzz2U7cqrabn

[American Patriot]

ACLU suing U.S. over drone killings of citizens in Yemen

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against U.S. officials over the targeted killing of three American citizens in drone strikes in Yemen.

By Anthony Bartkewicz / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Wednesday, July 18, 2012, 4:22 PM

MSgt. Scott Reed/AP

In this Sept. 6, 2007 photo, an MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle flies over a range in Nevada, while being filmed by a video production team for the U.S. Air Force recruiting campaign "Do Something Amazing." (AP Photo/U.S. Air Force, MSgt. Scott Reed)



The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a lawsuit against U.S. officials over the targeted killing of three American citizens in drone strikes in Yemen.
Al-Awlaki vs. Panetta, filed alongside the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), names Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and CIA Director David Petraeus, among others, as defendants.
It claims the constitutional rights of Anwar al-Awlaki, Samir Khan and Abdulrahman al-Awlaki were violated when they were killed without trial.
READ MORE: AL QAEDA PROPAGANDISTS AL-AWLAKI AND KHAN DEAD IN U.S. MISSILE STRIKES IN YEMEN
Al-Awlaki - who is believed to have orchestrated the failed bombings of a plane bound for Detroit and a car in New York’s Times Square - and Khan, the editor of an English-language Web magazine for Al Qaeda, died in a September 2011 drone strike.


Awlaki’s 16-year-old son Abdulrahman was killed about a year later alongside other alleged Al Qaeda members in Yemen.


The ACLU and the CCR argue that their deaths took place away from armed conflict zones, “based on vague legal standards, a closed executive process, and evidence never presented to the courts,” as prohibited by the Fourth and Fifth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.


The suit seeks unspecified damages on behalf of Nasser al-Awlaki, the father of Anwar and grandfather of Abdulrahman, and Samir Khan’s mother Sarah.


The two organizations previously sued Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner in 2010 over Anwar al-Awlaki’s placement on a government “kill list.”


That case was dismissed by a federal court, which ruled that Nasser al-Awlaki lacked the standing to file the suit, the ACLU said.


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/just...#ixzz2U7d2OvjY

[American Patriot]

U.S. admits to drone killings of Americans as Obama readies speech on counterterrorism

U.S. government admits it killed four of its own citizens — one on purpose, three by accident — in its first formal accounting of drone strikes ordered under President Barack Obama.




Timothy Walter / AP file photo


American sailors move an X-47B drone aboard the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush earlier this month. The U.S. has admitted for the first time to killing its citizens in attacks in Yemen and Pakistan, where it has launched drone strikes.







By: Mitch Potter Washington Bureau, Published on Wed May 22 2013
Explore This Story

WASHINGTON—The U.S. government admits it killed four of its own citizens — one on purpose, three by accident — in its first formal accounting of drone strikes ordered under President Barack Obama.



Though the attack on Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical propagandist killed in Yemen in 2011, was deliberate, the other three U.S. casualties were “not specifically targeted,” Attorney General Eric Holder told Congress in a letter obtained and published by The New York Times .



The disclosures of U.S. drone deaths, widely reported but never before acknowledged by the White House, came as Obama readied to deliver a keynote address Thursday aimed at outlining — and making the case for — the future of U.S. counterterror operations.



Obama’s speech, White House sources say, will follow through on promises of greater transparency on the legal framework guiding the controversial program of targeted killings that expanded dramatically since the president took office in 2009.



But Obama is also expected to broach what may well be his last chance to close the U.S. detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, where the majority of detainees have been on a hunger strike for more than 100 days. Though Obama pledged to mothball the facility during his first days in power, the effort proved intractable, with an obstructionist Congress blockading funds to transfer detainees and the White House ultimately spending its political capital elsewhere.



The Holder letter disclosing four U.S. deaths by drone made no apologies in acknowledging the three unintended American casualties. They were named as Samir Khan, who was killed in the strike against Awlaki; Awlaki’s 16-year-old son Adbulrahman , who was killed in a separate strike in Yemen; and Jude Kenan Mohammad, who was killed in a drone strike in Pakistan.



