Killing Machine (44 page)
Authors: Lloyd C. Gardner
Tags: #History, #Americas, #United States, #Politics & Social Sciences, #Politics & Government, #Elections & Political Process, #Leadership, #Political Science, #History & Theory, #Public Affairs & Policy, #Specific Topics, #National & International Security, #Executive Branch, #21st Century, #Public Policy, #Federal Government
22
.
All quotations that follow will be taken from the undated “Department of Justice White Paper: Lawfulness of Lethal Operations Directed Against a U.S. Citizen Who Is Senior Operational Leader of Al-Qa’ida or an Associated Force,” released to NBC News, January 29, 2013.
23
.
Quoted in Conor Friedersdorf, “This Stay-at-Home Mom Gave Obama a Tougher Interview Than
60
Minutes,”
The Atlantic
, February 15, 2013,
www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/02/this-stay-at-home-mom-gave-obama-a-tougher-interview-than-60-minutes/273206
.
24
.
Ibid.
25
.
“To Kill an American,” editorial,
New York Times
, February 5, 2013.
26
.
One should also note another problem with the administration’s position about not revealing the specific memorandum on Awlaki. As Marcy Wheeler has pointed out, Judge Colleen McMahon, in considering the ACLU efforts to secure the document, raised crucial questions about whether either the 2001 AUMF or Article II, separately or together, made the strike legal, since the Constitution placed the question of treason under Article III, and reserved it for court decisions. See Marcy Wheeler, “Colleen McMahon: The Covert Op That Killed Anwar al-Awlaki Was Illegal,”
Empty Wheel
, February 17, 2013,
www.emptywheel.net/2013/02/17
.
27
.
Dylan Byers, “McChrystal on Drones: A ‘Covert Fix for a Complex Problem,’”
Dylan Byers on Media
blog,
Politico
, February 15, 2013,
www.politico.com/blogs/media/2013/02/mcchyrstal-on-drones-a-covert-fix-for-a-complex-problem-157126.html
.
28
.
Steve Coll, “Kill or Capture,”
Daily Comment
blog,
New Yorker
, August 2, 2012,
www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2012/08/kill-or-capture.html
.
29
.
Scott Shane and Mark Mazzetti, “White House Tactic for C.I.A. Bid Holds Back Drone Memos,”
New York Times
, February 21, 2013.
30
.
“Obama’s 2013 State of the Union Address,”
New York Times
, February 12, 2013.
31
.
Harry S. Truman, “Limit CIA Role to Intelligence,”
Washington Post
, December 22, 1963.
32
.
See Jill Lepore, “How Much Military Is Enough,”
New Yorker
, January 28, 2013. Lepore quotes Andrew Bacevich on the parallel dangers of the Cold War and the Great War on Terror. “The mystical war against Communism,” Bacevich said in congressional testimony, “finds its counterpart in the mystical war on terrorism.” Mystification, he said, leads us to exaggerate threats and ignore costs: “It prevents us from seeing things as they are.”
Afterword: The New Normal?
1
.
Ed O’Keefe and Aaron Blake, “Rand Paul Launches Talking Filibuster Against John Brennan,”
Washington Post
, March 6, 2013.
2
.
Karen Tumulty, “Is Rand Paul Going Mainstream, or Vice Versa?,”
Washington Post
, June 19, 2013.
3
.
John Avlon, “In Wake of Surveillance Stories, Barack Obama’s Poll Numbers Plummet,”
Daily Beast
, June 17, 2013,
www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/06/17/in-wake-of-surveillance-stories-barack-obama-s-poll-numbers-plummet.html
.
4
.
Jeff Mapes, “Wyden Aids Rand Paul’s Senate Filibuster, but Only to a Degree,”
The Oregonian
, March 7, 2013.
5
.
Ibid.
6
.
David Jackson, “Bush Lawyer Defends Obama on Drones,”
USA Today
, March 8, 2013.
7
.
Eric Schmitt, Mark Mazzetti, Michael B. Schmidt, and Scott Shane, “Boston Plotters Said to Initially Target July 4 for Attack,”
New York Times
, May 2, 2013.
8
.
Paul Cruickshank and Tim Lister, “From the Grave, the Cleric Inspiring a New Generation of Terrorists,” CNN, April 24, 2013,
www.cnn.com/2013/04/24/us/boston-awlaki-influence
.
9
.
Brett Logiurato, “Since Rand Paul’s Historic Filibuster, There Has Been a Dramatic Shift in Public Opinion on Drone Strikes,”
Business Insider
, April 11, 2013,
www.businessinsider.com/rand-paul-filibuster-drone-polling-polls-2013-4
.
10
.
Andrew Dugan and Mohamed Younis, “Pakistani Disapproval of U.S. Leadership Soars in 2012,”
Gallup World
, February 14, 2013,
www.gallup.com/poll/160439/2012-pakistani-disapproval-leadership-soars.aspx
.
11
.
“Transcript: Sen. Durbin on the Budget, Social Security, Drones,”
Washington Wire
blog,
Wall Street Journal
, March 20, 2013,
blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/03/20/transcript-sen-durbin-on-the-budget-social-security-drones/
.
