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Who Is Calling ‘BS’ on Obama for His Response on Drones?

Sep. 7, 2012 1:11pm Liz Klimas

Analyst Calls Obama Out on Strict Drone Use Criteria While Former Navy SEAL Says President Said Enough

Predator B unmanned aircraft landing after a mission, at the Naval Air Station, in Corpus Christi, Texas. (Photo: AP/Eric Gay, File)

TheBlaze recently reported that a journalist for The American Conservative was promptly “thrown” out of the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday for asking White House adviser Valerie Jarrett about the Obama Administration’s drone use policy. That same evening, President Barack Obama speaking with CNN shed light on the rarely talked about criteria for launching a drone attack.

Now, Wired writes some experts are calling out Obama on his answers to CNN’s questions, while a military expert told TheBlaze his responses were appropriate.

First, Obama in the interview said the criteria for using drones is “is very tight and very strict.” Here are Obama’s answers for using the unmanned aerial vehicles in attacks (via the Bureau Investigates):

“It has to be a target that is authorized by our laws.”

“It has to be a threat that is serious and not speculative.”

“It has to be a situation in which we can’t capture the individual before they move forward on some sort of operational plot against the United States.”

“We’ve got to make sure that in whatever operations we conduct, we are very careful about avoiding civilian casualties.”

“That while there is a legal justification for us to try and stop [American citizens] from carrying out plots… they are subject to the protections of the constitution and due process.”

Wired called at least two of these points “half-truths.” The ones it questions most specifically are 2, 3 and 5. Wired reports Micah Zenko, an analyst who has tracked the use of drones in wars for the Council on Foreign Relations, saying it is “simply not true” to say every drone launched in an attack was for “some operational plot against the United States.”

“The claim that the 3,000+ people killed in roughly 375 nonbattlefield targeted killings were all engaged in actual operational plots against the U.S. defies any understanding of the scope of what America has been doing for the past ten years,” Zenko said in an email to Wired.

Zenko also takes issue with Obama clarifying at the beginning of the interview that he needed to be “careful” with what he said since some information is “classified.” To this, Wired writes:

But, as Zenko notes, “that is total BS. The president has the authority to declassify anything. That authority was reaffirmed by the White House in one of its first executive orders,” issued in 2009. If the president felt like talking about the drone approval process, he could. Obama doesn’t have to leave the discussion up to unnamed officials, former subordinates, and authored leakers. He chooses to do so, presumably because the issues involved are so thorny.

Siding with Obama protecting classified information, Brandon Webb, a former Navy SEAL and editor-in-chief of SOFREP.com, said in an email to TheBlaze that since drone strikes include sensitive intelligence collection, providing too many details could give the enemy an advantage.

“Some things are better left unsaid,” Webb wrote.

With regard to Obama’s criteria as a whole, Webb told TheBlaze Obama laid everything out in plain language and “anything further would be too much.”

“The administration is under the microscope already for sensitive information leaks, I think they are going to have to walk a very thin line in the future,” he said.

Still, it is with regard to Constitutional rights that Webb says Americans need to be wary. With Congress tasking the Federal Aviation Administration to update its drone regulations to open up the sky further for military, commercial and private UAVs, discussion of the technology’s use above American soil has been a strong topic in the media and among civil liberties advocates of late.

“The larger concern I have as an American citizen is total lack of privacy,” Webb wrote. “Example: using drones to collect intelligence on American soil and on American citizens (already happening in some cases) in the name of homeland defense. We are becoming more Orwellian as a society by the day and it bothers me. American citizens need to vigorously band together to protect our constitutional rights or face a future of living in a government fishbowl where everything is monitored.”

Watch Obama’s interview on CNN:

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Comments (93)

sick-and-tired
Posted on September 10, 2012 at 6:02pm
It’s Americans Constitutional right to keep government in check. Not for the government to keep civilians in check

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anothercomment
Posted on September 9, 2012 at 5:35pm
BOHICA, people. Every talking point listed can (and will) be used as a reason to target US people, on US soil. This will be anything that ob (or Valerie) defines as a threat. Which right now is underestimated at 50% of the population….

