EA Video Analysis: A Beginner's Guide to Drone Strikes, "Kill Lists", and Obama's War on Terror

Slate recently published an interactive map of US drone strikes in Pakistan, graphically revealing the scale of this emerging form of warfare. With reports that the CIA is seeking to expand its fletts of drones, coupled with the announcement that a UN team will investigate civilian deaths caused by such attacks, we ask what the effects are of this cheaper form of American warfare and risk consideration of the people who feel the effects of the strikes.

With the expanding use of drone strikes, the Obama Administration --- co-operating with the media to reveal its "secret" programmes --- is promising the American public a war without end should it enjoy a second term. Is this a renewed "War of Terror" with a goal that can be achieved, or does it risks exacerbating the "terrorism" it is supposedly eliminating?

US Feature: A Map of President Obama's 284 Drone Strikes in Pakistan

See also US Feature: Obama's Man Writing the "Playbook" for the "War on Terror"

---

Slate presents a map, based on information to June from the New American Foundation and updated with media reports since then, of US drone strikes in Pakistan in the Bush and Obama Administrations.

While striking, the map may be conservative in its presentation. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism found earlier this month that "the Long War Journal and the New America Foundation have been under-recording credible reports of drone civilian casualties in Pakistan by a huge margin".

US Feature: Obama's Man Writing the "Playbook" for the "War on Terror" (DeYoung)

John Brennan & Barack Obama (Pete Souza/White House)In his windowless White House office, presidential counterterrorism adviser John O. Brennan is compiling the rules for a war the Obama administration believes will far outlast its own time in office, whether that is just a few more months or four more years.

The “playbook,” as Brennan calls it, will lay out the administration’s evolving procedures for the targeted killings that have come to define its fight against al-Qaeda and its affiliates. It will cover the selection and approval of targets from the "disposition matrix", the designation of who should pull the trigger when a killing is warranted, and the legal authorities the administration thinks sanction its actions in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and beyond.

Click to read more ...

US Elections Opinion: Q. Who Lost the Presidential Debate? (A. Israel-Palestine Peace)

Mitt Romney and Barack Obama talk Iran and Israel during the third Presidential Debate

---

Medieval maps often positioned Jerusalem as the center of the world. In addition to the obvious theological sway that such a perspective held, this orientation also had the advantage of being sort of true. Given that the known world of European mapmakers included only Europe, Asia and Africa, Jerusalem made as a good a fulcrum as any. In theory, we’ve learned some things since then. You just wouldn’t know that from watching Monday’s foreign policy presidential debate.

Click to read more ...

US Feature: Obama Administration Plans to Expand Its "Kill List" (Miller)

Scene of a US drone strike in Afghanistan (Photo: EPA)

---

Over the past two years, the Obama administration has been secretly developing a new blueprint for pursuing terrorists, a next-generation targeting list called the “disposition matrix.”

The matrix contains the names of terrorism suspects arrayed against an accounting of the resources being marshaled to track them down, including sealed indictments and clandestine operations. U.S. officials said the database is designed to go beyond existing kill lists, mapping plans for the “disposition” of suspects beyond the reach of American drones.

Click to read more ...

US Elections Opinion: Q: Who Won the Presidential Debate? (A: Israel)

This entry has been moved...

Click to read more ...

US Elections Analysis: Obama Wins, But Romney Stakes Claim to Be Commander-in-Chief

See also US Elections Video: The 3rd Obama-Romney Debate

---

resident Obama won the third debate, but did Mitt Romney win the White House on Monday night?

At times, as the debate progressed, Romney looked like a bystander, stage-struck to be so close to the actual president of the United States. Towards the end, before he recovered with a strong finish, Romney even began to babble, not quite sure what defence to mount against Obama's continual attacks on his flip-flopping in foreign policy statements. But, for all this...

Mitt Romney truly believes he can become commander in chief, convinced that the tide that turned in his favour after the first debate will continue through November 6.

Click to read more ...

US Elections Video: The 3rd Obama-Romney Debate

US Elections Analysis: Obama Wins, But Romney Stakes Claim to Be Commander-in-Chief

---

Later today, Lee Haddigan and I will post our analysis of last night's third and final Presidential debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. In the meantime, here's the full video of the encounter:

US Politics Opinion: A Few Things the Foreign Policy Debate Will Get Wrong

Many things will likely be talked about at today's debate. While there will be plenty of fact-checking and analysis in the coming days, there will be a few misconceptions spread, awkward truths ignored, and key concepts that one or both candidates are going to get wrong tonight.

Below is a real brief list:

Click to read more ...

Pakistan to Yemen to North Africa Feature: The CIA Seeks More Drones

Protest in Pakistan earlier this month against US drone strikes

---

The CIA is urging the White House to approve a significant expansion of the agency’s fleet of armed drones, a move that would extend the spy service’s decade-long transformation into a paramilitary force, U.S. officials said.

The proposal by CIA Director David H. Petraeus would bolster the agency’s ability to sustain its campaigns of lethal strikes in Pakistan and Yemen and enable it, if directed, to shift aircraft to emerging al-Qaeda threats in North Africa or other trouble spots, officials said.

If approved, the CIA could add as many as 10 drones, the officials said, to an inventory that has ranged between 30 and 35 over the past few years.

Click to read more ...