Without addressing the circumstances in which those three died, Holder’s five-page letter defended the administration’s legal right to strike Americans and others with deadly force outside the United States, echoing the reasoning of a Justice Department document on targeted killings leaked to the media in February.



“It is clear and logical that United States citizenship alone does not make such individuals immune from being targeted,” Holder wrote.



“Rather, it means that the government must take special care and take into account all relevant constitutional considerations, the laws of war, and other law with respect to U.S. citizens — even those who are leading efforts to kill their fellow, innocent Americans.”



Critics of U.S. drone policy have urged greater openness, calling on Obama to precisely define the concept of “imminence” upon which the White House relies in deciding which suspected threats warrant death by unmanned aerial vehicle. Others have called on the CIA to be stripped of its drone capabilities and for all drone programs to be placed under Pentagon control in a bid for greater accountability.

[American Patriot]

4 Americans killed since 2009 in US drone strikes

	Posted: May 23, 2013 6:00 a.m. Updated: May 23, 2013 6:00 a.m.

	WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration acknowledged for the first time Wednesday that four American citizens have been killed in drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen since 2009. The disclosure to Congress comes on the eve of a major national security speech by President Barack Obama in which he plans to pledge more transparency to Congress in his counterterrorism policy. It was already known that three Americans had been killed in U.S. drones strikes in counterterrorism operations overseas, but Attorney General Eric Holder disclosed details that had remained secret and also that a fourth American had been killed. In a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, Holder said that the government targeted and killed U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki and that the U.S. "is aware" of the killing of three others who were not targets of counterterror operations. Al-Awlaki, a radical Muslim cleric, was killed in a drone strike in September 2011 in Yemen. The other two known cases are Samir Khan, who was killed in the same drone strike as al-Awlaki and al-Awlaki's 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman, a Denver native, who also was killed in Yemen. The newly revealed case is that of Jude Kenan Mohammed, one of eight men indicted by federal authorities in 2009, accused of being part of a plot to attack the U.S. Marine Corps base at Quantico, Va. Before he could be arrested, Mohammad fled the country to join jihadi fighters in the tribal areas of Pakistan, where he was among those killed by a U.S. drone. "Since entering office, the president has made clear his commitment to providing Congress and the American people with as much information as possible about our sensitive counterterrorism operations," Holder said in his letter to Leahy, D-Vt. "To this end, the president has directed me to disclose certain information that until now has been properly classified." "The administration is determined to continue these extensive outreach efforts to communicate with the American people," Holder wrote. A move to gradually shift responsibility for the bulk of U.S. drone strikes from the CIA to the military has already begun. And, according to an administration official speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly, the move would largely divide the strikes on a geographical basis, with the CIA continuing to conduct operations in Pakistan, while the military takes on the operations in other parts of the world. The White House said Obama's national security speech Thursday coincides with the signing of new "presidential policy guidance" on when the U.S. can use drone strikes, though it was unclear what that guidance entailed and whether Obama would outline its specifics in his remarks. Obama "believes that we need to be as transparent about a matter like this as we can, understanding that there are national security implications to this issue and to the broader issues involved in counterterrorism policy," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters Wednesday. "He thinks (this) is an absolutely valid and legitimate and important area of discussion and debate and conversation, and that it is his belief that there need to be structures in place that remain in place for successive administrations," Carney said. "So that in the carrying out of counterterrorism policy, procedures are followed that allow it to be conducted in a way that ensures that we're keeping with our traditions and our laws." Obama's speech Thursday at the National Defense University is expected to reaffirm his national security priorities — from homegrown terrorists to killer drones to the enemy combatants imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay — but make no new sweeping policy pronouncements. The White House has offered few specifics on what the president will say to address long-standing questions that have dogged his administration for years and, critics say, given foreign allies mixed signals about U.S. intentions in some of the world's most volatile areas. Obama will try to refocus an increasingly apathetic and controversy-weary U.S. public on security issues. His message will also be carefully analyzed by an international audience that has had to adapt to what counterterror expert Peter Singer described as the administration's "disjointed" and often "shortsighted" security policies. Obama is also expected to say the U.S. will make a renewed effort to transfer detainees out of the Navy-run detention center for terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to other countries. Obama recently restated his desire to close Guantanamo, a pledge he made shortly after his inauguration in January 2009.