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katzkiner
Posted on September 8, 2012 at 1:02pm
P oIf.the White House changes hands in November, expect all out war in the streets of America by Dec.. The left is organized, funded.by your tax $$ and ready to roll. Don’t kid yourself, the Constitution is already annulled and your not getting your country back intact.

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Jezcruzen
Posted on September 8, 2012 at 7:23am
I began attending terrorism training when it first began. At the time, who was a terrorist was well-defined. But even then I realized how easy it would be to re-define who a terrorist was according to a political agenda. Over the years I have watched as the word “terrorist” is being applied more and more to domestic issues in ways that, over time, will acclimate the public into thinking certain acts or ever political thought is terroristic in the same way the public is being acclimated at having their Fourth Amendment rights violated – first at the airports, now expanding into other venues. Every one of you need to be raising hell with your reps over use of these drones. If you don’t, drones will soon be used against the American public in ways you can’t even imagine!

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rsanchez1
Posted on September 7, 2012 at 9:53pm
So if it’s not to “attack”, it’s ok to launch drones over the skies of someone’s farm to do surveillance on them?

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FredSturgly
Posted on September 7, 2012 at 8:41pm
Obama supporters don’t care that he did the same things they hated Bush for doing

http://danfromsquirrelhill.wordpress.com/2012/09/06/obama-supporters-dont-care-that-he-did-the-same-things-they-hated-bush-for-doing/

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Radpat12
Posted on September 7, 2012 at 8:06pm
I read that the FAA is looking to license hundreds of drones to be used HERE in the USA. Like most things I looked to verify. I could not find anything in the official FAA web but I did find the AFI ( Air Force Instruction ) on what to do with the data they collect on American Citizens. Just thought people should know.

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DisposableWorker
Posted on September 7, 2012 at 6:58pm
…”because there’s nothing that I detest more than the stench of lies. And if you understand me, Willard, you will do this for me.”

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bikerdogred1
Posted on September 7, 2012 at 6:46pm
I would think they would use Drones on anti union people to show them a lesson.Just like the Nazi’s,the democrats same same.

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502_eagle
Posted on September 7, 2012 at 6:24pm
Funny how democrats aren’t worried about this. I bet if someone like Newt was president they would be livid.

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bluecamaro21
Posted on September 7, 2012 at 6:18pm
What it appears Barry Soetoro has done, mostly by illegal aliens attempting to acquire a new identity in the U.S. and/or criminals looking to acquire a new ID.

Barry, AKA Obama, was lawfully adopted by a foreign national, Lolo Soetoro, and Barry’s name was legally changed to “Barry Soetoro” (Barry’s own admission). Barry Soetoro was also made an official legal Indonesian citizen (again Barry’s own admission). The adoption would be noted in Barry’s vital statistics record in Hawaii on his original birth certificate OR Lolo Soetoro may have always been Barry’s legal birth father.

The public does not know for sure at this point who Barry’s father really was and Barry himself may not know.

Barry was raised as a Muslim in Indonesia and attended a Catholic funded school that permitted all faiths to attend. Barry’s mother dropped him as a dependent for some reason, maybe when Barry was adopted by Lolo Soetoro.

His mother’s passport records dropped Barry as a dependent indicating Barry was no longer a legal dependent of his mother. (The passport records of his mother have been produced showing Barry was no longer a dependent when Barry was permanently residing in Indonesia.) Barry went to Hawaii to live with his alleged grandparents after Lolo Soetoro and Barry’s mother divorced.

A “certificate of live birth” (NOT the original “long form”) can have names changed on it including a child’s birth name, and birth parent’s names. Even a modified d

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bluecamaro21
Posted on September 7, 2012 at 6:17pm
The MOTHERLAND! (the USSR ) the FATHERLAND! (Hitlers Germany ) the HOMELAND ! ala Homeland Security (Obamas USSA I say Obama , but its PROGRESSIVES and MARXIST that got us here in BOTH partys)

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