By: Steven Wittenberg
Introduction
Drone technology is here to stay. They are the Obama administration’s instrument of choice for high-level officials to execute “lawful . . . lethal operations in a foreign country” aimed at enemy combatants (who can be U.S. citizens) who happen to be an “operational leader.”[1][2] To qualify, there must be an “imminent threat,” capture must not practical, and the slaying must be consistent with the laws of war. “Imminent” is a self-defense term, which demands that the official must “know, in a detailed manner, who poses such a threat, in what circumstances, and how and when such persons can be targeted.”[3] At the intersection of intelligence gathering and the decision to strike are the so-called “kill lists,”[4] which are maintained to ensure the targets satisfy all the conditions of a lawful targeted killing.
As a vestige of President Obama’s grand strategy to … Read the rest