Drone strikes, America’s favorite way to deliver silent death from the skies to suspected terrorists, could see more transparency and more accountability, with major changes on the way for the Obama Administration’s controversial program.
“Three senior officials” told Daniel Klaidman at The Daily Beast that the White House is planning on shaking up its drone policy, merging the two concurrent programs that are controlled by the CIA and the Department of Defense into one headed solely by the Pentagon.
“The move could potentially toughen the criteria for drone strikes, strengthen the program’s accountability, and increase transparency,” Klaidman wrote.
Additional transparency would come from the distinction between defense programs, which are regulated by the federal laws in Title 10, and intelligence programs, which are controlled by Title 50, which allows for more of the kinds of legal or ethical gray areas that the Obama Administration is trying to avoid.
“This is a big deal,” one of Klaidman’s senior administration officials said. “It would be a pretty strong statement.”
Aside from the purely legal Title 10/50 differences, an additional boost in accountability would come from President Obama, whose signature is required for Defense Department drone strikes but not for strikes through the CIA.
The rumored plan would apparently be put in place within one year, possibly sooner, bringing all drone striking together definitely by the end of Obama’s second term.
Officials are already laying out the handover plan, detailing how the agencies will continue interaction.
The CIA will allegedly resume its pre-9/11 role, focusing more on gathering and interpreting information, and away from the paramilitary secret assassin army it has increasingly become.
However, Klaidman seems to have concerns about the transition and whether it will bring any more transparency at all.
“There’s nothing in the law that says the military has to brief congressional committees about its lethal activities,” Klaidman writes. “The CIA, on the other hand, is compelled under Title 50 to notify Congress of its intelligence activities.”
A former adviser offered Klaidman a more pragmatic explanation: “Barack Obama has got to be concerned about his legacy,” the adviser said. “He doesn’t want drones to become his Guantánamo.”
