drones

The White House Acknowledges Existence of Drone Memos, Will Release Them to Two Congressional Committees

Taylor Berman · 02/06/13 10:19PM

Late Wednesday evening, the White House announced it had ordered the Justice Department to release to two Congressional intelligence committees the memos containing the legal justifications for drone strikes against U.S. citizens. The announcement comes two days after NBC News released a confidential memo that detailed similar information, and one day before the Senate confirmation hearing of Obama's nominee for CIA director, John Brennan, who is considered the chief architect of the administration's escalated use of drones. Before today, neither the White House nor the Justice Department had acknowledged the memos's existence.

The 'Secret' Saudi Drone Base Revealed By The Times Today Was Actually Reported Months Ago

Adrian Chen · 02/06/13 06:00PM

What is a secret drone base that's not actually a secret? The Washington Post and the New York Times revealed today that they were among a number of news organizations that participated in a blackout regarding the location of a "secret" CIA drone base in Saudia Arabia at the behest of the Obama Administration. But it turns out that base had already been reported months earlier—including by Fox News. In the case of the Saudi drone base, the Times and the Post weren't protecting a state secret: They were helping the CIA bury an inconvenient story.

Everybody is Mad at Touré For Supporting Obama's Drone Wars

Jordan Sargent · 02/05/13 08:40PM

Touré (pictured above interviewing T.I.) is a fine writer — or at least he was at one point. Now he mostly spends his time as a helium-filled talking head, floating drably across MSNBC's midday airwaves. This is a pretty cushy job, seeing as you can say basically anything without anyone giving a shit since the only people watching cable news during the day are those being crushed to death by boredom in lobbies across the country. But there's a catch: when you get paid to talk in circles every day, sometimes you'll find yourself arguing a position you probably should not be arguing. And if you're stubborn enough and your argument is stupid enough — you are on cable news, after all — then you might find yourself in the center of a firestorm.

We the Targets: Obama's Combat Lawyers and a Fairy Tale of Law

Mobutu Sese Seko · 02/05/13 04:00PM

Last night, NBC news broke the story of an Obama Justice Department memo on extrajudicial assassination of American citizens that screams off the page with the self-delusion and pity of an abused child writing a fairytale. It is a story of calmly supervised adult violence buried under the story-time adventure of so many princes, swords nominally at their sides, who keep hitting and hitting, because they have to.

Confidential Justice Department Memo: Targeted Killing of Americans Does Not Require 'Clear Evidence' of Imminent Attack

Taylor Berman · 02/04/13 11:12PM

Late Monday evening, NBC's Michael Isikoff released a report detailing a confidential Justice Department memo obtained by NBC News. The memo, called the white paper, discusses the legal justifications for the use of drone strikes and other lethal attacks against American citizens believed to be members of al-Qaida, offering explanations that expand on public statements previously issued by Obama's nominee for CIA director John Brennan and Attorney General Eric Holder.

The Pentagon Is Apparently Letting Redditors Pilot Drones

Adrian Chen · 02/01/13 06:48PM

America's deadly flying war robots are in the hands of users of the popular geek message board Reddit. And as with any profession in which Redditors can be found, U.S. Army drone operators have apparently taken to Reddit to chat about their controversial jobs with fellow users in the site's popular "Ask Me Anything" section.

MTanzer · 12/09/12 03:00PM

The Times is now reporting that a U.S. drone strike has killed a major Al Qaeda leader in Pakistan.

Obama Didn't Trust Romney to Use Unmanned Drones to Kill Innocent People

MTanzer · 11/25/12 02:38PM

This November's foreign policy debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney left many Americans realizing that the two candidate's policies were pretty similar, regardless of their thoughts about bayonets. But no matter how alike their policies seemed to the average citizen, President Obama apparently wasn't okay with the thought of a Romney kill list or having the former Massachusetts governor having free rein over America's army of unmanned drones.

How Dare Someone Try to Shoot Down One of Our Drones?

Hamilton Nolan · 11/09/12 03:20PM

Sound the war bells, grab your gear, and prepare to man the bombers, fellow Americans: the dirty nation of IRAN has wiped its shit-stained bootheel upon our national sovereignty, in the following manner: they shot at one of our spy drones. We say it was outside of Iranian territory; they dispute that. Either way, the strong, muscular foreign policy view of this must be: Hey, That Was Ours, And We Must Escalate Into All Out War, Or We Might Look Weak. From The Guardian:

The Potential For a Diplomatic Drone Disaster

Hamilton Nolan · 09/26/12 11:25AM

There are multiple cases against America's international program of drone assassinations. There is the humanitarian case: the program has killed hundreds of innocent civilians, due to either bad intelligence or a simple lack of caring on the part of US officials. And, for the more heartless... er, hard-nosed pragmatists, there is the diplomatic case: the US is reportedly operating drones in Pakistan with only the flimsiest level of permission.

What It's Like to Be Hit By a Drone Strike

Hamilton Nolan · 09/25/12 12:00PM

On January 23, 2009, shortly after President Obama took office, the U.S. military blew up two houses in Waziristan with missiles fired by drones. These were the first of nearly 300 drone strikes in Pakistan the Obama administration has carried out. Here is what it was like from the other side.

Apple Says No Thanks to App that Tracks Deaths from U.S. Drones

Taylor Berman · 08/30/12 06:45PM

Remember the "There's an app for that commercial?" Well, that's still mostly true, I guess, unless, say, you wanted instant updates for the number of people killed by U.S. drones. Earlier this week, Apple rejected NYU student Josh Begley's "Drone+" app, which keeps track of drone strikes, including the approximate location and number of people killed. There was even an option for push notifications.

So You've Decided To Whack A Raghead.

Mobutu Sese Seko · 06/06/12 02:16PM

Last week, the New York Times ran a 5,000-word article on the Obama administration's "secret" drone assassination program that might as well have been accompanied by the cheery clip art that comes with brochures on STDs from the free clinic.