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Obama announces restrictions on drone strikes, pledges to close Gitmo
Get short URL Published time: May 23, 2013
Edited time: May 23, 2013 20:48
President Barack Obama announced drastic changes to the United States’ counterterrorism operations Thursday, reforming the rules that guide America’s drone program while also expediting the release of Guantanamo Bay detainees.
The president spoke at the National Defense University in Washington, DC Thursday afternoon to discuss those two issues in particular, weighing in on a pair of topics that have increasingly attracted criticism to the administration since Obama’s first term in office began more than four years ago.
When Mr. Obama entered the White House in 2009, he inherited a couple of items from the George W. Bush administration that are widely cited today as the driving force behind anti-American sentiment overseas: the US has continued to operate the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba military prison to house more than 160 alleged enemy combatants; and the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, has increased exponentially under Mr. Obama’s leadership.
But although both the drone program and Guantanamo Bay have existed for more than a decade, calls for reform on both matters have increased severely in recent months. By many estimates, thousands of women, children and other innocent victims have been killed during a decade-long war dominated by drones. Meanwhile, Gitmo inmates — nearly all of them — remain committed to a hunger strike that has made the White House the object of international embarrassment and prompted them to start force-feeding prisoners.
During Thursday’s address, Pres. Obama spoke in depth on both topics while outlining changes to his administration’s counterterrorism operations as the face of war changes more than a decade after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks prompted the invasion of Afghanistan.
“Make no mistake—our nation is still threatened by terrorists,” said Obama. “From Benghazi to Boston we have been tragically reminded of that truth, but we have to recognize that the threat has shifted and evolved from the one that came to our shores on 9/11. With a decade of experience now to draw from, this is the moment to ask ourselves hard questions about the nature of today’s threats and how we should confront them.”
Setting the course for a speech that at times celebrated America’s counterterrorism practices while also recognizing the necessity of revamping them, Obama said the US is at a crossroads and “must define the nature and scope of this struggle or else it will define us.”
“We have to make decisions based not on fear but on hard-earned wisdom,” he said.
One day earlier, US Attorney General Eric Holder wrote Congress to inform them that Mr. Obama approved new presidential guidelines for drone use. Simply put, Holder explained that the administration hopes to make it clear that their official policy mandates that “lethal force should not be used when it is feasible to capture a terrorist suspect.”
On Thursday, Obama added that “America does not take strikes when we have the ability to capture individual terrorists.”
“Our preference is always to detain, interrogate and prosecute them,” said the president. “America cannot take strikes wherever we choose – our actions are bound by consultations with partners, and respect for state sovereignty. America does not take strikes to punish individuals – we act against terrorists who pose a continuing and imminent threat to the American people, and when there are no other governments capable of effectively addressing the threat. And before any strike is taken, there must be near-certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured – the highest standard we can set.”
In his address, Pres. Obama credited drones with helping dismantle the core of al-Qaeda and even said the strikes have prevented the loss of lives. At the same time, however, the president acknowledged that his administration is responsible for killing no fewer than four US citizens with these attacks and potentially thousands of civilians.
AFP Photo / John Moore
“It is a hard fact that US strikes have resulted in civilian casualties, a risk that exists in all wars,” said Obama. “For the families of those civilians, no words or legal construct can justify their loss. For me, and those in my chain of command, these deaths will haunt us as long as we live, just as we are haunted by the civilian casualties that have occurred through conventional fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.”
In order to bring about more accountability to America’s actions overseas, Obama admitted to approving of the guidelines Holder hinted at one day earlier, shaping the way America will conduct its drone war overseas.
“In the Afghan war theater, we must support our troops until the transition is complete at the end of 2014,” he said. “That means we will continue to take strikes against high value al-Qaeda targets, but also against forces that are massing to support attacks on coalition forces. However, by the end of 2014, we will no longer have the same need for force protection, and the progress we have made against core al Qaeda will reduce the need for unmanned strikes.”
But elsewhere during his address, Obama defended the drone strikes and suggested that the United States’ use of unmanned aerial vehicles has been instrumental in winning the war on terror.
“Dozens of highly skilled al-Qaeda commanders, trainers, bomb makers and operatives have been taken off the battlefield. Plots have been disrupted that would have targeted international aviation, US transit systems, European cities and our troops in Afghanistan. Simply put, these strikes have saved lives,” he said.
