A leaked batch of documents published by The Intercept about the United
States' secret drone operations in Somalia and Yemen shows that they
"overwhelmingly" rely on a single source of information to locate their
human targets—usually "signals intelligence" such as a phone number or a
SIM card to lock onto. A large number of strikes have even had to be
called off because even once a drone has found its target, it's very
difficult to confirm with "near certainty" that the person on the
ground, whom the drone can watch with high-definition video, is actually
the person that the U.S. intends to kill, the documents show. Strikes
against these so-called "high-value targets" must be authorized by the
president and are carried out under the Authorization for the Use of
Military Force, which Congress passed after the 9/11 attacks to give the
commander-in-chief the power to hunt down Al Qaeda and associated
forces. The documents also reveal a cycle in drone strikes where the
target cannot be physically captured, usually because he's too far away
from ground forces and the mission to retrieve him would be too
dangerous for the U.S. or its allies. Killing the target with a drone
means there's little left over in terms of documents or electronic
devices that U.S. analysts could use to go find his contacts and
associates, i.e. more targets. To help find more useful intelligence for
more drone strikes, a task force recommended actually increasing the
number of capture operations, and interrogating more suspected
terrorists instead of killing them. — Shane Harris |
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