Vol. 76/No. 42      November 19, 2012

Nearly 3,000 people have been killed by drone strikes over the last decade, according to estimates in the Post, the overwhelming majority during the Barack Obama administration.

Over the past two years, the White House has been secretly developing “a new generation targeting list called the ‘disposition matrix,’” reported an Oct. 23 Post article, the first of a three-part series on Washington’s use of killer drones. The database tracks individuals targeted for assassination.

The CIA is seeking an additional 10 armed drones to be added to its current fleet of about 35, reported the Post. The U.S. military’s fleet dwarfs that of the CIA. According to a 2011 Pentagon report, the Air Force has 246 Predators, Reapers and Global Hawks, with the Army, Navy and Marines having access to hundreds of other attack drones.

The “disposition matrix” was developed by the National Counterterrorism Center—in operation under a 2004 executive order—to augment the CIA’s and Joint Special Operations Command’s separately compiled “kill” lists. White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan presents proposals generated by the military and intelligence agencies to the president, who decides whom to add to the list.

In addition to targeted assassinations of individuals—which also hit whoever else happens to be in the vicinity—the White House carries out what it dubs “signature strikes.” These are drone assaults in which individuals and groups of people are targeted based on “patterns of behavior” and presence at “gathering places.”

The London-based Bureau for Investigative Journalism reports that from June 2004 to mid-September 2012 nearly 900 civilians have been killed, including 176 children. The Pentagon keeps the reported civilian casualties count low by counting all men killed in drone attacks as “combatants” or “militants.”

On Sept. 17, 2001, President George W. Bush signed a memorandum of notification authorizing the CIA to kill without further presidential approval, “two or three dozen” targeted individuals, reported Foreign Policy magazine. “There are 500 guys out there you have to kill,” an unnamed former CIA official told the magazine. “There’s no way to sugarcoat it—you just have to kill them.”

Drone strikes in Pakistan began in 2002 under President Bush. Over seven years his administration oversaw 50 drone attacks. Since Obama took office, more than 350 have been carried out in at least six countries—Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Iraq, Somalia and Libya, reported the Financial Times. Former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney fully supported use of killer drones as carried out under the Obama administration.

Residents of Pakistan’s tribal areas bordering Afghanistan are subjected to constant flights of the death machines, never knowing when they will strike. So far this year there have been 40 airstrikes in Pakistan, down from 64 last year.

Over the first 10 months of this year, the White House launched 37 drone strikes in Yemen, nearly quadruple those conducted in 2011, according to the Long War Journal.

Expanding U.S. base in Djibouti

“For the past decade, the Pentagon has labeled Lemonnier an ‘expeditionary,’ or temporary, camp,” reports the Post Oct. 25. “But it is now hardening into the U.S. military’s first permanent drone war base.”

In August, the Pentagon presented Congress with plans to expand use of this base with $1.4 billion in construction projects, “including a huge new compound that could house up to 1,100 Special Operations forces, more than triple the current number,” said the Post.

Drones are being deployed against Somalia not just from the Djibouti base but also from U.S. military bases in the Seychelles and Ethiopia.

A U.N. report earlier this year described the congestion of the skies over Somalia caused by drone traffic. “Over the past year,” the Post reported, “remote-controlled aircraft have plunged into a refugee camp, flown perilously close to a fuel dump and almost collided with a large passenger plane over Mogadishu, the capital.”  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home