Get short URL Published time: May 23, 2013
Edited time: May 23, 2013 20:48
President Barack Obama announced drastic changes to the United States’ counterterrorism operations Thursday, reforming the rules that guide America’s drone program while also expediting the release of Guantanamo Bay detainees.
The president spoke at the National Defense University in Washington, DC Thursday afternoon to discuss those two issues in particular, weighing in on a pair of topics that have increasingly attracted criticism to the administration since Obama’s first term in office began more than four years ago.
When Mr. Obama entered the White House in 2009, he inherited a couple of items from the George W. Bush administration that are widely cited today as the driving force behind anti-American sentiment overseas: the US has continued to operate the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba military prison to house more than 160 alleged enemy combatants; and the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, has increased exponentially under Mr. Obama’s leadership.
But although both the drone program and Guantanamo Bay have existed for more than a decade, calls for reform on both matters have increased severely in recent months. By many estimates, thousands of women, children and other innocent victims have been killed during a decade-long war dominated by drones. Meanwhile, Gitmo inmates — nearly all of them — remain committed to a hunger strike that has made the White House the object of international embarrassment and prompted them to start force-feeding prisoners.
During Thursday’s address, Pres. Obama spoke in depth on both topics while outlining changes to his administration’s counterterrorism operations as the face of war changes more than a decade after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks prompted the invasion of Afghanistan.
“Make no mistake—our nation is still threatened by terrorists,” said Obama. “From Benghazi to Boston we have been tragically reminded of that truth, but we have to recognize that the threat has shifted and evolved from the one that came to our shores on 9/11. With a decade of experience now to draw from, this is the moment to ask ourselves hard questions about the nature of today’s threats and how we should confront them.”
Setting the course for a speech that at times celebrated America’s counterterrorism practices while also recognizing the necessity of revamping them, Obama said the US is at a crossroads and “must define the nature and scope of this struggle or else it will define us.”
“We have to make decisions based not on fear but on hard-earned wisdom,” he said.
One day earlier, US Attorney General Eric Holder wrote Congress to inform them that Mr. Obama approved new presidential guidelines for drone use. Simply put, Holder explained that the administration hopes to make it clear that their official policy mandates that “lethal force should not be used when it is feasible to capture a terrorist suspect.”
On Thursday, Obama added that “America does not take strikes when we have the ability to capture individual terrorists.”
“Our preference is always to detain, interrogate and prosecute them,” said the president. “America cannot take strikes wherever we choose – our actions are bound by consultations with partners, and respect for state sovereignty. America does not take strikes to punish individuals – we act against terrorists who pose a continuing and imminent threat to the American people, and when there are no other governments capable of effectively addressing the threat. And before any strike is taken, there must be near-certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured – the highest standard we can set.”
In his address, Pres. Obama credited drones with helping dismantle the core of al-Qaeda and even said the strikes have prevented the loss of lives. At the same time, however, the president acknowledged that his administration is responsible for killing no fewer than four US citizens with these attacks and potentially thousands of civilians.
AFP Photo / John Moore
“It is a hard fact that US strikes have resulted in civilian casualties, a risk that exists in all wars,” said Obama. “For the families of those civilians, no words or legal construct can justify their loss. For me, and those in my chain of command, these deaths will haunt us as long as we live, just as we are haunted by the civilian casualties that have occurred through conventional fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.”
In order to bring about more accountability to America’s actions overseas, Obama admitted to approving of the guidelines Holder hinted at one day earlier, shaping the way America will conduct its drone war overseas.
“In the Afghan war theater, we must support our troops until the transition is complete at the end of 2014,” he said. “That means we will continue to take strikes against high value al-Qaeda targets, but also against forces that are massing to support attacks on coalition forces. However, by the end of 2014, we will no longer have the same need for force protection, and the progress we have made against core al Qaeda will reduce the need for unmanned strikes.”
But elsewhere during his address, Obama defended the drone strikes and suggested that the United States’ use of unmanned aerial vehicles has been instrumental in winning the war on terror.
“Dozens of highly skilled al-Qaeda commanders, trainers, bomb makers and operatives have been taken off the battlefield. Plots have been disrupted that would have targeted international aviation, US transit systems, European cities and our troops in Afghanistan. Simply put, these strikes have saved lives,” he said.
