Brennan Does Yemen by Scott Horton

[Jefferson23]

Sept. 20, 2011

Deputy National Security Advisor John O. Brennen delivered an important speech at Harvard on Friday evening, in which he gave what may well be the most comprehensive presentation so far on the Obama Administration’s counterterrorism efforts. The speech dealt with a series of contentious issues: the use of drones, the dividing line between the military and the intelligence community, and the line between the military and the law-enforcement community. Discussion of these issues has generally been marked by coarse and misleading political rhetoric. Republicans, for instance, have derided efforts to use law-enforcement tools, insisting instead on military solutions. But Brennan said the obvious: “We will use every lawful tool and authority at our disposal.” Indeed, notwithstanding sharp differences in their rhetoric, the functional responses to terrorism of the Bush and Obama Administrations are far more alike than different.

One of the more serious issues raised by Brennan’s speech relates to the country’s hottest new weapons technology: missile-armed predator drones. State Department legal adviser Harold Koh previously told us that the United States often justifies its use of drones on grounds of self-defense. (It now appears that there is at least some limited controversy within the administration on this subject.) But the Obama team has failed to provide a thorough, consistent explanation for its actions, especially in places like Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen. Instead, it has labeled its drone programs there as “covert action.”

One of the White House’s explanations for this move is that it is trying to accommodate local governments that have approved at least some of the strikes but don’t want their approval to be public fact. At this point, however, such claims verge on the absurd. The drone war in Pakistan is not a discrete handful of strikes; it is a full-fledged military campaign, with clear military objectives, sustained at high levels over many years. The people of Pakistan certainly know what’s going on—a recent survey of U.S. and Pakistani press coverage suggested that the label “covert action” keeps the drone program secret from the people of the United States, and no one else.

Brennan expanded what we know about the drone program slightly, saying that the U.S. does not feel it must do a fresh “self-defense” analysis every time it strikes against an Al Qaeda target, and that it does not feel limited to striking “‘hot’ battlefields” (Afghanistan and the Pakistani borderlands, Iraq). But he balanced these statements with a suggestion that the administration’s process includes some level of consultation with host governments. Brennan failed to explain why the U.S. government seems to prefer lethal force to efforts to arrest and interrogate the targets. A good explanation may well exist, but so far none has been offered.

remainder: http://www.harpers.org/archive/2011/09/hbc-90008247

[Jefferson23]

1. Report: U.S. building drone bases in Africa, Arabian Peninsula

Bases are being established to target al-Qaida affiliates in Somalia and Yemen, Washington Post reports.
By DPA

The United States is building secret drone bases to target al-Qaida affiliates in Somalia and Yemen, a news report said Wednesday.

One base is being built in Ethiopia, a U.S. ally against al-Shabab, the militant group that controls much of Somalia, the Washington Post reported, quoted U.S. officials.

The U.S. is also building an airfield somewhere in the Arabian Peninsula to launch armed drones over Yemen, the report said.

There have also been discussions to use an airfield in the Seychelles, currently a base for unmanned patrols over Somalia, to launch armed drones, the report said, quoting diplomatic cables.

The move extends the use of unmanned aerial vehicles by the U.S., which has already deployed them in lethal strikes in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen, the Washington Post said.

The Seychelles has hosted U.S. drones since September 2009, officially unarmed ones only to track pirates.

But according to diplomatic cables released by whistleblower website WikiLeaks, drones based in the Seychelles have also been used for missions over Somalia, 1,300 kilometers away.

remainder: http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/report-u-s-building-drone-bases-in-africa-arabian-peninsula-1.385745