Every day, the media reports a new story about the Obama administration’s policy of targeted killings, the vast majority of which are carried out by armed drones. On Monday, for instance, Newsweek ran a piece by Daniel Klaidman that described President Obama’s “uneasy acceptance” of signature strikes in Pakistan and Yemen, and how he resisted administration officials who sought to expand the target set. And yesterday, the New York Times ran an excellent feature that described the discomfort of many within the administration regarding the seductive allure of seemingly cost-free drone strikes (which echoes what many current and former officials have told me for years). According to a former senior intelligence official, “It bothers me when [counterterrorism officials] say there were seven guys, so they must all be militants. They count the corpses and they’re not really sure who they are.” Read more »

This is a guest post by CFR military fellow, Colonel Chad T. Manske, U.S. Air Force.

This weekend is a time to honor and reflect on the sacrifices of our veterans, particular those who made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of the freedoms we hold so dear. Read more »

2011 Human Rights Report: Yemen, U.S. Department of State, May 24, 2012.

The government also employed air strikes against rebellious tribes in Nihm and Arhab. Human rights observers and local residents accused the government of targeting villages of these tribesmen in both areas with aerial bombardment, leading to significant noncombatant casualties. The government also employed air strikes against AQAP and affiliated insurgents in Abyan, with some strikes hitting civilian areas. Although some accused the government of intentionally striking civilians in Abyan, most if not all noncombatant casualties from these bombardments were attributed to a lack of air force training and technical capability. Read more »

Today—eighty-nine days past its legal deadline—the State Department released its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2011. The new, user-friendly interface allows you to find and read individual country chapters much more quickly and easily (and might explain the delay). For all its flaws, the report remains a must-read for its reporting and candor. It serves as a generally honest counter to the rosier assessments of U.S. partners and allies’ human rights practices. Read more »

One year ago today, with no strategy and no working knowledge of the blogosphere, I started this blog: Politics, Power, and Preventive Action. As I reread my first post, I was heartened to see that I characterized myself as “someone who is massively curious about foreign affairs” and concluded, “This should be fun!” Reflecting on this past year, blogging has been tremendously fun—although much more work than I had anticipated. Read more »

In his memoir Decision Points, President George W. Bush described his frustration after reading intelligence reports about a growing Taliban sanctuary in Pakistan in the summer of 2008. Bush recalls an encounter with a Navy Seal in Afghanistan in 2006, who said: “Mr. President, we need permission to go kick some ass inside Pakistan.” Read more »

Iona Craig, “Toll Climbs in Yemen’s Fight Against al-Qaeda,” USA Today, May 18, 2012.

Julian E. Barnes, “U.S. Rethinks Secrecy on Drone Program,” Wall Street Journal, May 17, 2012. Read more »

The Obama administration’s strategy against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), as articulated by White House counterterrorism czar John Brennan, is to assure that it is “destroyed and is eliminated.” In January 2010, Brennan warned: “We’ve seen over the past several years in Yemen is increasing strengthening of Al Qaida forces in Yemen. There are several hundred Al Qaida members there.” Read more »

America’s Third War is escalating quickly in the skies over Yemen. Despite previous rebuffs from the White House, last month the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) and the CIA—which both run parallel drone campaigns in Yemen—were granted broad authority to conduct “signature strikes” against anonymous suspected militants, who are determined to support al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) based on the observed “patterns of suspicious behavior” from multiple intelligence sources. Read more »

Nick Paumgarten, “The World of Surveillance,” The New Yorker, May 14, 2012.

Patrick Egan, president of the Silicon Valley chapter of the Association for Unmanned Systems International: “The first time a drone Tases the wrong dude at a Phish concert, you’re going to have problems.” Read more »