"We're going to review what happened.
We're going to identify the lessons that can be learned and any improvements and changes that can be made," Obama said in a speech marking the 10th anniversary of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
[jpost.com by Reuters]
24/4/15
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Hostage deaths renew US debate on drone strikes...
ReplyDeletehostage had been killed in a January drone strike, US officials said the administration may consider revising the intelligence requirements for launching strikes overseas.
US officials announced Thursday that January drone strikes targeting an al Qaeda base in Pakistan had killed 73-year-old US aid worker Warren Weinstein, held by al Qaeda since 2011, and Giovanni Lo Porto, 39, an Italian NGO worker who went missing in 2012. A US official said they had not been able to confirm that the hostages had been killed until a few days ago.
"I profoundly regret what happened. On behalf of the United States government, I offer our deepest apologies to the families," Obama said Thursday, speaking from the White House.
Another American, suspected al Qaeda member Ahmed Farouq, was also killed in the strikes.
A second American member of al Qaeda, Adam Gadahn, was likely killed in a separate operation in Pakistan that same month. The White House said Farouq and Gadahn were not “specifically targeted, and we did not have information indicating their presence at the sites of these operations”.
The use of drones has long been controversial for causing civilian deaths and because US citizens who have joined militant groups have been killed without the benefit of judicial process. Rules imposed by the Obama administration require a Justice Department review before US citizens can be targeted as part of an overseas counterterrorism operation.
The programme’s defenders contrast the relative precision of drones to the more scattershot approach of conventional airpower, or the risks and drawbacks of dispatching commando teams.
The CIA has launched more than 400 drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen since 2002, killing thousands of people, both militants and civilians, according to the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism. At least eight US citizens have reportedly been killed in such strikes since 2002, although only Anwar al-Awlaki — a US national who became known as al Qaeda’s “YouTube preacher” from his base in Yemen — was targeted with Justice Department approval............france24.com
24/4/15