Who will drones target? Who in the US will decide?
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AP Photo: John Brennan
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Read entire article at original source:
Associated Press:
WASHINGTON—White House counterterror chief John Brennan has seized the lead in choosing which terrorists will be targeted for drone attacks or raids, establishing a new procedure for both military and CIA targets.
The effort concentrates power over the use of lethal U.S. force outside war zones within one small team at the White House.
The process, which is about a month old, means Brennan’s staff consults with the State Department and other agencies as to who should go on the target list, making the Pentagon’s role less relevant, according to two current and three former U.S. officials aware of the evolution in how the government goes after terrorists.
In describing Brennan’s arrangement to The Associated Press, the officials provided the first detailed description of the military’s previous review process that set a schedule for killing or capturing terror leaders around the Arab world and beyond. They spoke on condition of anonymity because U.S. officials are not allowed to publicly describe the classified targeting program.
One senior administration official argues that Brennan’s move adds another layer of review that augments rather than detracts from the Pentagon’s role. The Pentagon can still carry out its own internal procedures to make recommendations to the secretary of defense, the official said.
The CIA keeps its own list of targets, though it overlaps with the Pentagon’s. It never included the large number of interagency players the Pentagon brought to the table for its debates
Brennan’s effort gives him greater input earlier in the process, before making final recommendation to President Barack Obama. Officials outside the White House expressed concern that drawing more of the decision-making process to Brennan’s office could turn it into a pseudo military headquarters, entrusting the fate of al-Qaida targets to a small number of senior officials.
Under the new plan, Brennan’s staff compiles the potential target list and runs the names past agencies such as the State Department at a weekly White House meeting, the officials said.
Previously, targets were first discussed in meetings run by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen at the time, with Brennan being just one of the voices in the debate. Brennan ultimately would make the case to the president, but a larger number of officials would end up drawn into the discussion.
The new Joint Chiefs chairman, Gen. Martin Dempsey, has been more focused on shrinking the U.S. military as the Afghan war winds down and less on the covert wars overseas.
With Dempsey less involved, there is an even greater need to draw together different agencies’ viewpoints, some in the administration believe, showing the American public that al-Qaida targets are chosen only after painstaking and exhaustive debate. This could be especially true in an election year, when drone strikes can be politically sensitive.
Some of the officials carrying out the policy are equally leery of “how easy it has become to kill someone,” one said. The U.S. is targeting al-Qaida operatives for reasons such as being heard in an intercepted conversation plotting to attack a U.S. ambassador overseas, the official said. Stateside, that conversation could trigger an investigation by the Secret Service or FBI.
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May 27th, 2012 at 11:00 am
Attention Stuart Rhodes and menbers!
I belive this needs to be seriously looked into!
Take a look at and listen to this video and take heed, be on the alert!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A24cFPV5JtA&feature=relate
May 27th, 2012 at 11:34 pm
Cliffhanger,
I have often written on this very website about psy-ops, Unconventional Warfare, Operations Other Than War (OOTW), Special Warfare, etc. – all of which points to big problems for the American people. However, if you check out my work on this sort of problem, you’ll see that I do not make “predictions”, do not inflame things which I cannot source, and do not use “confidential” but un-named sources. I use credible news services, names, reporters’ names, government websites, corporate websites, official U.S. Army field manuals, credible books which themselves are sourced in footnotes, etc. I do not publish “he said” stuff here and you have never seen me link to Steve Quayle for that very reason.
My hints in the past have been fairly subtle, but perhaps I should be blunt at this point – look, Bro – There either are, or there are not, psychological operations. If there are, would anyone doubt for one minute that they are in use? And would anyone doubt that they would be appealing, appear to be plausible, convincing? That, after all, is what psy-warriors compose. And if psy-ops are in use, what do you suppose they would look like? Answer that any way you wish, but consider – if I were running a psy-op detail with a number of psy-warriors who were involved in social media on the Internet with instructions to discredit authentic and true knowledge “out there on the Net”, wouldn’t I do something exactly like what that radio interview accomplishes? And to do that, would I have to have credible sources? No, I would not. All I would have to do is say a reliable source who must protect his identity has let this “secret knowledge” out to me and asked me to let the American people know. That’s all I’d have to think up to run that scam on a lot of people, so long as people don’t give a damn about sourcing stories they encounter. And that is all any psy-warrior would have to think up to get his BS out to the public.
Please understand that our country is in trouble, and the U.S. government itself is keenly interested in what every one of us thinks, how we perceive, what we believe, how we live, act, work, play, visit, interact – every aspect of our lives. I am sending the same message as this dude on that radio show, that trouble is brewing, but you can take my material and print it out and lay it beside world events and see for yourself that it’s true.
I source stuff for our readers, and I do not use “anonymous” sources, no matter how tempting. You are right in knowing that we’re in deep trouble as a nation. Our sovereignty is certainly under serious threat. Much of that threat is coming at us through governmental institutions, departments, agencies etc. The Drone threat is real; the Law of the Sea Treaty threat is real; Agenda 21 is real; the United Nations is real; the World Bank exists in reality; the World Court is real. The World Trade Organization is real. The Council on Foreign Relations is real; on and on the list runs, and when we write down a long list of threats which are real and in place right now, and we then tie that list to the foreign bankers and to their U.S. partners at the Federal Reserve and in Washington D.C., we see easily how dire are the straits we’re navigating right now.
Because the threats against American sovereignty are so very real, we simply cannot afford to spread mis-info and dis-info around the liberty movement. That is what psy-warriors do as they work for those powers which would control us as they take our country down into socialism and slavery – they distract us with mis-info and dis-info. Usable, believable info is sourced and verifiable. That radio show is not. Think about it. Here is a sample:
http://oathkeepers.org/oath/2011/08/15/an-empire-strikes-home-_-part-three/
and another:
http://oathkeepers.org/oath/2012/05/25/henry-lamb-on-maurice-strong_un_bilderberg_agenda-21/
and another:
http://oathkeepers.org/oath/2012/03/17/wired-unveils-james-bamford-on-nsas-super-spy-center/
See the difference?
Thanks for posting.
Salute!
Elias
June 5th, 2012 at 7:07 am
The White House Insider interview series by Ulsterman has revealed a wealth of details about the 0bama administration’s inner workings and designs on more power. They have consistently proven accurate over that past two years. This interview in two parts is tremendously revelatory, and disturbing:
http://theulstermanreport.com/2012/05/30/white-house-insider-obama-in-serious-trouble-and-that-makes-him-very-dangerous/
July 9th, 2012 at 3:12 am
I have no doubt that the Drones will be used to track and kill American Patriots fighting against criminal Military and Police units. The University of Texas has shown that Drones can be brought down by hacking their computer flight system. All we need to do is put our heads together and find ways to accomplish in defeating the Drones.