The CIA appears to be getting out of the drone business, said Dashiell Bennett in TheAtlantic.com. Senior U.S. officials last week indicated that the White House plans to shift control of the CIA’s lethal unmanned aircraft to the Department of Defense. That would add much-needed “transparency and accountability to what has become one of the government’s most controversial operations.” The CIA now operates the drones that target and kill suspected terrorists in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and other countries where the U.S. is not officially at war. Because those missions are deemed “covert,” the administration can deny their existence to Congress, shielding those responsible from accountability when a drone strike goes wrong and incinerates civilians. Under the Pentagon, however, the drone war would be subject to international military law and congressional oversight. “This is a good thing” all around, said Michael Leiter in MSNBC.com. Freed from paramilitary activities, the CIA can return to its “traditional role of strategic intelligence collection and analysis.”
But as with “everything involving drone policy, there are complications,” said Bloomberg.com in an editorial. When the military wants a drone strike on foreign soil, it first has toget the approval of that nation’s government. How will the White House respond “if al Qaida forces take harbor in a country with an anti-American government?” The president has an easy way out of that bind, said Fred Kaplan in Slate.com. It seems likely that the drone fleet will be placed under the Joint Special Operations Command, which runs theSEALs, Delta Force, and other clandestine units. Although JSOC is part of the armed forces, an executive order signed by President George W. Bush gives it “authority to conduct secret operations against al Qaida and affiliated terrorist networks worldwide.” So drone strikes could remain as frequent and far-flung as ever under the Pentagon—and “maybe even more so,” since Bush’s executive order allows JSOC to conduct its covert missions without reporting to congressional intelligence committees, as the CIA must do.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Why Man United finally lost patience with ten HagTalking Point After another loss United sacked ten Hag in hopes of success in the Champion's League
-
Who are the markets backing in the US election?Talking Point Speculators are piling in on the Trump trade. A Harris victory would come as a surprise
-
Crossword: November 3, 2024The Week's daily crossword
-
Working from home: Is it really more productive?feature The CEOs of two struggling companies, Yahoo and Best Buy, have decreed that employees will no longer be able to work from home.
-
The fiscal cliff: What happens if there’s no deal?
feature Contrary to what some doomsayers have predicted, income taxes won’t go up overnight, and $500 billion won’t suddenly be sucked out of the economy.
-
The fiscal cliff: What if negotiations fail?
feature All told, $503 billion could be siphoned out of the economy, which could throw the still-weak U.S. economy back into recession.
-
Romney: Can a businessman fix the economy?
feature The Obama campaign is targeting a new line of attacks on Romney’s business background.
-
Occupy Wall Street: Will the crackdown end the movement?
feature As the police continue to dismantle the tent cities of the Occupy movement, its future as a political force is in question.
-
Jobs: Why aren’t companies hiring?
feature Nearly 15 million Americans are out of work, half of them for more than six months, and the figures aren't dropping even though employers are ringing up good profits.
-
The economy: Is the recovery for real?
feature The Great Recession is officially over. Where's the champagne?
-
Wall Street: The good times are rolling again
feature The big banks are flush with money and plan to give out billions of dollars in annual bonuses to their employees.