[American Patriot]

23 May 2013 Last updated at 08:09 ET Share this page

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Barack Obama to set out US drone policy

The US has for the first time publicly acknowledged killing Anwar al-Awlaki and three others
Continue reading the main story Related Stories

• Legal case revealed
• Cost of secret drone war
• Viewpoint: Drones and modern war

US President Barack Obama is due to defend his administration's use of drone strikes, in a major speech on counter-terrorism.
He is expected to offer more transparency over the strikes, amid reported moves to restrict their scope.
The speech comes a day after the US said publicly for the first time that drones had killed four US citizens.
In Thursday's speech, Mr Obama will also address his aim of closing the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Last month, the US president pledged a new push to transfer the remaining prisoners from the facility, saying it was "contrary to who we are" and harmful to US interests.
'Traditions and laws' Administration officials said the president would discuss on Thursday "why the use of drone strikes is necessary, legal and just, while addressing the various issues raised by our use of targeted action".
Continue reading the main story Analysis

Jonathan Marcus BBC diplomatic correspondent
The armed drone has become the signature weapon in America's "war on terror". But their use raises a variety of complex legal and ethical issues, quite apart from practical arguments as to whether the drone strikes themselves are effective.
Unintended civilian casualties are one problem. So too is the legal basis for such attacks in countries where the US is not directly at war. Another problem is that many of these strikes are overseen by the Central Intelligence Agency rather than the US military.
There is, though, now a sense of a shift in US thinking. The number of drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia have declined significantly over recent years. President Obama clearly wants to address some of the criticisms. But while Washington's drone wars may be contained, they will not be abandoned altogether.

The speech at the National Defense University in Washington coincides with the signing of new "presidential policy guidance" on when drone strikes can be used, the White House said.
The policy document sharply curtails the instances in which drones can be used in places that are not overt war zones, such as Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, the New York Times reported.
It was unclear whether Mr Obama would offer any specifics about the drone policy, which remains shrouded in secrecy, or about a reported shift of responsibility for many drone strikes from the CIA to the Pentagon.
Such a shift would give Congress greater scrutiny over the drone programme.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Wednesday that Mr Obama "believes that we need to be as transparent about a matter like this as we can".
"It is his belief that there need to be structures in place that remain in place for successive administrations,'' Mr Carney said, so that counter-terrorism policy is "conducted in a way that ensures that we're keeping with our traditions and our laws".
Human rights groups have long condemned the use of unmanned drones to carry out killings.
Dixon Osburn of Human Rights First welcomed the White House pledge for more transparency, but said in a statement he remained "deeply concerned that the administration appears to be institutionalizing a problematic targeted killing policy without public debate".
'Imminent threat' Wednesday's disclosure of the drone killings in Yemen and Pakistan marked the first formal public acknowledgement of the US citizen deaths in drone strikes.
Continue reading the main story Drone strikes

• Four US citizens killed in strikes since 2009
• Bureau of Investigative Journalism has recorded 368 drone strikes in Pakistan since 2004, 46-56 confirmed strikes in Yemen since 2002
• Vast majority carried out under Barack Obama

• Legal case revealed
• UN inquiry into drone killings
• How drones work
• Video: Close-up look at drone

