Ex-pentagon chief endorses oversight on drone strikes
WASHINGTON — Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he finds merit in “some check” on a president’s ability to order drone strikes against American al-Qaida suspects overseas, lending support to creating a special court that would review such requests.
“I think that the rules and the practices that the Obama administration has followed are quite stringent and are not being abused. But who is to say about a future president?” said Gates, Pentagon chief for Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
Secret court model. The potential model that some lawmakers are considering for overseeing such drone attacks is a secret court of federal judges who now review requests for government surveillance in espionage and terrorism cases.
Brennan hearing. The issue gained momentum in the run-up to the confirmation hearing last week for John Brennan, Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser who helped managed the drone program, to be CIA director.
Before the hearing, Obama di- rected the Justice Department to give the congressional intelligence committees access to classified legal advice providing the government’s rationale for drone strikes against American citizens working with al-Qaida abroad.
Memo details. Demands for such information grew after the leak early last week of an unclassified memo on how decisions are made to target U.S. citizens abroad. The memo says it is legal for the government to kill U.S. citizens abroad if it believes they are senior al-Qaida leaders continually engaged in operations aimed at killing Americans, even if there is no evidence of a specific imminent attack.
Americans killed. A September 2011 drone strike in Yemen killed Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan, both U.S. citizens. Another drone strike killed al-Awlaki’s 16-year-old son, a Denver native. In Thursday’s hearing, Brennan defended drone strikes as necessary, saying they are taken only as a “last resort.”