OBAMA DEFENDS THE US USE OF DRONES

     Washington, 14 Rajab 1434/24 May 2013 (MINA) – In a major foreign policy speech at the Washington National Defence University on Thursday, President Barack Obama has defended his country’s controversial drone attacks as legal, effective and a necessary tool in an evolving US “counterterrorism” policy.

     But addressing an audience at Obama acknowledged the targeted strikes are no “cure-all” and said he is haunted by the civilians unintentionally killed.

     Obama framed his speech as an attempt to redefine the nature and scope of terror threats facing the US, noting the weakening of al-Qaeda and the impending end of the US war in Afghanistan.

     “So America is at a crossroads. We must define the nature and the scope of the struggle, or else it will define us,” said Obama.

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     His speech came a day after his administration revealed for the first time that a fourth American citizen had been killed in secretive drone strikes abroad.

     The speech also reaffirmed Obama’s 2008 campaign promise to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, where suspected terrorists have been detained, tortured and harassed without indictment and trial.

     Obama said the US is is committed to “capturing terrorist suspects” and prosecuting them, but that  “The glaring exception to this time-tested approach is the detention centre at Guantanamo Bay”.

     “When I ran for president the first time, John McCain supported closing Gitmo. No person has ever escaped from one of our super-max or military prisons in the United States,” said Obama.

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     Answering censure a person in the audience on the issue of forcefeeding hunger-striking detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Obama say that there is no justification beyond politics for Congress to prevent us from closing a facility that should never have been opened.

     Indeed, he was interrupted repeatedly by a woman who shouted “I love my country, I love the rule of law. The drones are making us less safe”.

     The White House said on Wednesday that Obama’s speech coincided with the signing of new “presidential policy guidance” on when the US can use drone strikes, Al Jazeera quoted by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

     Drafts of the guidance reviewed by counterterrorism officials gave control of drone strikes outside Pakistan and Yemen to the US military, enshrining into policy what is already common practice, according to two US officials briefed on the proposed changes.

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Drone controversy

     Obama has pledged to be more open with the public about the scope of the drone strikes. But a growing number of legislators in Congress are seeking to limit US authorities that support the deadly drone strikes, which have targeted a wider range of threats than initially anticipated.

     He acknowledged civilian deaths as “a hard fact” that will “haunt us as long as we live.”

The speech comes amid growing impatience in Congress with the sweeping authority it gave the president after the September 11, 2001, attacks in light of the targeting of suspected terrorists with lethal drone strikes.

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     Republicans and Democrats fear that they have given the president a blank check for using military force worldwide.

    Shifting the responsibility of some of the drone programme from the Central Intelligence Agency to the military has given Congress greater oversight of the secretive programme and members say they want even more.

     Under the draft guidance, the CIA drone programme would remain up and running, to target al-Qaeda in Pakistan’s tribal areas, with US troops drawing down in Afghanistan.

     The military and the CIA currently work side by side in Yemen, with the CIA flying its drones over the northern region out of a covert base in Saudi Arabia, and the military flying its unmanned aerial vehicles from Djibouti. (T/P09/E1).

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Mi’raj News Agency (MINA).