There Is No Certainty On Who Is Being Killed By U.S. Drone Strikes

U.S. President Barack Obama delivers a statement in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, April 23, 2015.

Spencer Ackerman, Sabrina Siddiqui and Paul Lewis, The Guardian: White House admits: we didn't know who drone strike was aiming to kill

Broad target of ‘al-Qaida compounds’ suggests 2013 policy change by Obama – requiring ‘near certainty’ that suspect is present – has not been implemented

The targets of the deadly drone strikes that killed two hostages and two suspected American members of al-Qaida were “al-Qaida compounds” rather than specific terrorist suspects, the White House disclosed on Thursday.

The lack of specificity suggests that despite a much-publicized 2013 policy change by Barack Obama restricting drone killings by, among other things, requiring “near certainty that the terrorist target is present”, the US continues to launch lethal operations without the necessity of knowing who specifically it seeks to kill, a practice that has come to be known as a “signature strike”.

WNU Editor: This report is what gave the CIA a heads-up that something went wrong .... Two extra bodies on drone cam were first sign that strike had gone terribly wrong: CIA officials tell of shocking realization that they might have killed innocent hostages (Daily Mail).

More News On The Reality That U.S. Drone Strikes Kills Innocent People

Drone Strikes Reveal Uncomfortable Truth: U.S. Is Often Unsure About Who Will Die -- Scott Shane, NYT
The United States Does Not Know Who It's Killing -- Micah Zenko, Foreign Policy
The grim reality of US drone strikes is becoming clear -- Warren Strobel and Mark Hosenball, Reuters
Warren Weinstein and the Long Drone War -- Steve Coll, New Yorker
Botched U.S. Strike Highlights Risks of Obama’s Drone War -- Elias Groll and Yochi Dreazen, Foreign Policy
Washington yawns at an American atrocity: Why the latest drone fiasco won’t change anything -- Jim Nevel, Salon
Was It Legal For US To Kill American Al Qaeda Leaders? (Video) -- ABC News
Drones Kill Innocent People All the Time: But now the White House can’t deny it -- Robert Beckhusen and Matthew Gault, War Is Boring