When did CIA follow rules?

[Ichingcarpenter]

Obama’s new drone policy leaves room for CIA role



Four years ago, as a new al-Qaeda affiliate in Yemen was proving itself a potent adversary, the Obama administration made plans to attack it with airstrikes just as the United States had been doing to the terrorist network’s core in Pakistan.

But this time, the White House decided there would be a key difference: The strikes in Yemen would be carried out by the U.S. military, not the CIA.


Two years later, in mid-2011, a mysterious construction project began to emerge in the Saudi desert, an elongated compound with a ribbon of concrete running parallel to the ridgelines of the surrounding dunes. CIA drones were about to enter the skies over Yemen after all.

The change was driven by a number of factors, including errant strikes that killed the wrong people, the use of munitions that left shrapnel with U.S. military markings scattered about target sites and worries that Yemen’s unstable leader might kick the Pentagon’s planes out.

But President Obama’s decision also came down to a determination that the CIA was simply better than the Defense Department at locating and killing al-Qaeda operatives with armed drones, according to current and former U.S. officials involved in the deliberations


More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/obamas-new-drone-policy-has-cause-for-concern/2013/05/25/0daad8be-c480-11e2-914f-a7aba60512a7_story.html?hpid=z1




Ah yes and the CIA's budget is something we still don't know. Why would any agency give up this kind of power, especially when it can finance it off the books?

[hobbit709]

1. Never

[GoneFishin]

2. I am surprised at the admission that accountability is a consideration.

If the drone program is run exclusively by the military then every drone decision made can be tied through a clear chain of military command all the way up to The Commander In Chief.

That situation lacks the plausible deniability that is so useful during press conferences.