Ending weeks of delays over lack of clarity on drone policy, the US Senate has confirmed President Barack Obama’s counterterrorism adviser John Brennan with a 63-34 vote as director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Coinciding with the development, a major American newspaper asked Washington to remove secrecy surrounding the drone programme and conform it to Congressional oversight. The Washington Post editorial appeared in the wake of nearly 13-hour filibustering speech by Republican Senator Rand Paul, who demanded the administration clarify its domestic drone policy, particularly whether non-combatant Americans would be targeted with drones. The Senate confirmation vote for Brennan came after Attorney General Eric Holder assured Senator Paul in a letter that the president did not have the authority to do so.
The Post noted that President Obama’s administration had chosen to carry out hundreds of drone strikes against al Qaeda targets in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, including one against a US citizen, without any public accounting. The White House, the paper noted, had devised a process for adding names to a target list for drone strikes but had never revealed even its outlines. Instead, it insisted on its righteousness and invited Americans to trust that its decisions were justified.
“That is not how a democracy should operate,” the editorial said, arguing there was no cause for most of the secrecy in which the drone operations were shrouded.
“The political backlash against them, both at home and abroad, could be diminished if the administration were to conduct strikes with regular military forces, rather than the CIA, and report on them as it does all other military operations.”
“A presidential speech would certainly be welcome. But only disclosure and congressional authorization will solve this problem,” the editorial concluded.
Brennan, 57, has been the leading proponent of drone operations against suspected al Qaeda linked operatives on foreign soils and oversaw escalation of such strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia under President Obama’s first term.
Meanwhile, President Barack Obama has hailed the Senate approval of his pick for CIA director, saying with bipartisan confirmation the Senate has “recognised in John the qualities I value so much—his determination to keep America safe, his commitment to working with Congress, his ability to build relationships with foreign partners, and his fidelity to the values that define us as a nation”.
“With John’s 25 years of experience at the agency, our extraordinary men and women of the CIA will be led by one of their own. I am especially appreciative to Michael Morell for being such an outstanding acting director and for agreeing to continue his service as deputy director,” Obama added.