In a letter to the Senate judiciary committee, US Attorney General Eric Holder defended the targeted killing in 2011 of Anwar al-Awlaki, whom he described as a "senior operational leader" of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
He said that officials "appropriately concluded that [Awlaki] posed a continuing and imminent threat" to the US.
Awlaki, who was born in the US state of New Mexico, was killed in a missile strike from an unmanned plane in Yemen in September 2011.
Samir Khan, a naturalised US citizen who produced an online magazine promoting al-Qaeda's ideology, died in the same missile strike.
Awlaki's 16-year-old son Abdulrahman, who was born in Colorado, was killed in Yemen a month later.
Mr Holder also confirmed that Jude Kenan Mohammad, a North Carolina resident with a Pakistani father and an American-born mother, had been killed in a drone strike.
Mohammad is thought to have died in a strike in November 2011 in Pakistan's South Waziristan region.
Mr Holder said only Anwar al-Awlaki had been "specifically targeted and killed", and that the other men "were not specifically targeted by the United States".

[American Patriot]

Obama to address drones, Gitmo in security speech
By LARA JAKES and LOLITA C. BALDOR Associated Press
Updated: 05/23/2013 06:35:21 AM MDT

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama is set to at least partially lift the veil of secrecy surrounding U.S.-directed drone strikes around the world, a key component of counterterrorism strategy, as he outlines the contours of the continuing threat to American security.

On the eve of the president's speech at the National Defense University, the Obama administration revealed for the first time that a fourth American citizen had been killed in secretive drone strikes abroad. The killings of three other Americans in counterterror operations since 2009 were not widely known before a letter from Attorney General Eric Holder to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy acknowledged the four deaths.

Obama's speech is expected to reaffirm his national security priorities—from homegrown terrorists to killer drones to the enemy combatants held at the military-run detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba—but make no new sweeping policy announcements.

The White House has offered few clues on how the president will address questions that have dogged his administration for years and, critics say, given foreign allies mixed signals about U.S. intentions in some of the world's most volatile areas.

Obama will try to refocus an increasingly apathetic public on security issues as his administration grapples with a series of unrelated controversies stemming from the attack on a U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya, the IRS' targeting of conservative
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groups and government monitoring of reporters. His message will also be carefully analyzed by an international audience that has had to adapt to what counterterror expert Peter Singer described as the administration's disjointed and often short-sighted security policies.

"He is really wresting with a broader task, which is laying out an overdue case for regularizing our counterterrorism strategy itself," said Singer, director of the Brookings Institution's 21st Century Security and Intelligence Center in Washington. "It's both a task in terms of being a communicator, and a task in term of being a decider."

The White House said Obama's speech coincides with the signing of new "presidential policy guidance" on when the U.S. can use drone strikes, though it was unclear what that guidance entailed and whether Obama would outline its specifics in his remarks.

Chief among the topics the speech will focus on, officials said, is the administration's expanded use of unmanned spy drones to kill hundreds of people in Pakistan, Yemen and other places where terrorists have taken refuge.

Obama has pledged to be more open with the public about the scope of the drone strikes. But a growing number of lawmakers in Congress are seeking to limit U.S. authorities that support the deadly drone strikes, which have targeted a wider range of threats than initially anticipated.

The president is expected to talk generally about the need for greater transparency in the drone strikes and may allude to the desire to give greater responsibility for those operations to the military. But he is likely to tread carefully on an issue that involves classified CIA operations.

The U.S. military has begun to take over the bulk of the strikes, replacing the CIA in nearly all areas except Pakistan, according to an administration official who was not authorized to discuss the plans on the record and spoke on condition of anonymity. That shift in responsibility has given Congress greater oversight of the secretive program.

Obama "believes that we need to be as transparent about a matter like this as we can, understanding that there are national security implications to this issue and to the broader issues involved in counterterrorism policy," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters Wednesday.

"He thinks (this) is an absolutely valid and legitimate and important area of discussion and debate and conversation, and that it is his belief that there need to be structures in place that remain in place for successive administrations," Carney said. "So that in the carrying out of counterterrorism policy, procedures are followed that allow it to be conducted in a way that ensures that we're keeping with our traditions and our laws."

