Wednesday, December 28, 2011
The King of the Drones
Nope, we are not talking about Lloyd Blankfein and his non-productive employees. Nor are we referring to the ruler of the Lost Island of Male Bees. The King of the Drones is our very own President, Barack Obama. And he is the man in charge of a massive fleet of drones that can find, watch and, if desired, kill anyone anywhere in the world.
But what the administration has assembled, hidden from public view, may be equally consequential.No, our President is not yet the owner of the whole planet but thanks to the drones he can play one on TV.
In the space of three years, the administration has built an extensive apparatus for using drones to carry out targeted killings of suspected terrorists and stealth surveillance of other adversaries. The apparatus involves dozens of secret facilities, including two operational hubs on the East Coast, virtual Air Force cockpits in the Southwest and clandestine bases in at least six countries on two continents.
Other commanders in chief have presided over wars with far higher casualty counts. But no president has ever relied so extensively on the secret killing of individuals to advance the nation’s security goals.
The rapid expansion of the drone program has blurred long-standing boundaries between the CIA and the military. Lethal operations are increasingly assembled a la carte, piecing together personnel and equipment in ways that allow the White House to toggle between separate legal authorities that govern the use of lethal force.
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