Congress Blocks The Transfer Of The CIA's Drone Program To The Pentagon

A Predator drone taxis in after a sortie over Iraq in 2004. U.S. Air Force/Getty Images

Lawmakers Seek To Stymie Plan To Shift Control Of Drone Campaign From CIA To Pentagon -- Washington Post

Congress has moved to block President Obama’s plan to shift control of the U.S. drone campaign from the CIA to the Defense Department, inserting a secret provision in the massive government spending bill introduced this week that would preserve the spy agency’s role in lethal counterterrorism operations, U.S. officials said.

The measure, included in a classified annex to the $1.1 trillion federal budget plan, would restrict the use of any funding to transfer unmanned aircraft or the authority to carry out drone strikes from the CIA to the Pentagon, officials said.

The provision represents an unusually direct intervention by lawmakers into the way covert operations are run, impeding an administration plan aimed at returning the CIA’s focus to traditional intelligence gathering and possibly bringing more transparency to drone strikes.

Read more ....

More News On The U.S. Congress Blocking The Transfer Of The CIA's Drone Program To The Pentagon

Congress seeks to keep oversight of drone program with CIA -- UPI
Congress Restricts Push to Transfer Drone Program From CIA to Pentagon -- National Journal
Report: Funding for drone transfer blocked in spending bill -- The Hill
Secret amendment in Congress keeps CIA in charge of deadly drone strikes -- RT
US policymakers seek to block transfer of drone campaign CIA to Pentagon -- Voice of Russia
McCain scolds appropriators for drone move -- The Hill
McCain responds angrily to report on drones -- Washington Post