In a letter Wednesday to congressional leaders, Holder said only one of the U.S. citizens killed in counterterror operations beyond war zones—Anwar al-Awlaki, who had ties to at least three attacks planned or carried out on U.S. soil—was specifically targeted by American forces. He said the other three Americans were not targeted in the U.S. strikes.

The deaths of three of the four, including al-Awlaki's 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman, were already known. Holder's letter revealed the killing of Jude Kenan Mohammad, who was indicted by federal authorities in 2009 as part of an alleged homegrown terror plot to attack the U.S. Marine Corps base at Quantico, Va. Before he could be arrested, authorities said, Mohammad fled the country to join jihadi fighters in the tribal areas of Pakistan.

For months Congress has urged Obama to release a classified Justice Department legal opinion justifying when U.S. counterterror missions, including drone strikes, can be used to kill American citizens abroad. Several lawmakers declined immediate comment Wednesday on Holder's letter or Obama's speech.

Human rights watchdogs, however, were not immediately appeased.

Human Rights First legal director Dixon Osburn welcomed the White House's pledge for more transparency but remained "deeply concerned that the administration appears to be institutionalizing a problematic targeted killing policy without public debate on whether the rules are lawful or appropriate."

"The American public deserves to know whether the administration is complying with the law, and Congress should debate the legal and policy implications of our targeted killing operations," Osburn said in a statement.

In re-affirming his pledge to close the detention center at Guantanamo, Obama will push in the speech for a renewed effort to transfer its 166 detainees to other countries. Congress and the White House have sparred since Obama took office in 2009 over the fate of the suspects and whether they can be brought to trial on U.S. soil. In the meantime, the detainees have been held for years with diminishing hope that they will charged with a crime or be given a trial.

An aide to House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard P. "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif., said lawmakers remain concerned that detainees who are released would rejoin the terror fight. The staff member was not authorized to discuss the issue on the record and spoke on condition of anonymity.

This week, the Pentagon asked Congress for more than $450 million for maintaining and upgrading the Guantanamo prison. More than 100 of the prisoners have launched a hunger strike to protest their indefinite detention, and the military earlier this month was force-feeding 30 of them to keep them from starving to death.

Obama was expected to make the case that the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan has decimated al-Qaida's core, even as new threats emerge elsewhere.

Against the backdrop of last month's deadly double-bombing at the Boston Marathon, administration officials said Obama will highlight the persistent threat of homegrown terrorists—militants or extremists who are either American citizens or have lived in the U.S. for years. The two Chechen-born suspects in the Boston attacks were raised in the United States and turned against America and its invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan only in recent years, investigators have said.

Like the quandaries of drone strikes and Guantanamo, the rise of homegrown terrorism is nothing new. The Obama administration included homegrown threats in its National Security Strategy in 2010. However, such threats have increased as the power of al-Qaida's central leadership has ebbed—especially after Osama bin Laden was killed in his Pakistani hideout by U.S. special forces two years ago.

Singer, the Brookings expert, said Obama's administration has been plagued with making short-term calculations on security issues with long-term impacts. He said the president's speech will serve to gloss over the "ad-hoc" strategies advocated by some of his advisers, and make clear his top priorities for the rest of his time in office.

Especially with regard to the drone strikes, Singer said, "you have this irony that's played out over the last four years, where one of the greatest speakers of our era has largely remained silent about one of the signature aspects of his presidency."

[American Patriot]

Obama to justify drone attacks at US Defence University

May 23, 2013


Washington: US President Barack Obama, who is set to deliver a counter-terrorism strategy speech, will discuss his plans for unmanned drones and Guantanamo Bay, a White House official said.


US President Barack Obama

In a broad and comprehensive address at the prestigious National Defence University (NDU) today, Obama will lay out the framework for US counter-terrorism strategy as the US winds down the war in Afghanistan, and as he looks forward to the rest of his second term, a White House official said.

“The President will provide the American people with an update on how the threat of terrorism has changed substantially since 9/11, as al-Qaeda’s core in Afghanistan and Pakistan has been decimated, and new threats have emerged from al-Qaeda affiliates, localised extremist groups, and homegrown terrorists,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

In his address, Obama will also discuss the comprehensive American strategy to meet these threats, including waging the war against al-Qaeda and counter-terrorism efforts more broadly, the official said.

