On Thursday (23 Oct) President Obama gave a much-trailed speech on counterterrorism, large parts of which focused on the US use of drones. At the same time a 'fact sheet' on US policy on the use of force outside declared wars was published, as was a transcript of a background briefing given by senior US officials to journalists. All of these documents give some insight into the US use of drones.
Obama also use the classic tactic of assigning false arguments to his critics only to knock them down, saying (twice) that "doing nothing is not an option" and "it is false to assert that putting boots on the ground is less likely to result in civilian deaths or less likely to create enemies in the Muslim world. I for one, have never heard any drone critics suggesting to do nothing in the face of terrorism or that mass invasion of US troops would cause less civilian casualties that drones. Those are simply not our arguments.
President Obama went on to say that he had signed "Presidential Policy Guidance" that had "codified" his administrations "use of force against terrorists." However this document is to remain secret and it is far from clear if this is new policy or has been in operation for some time.
The speech and new documents were reported by many initially at least as limiting the way drones will be used in the future. However once the speech was delivered and the dust had settled many raised serious questions about whether the 'new policy' will in fact make any difference, with others, including Jonathan Landay and Mary Ellen O'Connell arguing that the 'new rules' may have made the situation worse.
As we reported last week a demand of the mainstream debate on drones is for the elimination of so-called signature strikes and for the CIA's drones to be shifted back under military control. After this key speech by Obama It remains to be seen if this will in fact happen.
The wonderful Medea Benjamin from CodePink disrupted the speech asking Obama many questions about the use of drones and his failure to close GTMO. As she was being dragged out by security, Obama acknowledged the validity of the questions she was asking when he stated that Medea was "worth paying attention to." Medea explains why she interrupted Obama here.