12
.
Jonathan S. Landay, “Senate Hearing Blasts Obama’s Refusal to Share Details of Drone Program,”
Miami Herald
, January 23, 2013.
13
.
John Knefel, “Yemeni Whose Village Was Bombed Testifies at First Senate Drone Hearing,”
Rolling Stone
, April 24, 2013,
www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/yemeni-whose-village-was-bombed-testifies-at-flrst-senate-drone-hearing-20130424
.
14
.
Ibid.
15
.
Greg Miller and Karen DeYoung, “Administration Debates Stretching 9/11 Law to
Go
After New al-Qaeda Offshoots,”
Washington Post
, March 6, 2013.
16
.
Ibid.
17
.
Rosa Brooks, “Hate Obama’s Drone War? Blame the Bleeding-Heart Human Rights Crusaders,”
Foreign Policy
, February 14, 2013,
www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/02/14/hate_obamas_drone_war
.
18
.
International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, The
Responsibility to Protect
(Ottawa, ON: International Development Research Centre, 2001),
idl-bnc.idrc.ca/dspace/bitstream/10625/18432/6/116998.pdf
.
19
.
The
Constitutional and Counterterrorism Implications of Targeted Killing: Testimony Before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights
, 113th Cong. (2013) (statement of Rosa Brooks, Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center; Bernard L. Schwartz Senior Fellow, New America Foundation).
20
.
The quotation is from Peter Baker, “In Terror Shift, Obama Took a Long Path,”
New York Times
, May 27, 2013. There are obviously many other commentaries, but see also Peter Bergen and Jennifer Rowland, “9 Myths About Drones and Guantanamo,” CNN, May 24, 2013,
www.cnn.com/2013/05/22/opinion/bergen-nine-myths-dronesgitmo
. Bergen and Rowland’s commentary actually was first published before the speech was delivered, but it was an appropriate reaction nevertheless.
21
.
Saud Mehsud, “Pakistani Taliban Pick New Deputy After Drone Strike: Sources,” Reuters, May 30, 2013; Jibran Ahmad, “U.S. Drone Kills Pakistan Taliban Number Two: Security Officials,” Reuters, May 29, 2013.
22
.
Mehsud, “Pakistani Taliban Pick New Deputy.”
23
.
Akbar Ahmed, “The Drone War Is Far from Over,”
New York Times
, May 31, 2013.
24
.
“Text of President Obama’s May 23 Speech on National Security,”
Washington Post
, May 23, 2013.
Abdulmutallab, Umar Farouk,
167–69
Abrams, Creighton,
181
accountability
drone warfare and Obama administration,
188–89
,
199–200
,
202
,
208
,
212
,
230–31
Obama administration transparency and,
185–86
,
188–89
,
195–96
,
199–200
,
202
,
208
,
212
,
214–15
,
230–31
,
236–37
,
240–41
accuracy, drone attack,
144
,
151
,
210
,
217
,
218
,
241
Acheson, Dean,
180
Addicott, Jeffrey,
143
Afghan defense forces
Congress on,
120
McChrystal on training of,
74–75
,
107
Taliban infiltrating,
201–2
U.S. military attacked by,
201–2
U.S. training and funding,
44
,
49–50
,
54
,
78–79
,
107
,
202
Afghan War.
See also
Taliban
;
withdrawal time frame, Afghan War
Biden on continuation of,
198
Bush, George W., administration response in,
15
COIN change in,
56–58
,
61–62
,
113–14
,
117
,
125
,
158–59
cost of,
180
drone warfare in,
135
international coalition in,
47
,
66–67
,
68–69
,
87–88
Iraq War undermining,
62–63
,
66
,
94
Karzai and Pakistani governments’ undermining,
152–53
McCain on,
22
media coverage of,
70–72
,
119–23
,
197–98
NATO involvement in,
66–67
Obama administration and military pressure regarding,
55–56
,
122–23
,
181–82
Obama Nobel speech and,
89–90
Pakistan relationship with United States in,
156–57
Petraeus command of,
123
,
124–25
,
126–27
Petraeus testimony regarding,
120
,
124
,
125
public opinion regarding,
197
,
198
reintegration and reconciliation in,
97–98
,
107
,
109
,
115–16
Republican criticism of Obama administration’s,
123–24
time frame in troop surge for,
61
,
62–64
,
66–68
,
118
transition strategy in,
66–68
,
69
,
106–7
,
124
troop surge in,
32–33
,
34–35
,
43
,
48
,
54
,
57–64
,
66–69
,
70–71
,
74–75
,
118
,
181–82
U.S. military ground conflict in,
200–201
U.S. military progress reports of,
197–98
U.S. special operations in,
107
,
109
,
110
Vietnam War compared to,
53–54
,
55–56
,
57
,
64
,
67–68
,
97–98
,
99
,
114–15
,
179–82
Afghanistan.
See also
economy, Afghan
;
insurgency and insurgent groups, Afghanistan
;
Karzai, Hamid, government
;
specific topics
bin Laden death impact on U.S. policy in,
158–59