“Consistent with his commitment to being open and transparent with the American people, he will speak at length about the policy and legal rationale for how the United States takes direct action against al-Qaeda and its associated forces, including with drone strikes,” the official said.

“He will discuss why the use of drone strikes is necessary, legal, and just, while addressing the various issues raised by our use of targeted action,” he said.

In fact, on the eve of his important speech, US Attorney General Eric Holder wrote a letter to the US lawmakers informing them for the first time that four American nationals have been killed in US drone strikes overseas.

“The speech coincides with the disclosure of the instances in which Americans have been killed in our counter-terrorism operations, and more broadly the signing of new Presidential Policy Guidance that lays out the standards under which we take lethal action,” he said.

“Beyond the use of force, the President will discuss our broader strategy, including diplomatic and assistance efforts around the world, and how we can better secure our diplomatic facilities while remaining engaged in dangerous regions,” the White House official said, adding Obama will also discuss how to balance securing the country and protecting the civil liberties at home.

“Finally, the President will reiterate his strong commitment to closing the detention facility at Guantanamo as a part of our effort to align our counter-terrorism strategy with our values, and will announce a number of specific steps to advance that goal,” the White House official said.

[American Patriot]

Read this CAREFULLY.... don't skim.

Obama to Set Legal Framework for Drone Strikes Overseas

By Margaret Talev & Phil Mattingly - May 22, 2013 10:00 PM MT



President Barack Obama today will provide new details justifying the targeted killing of terrorists overseas and announcing steps toward his goal of shutting the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.


Obama, who has signed a policy document laying out the standards for taking lethal action, plans to outline why drone strikes are legal and necessary, according to an administration official who asked not to be identified to preview the speech.
Enlarge image
U.S. President Barack Obama said April 30 that he’s directed his staff to review “everything we can do administratively” to work on winding down Guantanamo. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg





He also will discuss how the threat from terrorists has changed since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and his strategy for waging a counterterrorism campaign, the official said.
On the eve of Obama’s remarks, his administration for the first time acknowledged that U.S. drone strikes killed four U.S. citizens in Pakistan and Yemen, including al-Qaeda propagandist Anwar Al-Awlaki in Yemen in September 2011.


Attorney General Eric Holder disclosed the killings in a letter to lawmakers in which he also said they will be briefed about a document recently approved by Obama that “institutionalizes” the standards and processes for approving operations to capture or use lethal force against terrorist targets outside the U.S.


The speech at the National Defense University is aimed at easing years of concerns from Congress, human rights groups and the international community. It follows the May 11 election of Nawaz Sharif as prime minister in Pakistan, which has felt the brunt of the Central Intelligence Agency’s drone program, and comes amid concerns that other countries are pursuing drone technology.
Guantanamo Prison

The address also comes weeks after Obama renewed his 2009 pledge to close the prison at Guantanamo, in the face of resistance from Congress, and as a hunger strike there has led to the force-feeding of 30 prisoners.


“When you do covert action over a course of years it doesn’t stay covert anymore and it puts your country, your policy and the people conducting it into a false position, and that’s what we’re working our way into,” said retired Navy Admiral Dennis Blair, a former U.S. Director of National Intelligence.


“An authoritative statement of the principles on which we conduct the attack portion of the war against al-Qaeda ought to be laid out,” said Blair, who advocates shifting the drone program to the military from the CIA.
Drone Strikes

The New America Foundation, a Washington policy group that maintains a database of reported CIA drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen, said drone operations peaked in Pakistan in 2010, and in Yemen in 2012, and were now on the decline in both countries. The group, using news reports, estimates CIA drones have killed between 2,780 and 4,421 militants and civilians since 2004.


Holder, in the letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, said the U.S. “specifically targeted and killed one U.S. citizen,” Al-Awlaki, and the government is aware of three other citizens killed since 2009.


In his State of the Union address in February, Obama committed to act this year so that “our efforts are even more transparent to the American people and to the world” on the targeting, detention and prosecution of terrorists.


White House officials declined to provide specifics on Obama’s remarks, including whether he will announce new legal restrictions on the executive branch, narrow the targets of drone operations or move more jurisdiction over the strikes to the Pentagon from the CIA.
Prisoner Transfers

The official who previewed Obama’s speech didn’t say whether the U.S. will resume transferring Guantanamo prisoners to other countries. The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed officials, reported yesterday that the administration is set to restart transfers.


Obama said April 30 that he’s directed his staff to review “everything we can do administratively” to work on winding down Guantanamo.


Obama’s task is to “strike a balance between arguing that the threats from terrorism will remain with us for the long term as the events of Boston would graphically illustrate, and to say that the structures that we gradually built up in response can’t remain with us in their ad hoc manner,” said Peter Singer, director of the Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence at the Brookings Institution, a Washington policy research group.
War Authorization

While defense officials have said Obama has authority to use lethal force in countries including Yemen, Somalia, Syria and Pakistan, Laura Murphy, director of the legislative office of the American Civil Liberties Union, said Congress hasn’t authorized such military action and the legal rationale is secret.


“The White House refuses to say what groups we’re at war with, in what countries we’re killing people,” she said.


The administration first acknowledged the covert program, in place since President George W. Bush’s administration, in a speech delivered last May by Obama’s then-counterterrorism adviser and now-CIA director, John Brennan.


Holder provided the broad outlines of the U.S. targeted killing policy in a March 2012 speech at Northwestern University’s law school.


Classified standards approved by Obama are “already in place or are to be transitioned into place,” Holder said in his letter to lawmakers.


“When capture is not feasible, the policy provides that lethal force may be used only when a terrorist target poses a continuing, imminent threat to Americans, and when certain other preconditions, including a requirement that no other reasonable alternatives exist to effectively address the threat, are satisfied,” Holder said.
Broader Criteria

Micah Zenko, a fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations who tracks the use of drones, said the targeted killings appear to have been conducted using broader criteria than that, making transparency less likely.


“They want maximum authority, they want minimum oversight,” he said. “And they want the claim they’re engaged in transparency. But of course they aren’t. They just keep saying over and over again, ‘Transparency is a goal.’ It’s a rhetorical principal for this administration.”


The program is “hated far beyond where the strikes occur,” he said, citing internationally polling. “Nobody agrees with what the U.S. is doing.”


To contact the reporters on this story: Margaret Talev in Washington at mtalev@bloomberg.net; Phil Mattingly in Washington at pmattingly@bloomberg.net

[American Patriot]

Two of the Americans killed by drones were "in the wrong place and at the wrong time" as reported by Wendell Goler from Fox News this morning

[Malsua]

Two of the Americans killed by drones were "in the wrong place and at the wrong time" as reported by Wendell Goler from Fox News this morning

Yeah, Yemen or [insert 3rd world muslim shithole] at any time.

[American Patriot]

In truth, I don't care if you're an American, Brit, Canadian or Russian - if you're helping the Terrorists, you're a terrorist.

There is a fine line though.

If they decide in the US that someone is a "terrorist" and they are an "American" and they aren't a Muslim then there's a problem there.

Don't be blowing up places in America with drones because you think you're justified.

The first time that happens on US soil Americans WILL go to war.

[Phil Fiord]

Maybe unrelated, the last few days have seen increased undercover police actions in a county near me and this morning on my way to work and I was at a cross street to turn left and a huge white RV with a white comm van passed me cross ways. The RV had boldly written on its side."Homeland Security Investigation POLICE". The van had no markings, but a large upside down dish and many antenna.

I did an image search and found nothing at all like I saw and was surprised. If my cell were not in my pocket I might have gotten a pic, then again, maybe not. It did not jet by crossing, but too fast to fire up my cam app anyway I figure had my cell been out.