Biden Revises US Drone Strike Policy, Requires His Approval for New Targets
President Joe Biden boards Air Force One for a trip to New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly, Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022, at Andrews Air Force Base, Md.
WASHINGTON, (Sputnik) – President Joe Biden is revising the US drone strike policy to require his personal permission before adding targets to a kill list, the New York Times reported on Friday.The policy revision, part of a broader effort by the Biden administration to tighten rules around drone strikes outside conventional warzones, requires the military to seek Biden’s personal approval before adding a suspected terrorist to a target list for “direct action,” the report said.The policy is a shift away from that of former President Donald Trump, who decentralized decision-making by giving commanders in the field greater leeway to act, the report said.The new approach was reportedly announced in a classified presidential policy memorandum, which lays out the shift away from drone strikes and commando raids outside recognized war zones, the report said.White House Homeland Security Advisor Liz Sherwood-Randall confirmed in a statement that the policy change was completed, the report said.The president’s guidance on the use of lethal action and capture operations outside areas of active hostilities requires that US counterterrorism operations meet the highest standards of precision and rigor, including for identifying appropriate targets and minimizing civilian casualties, the report quoted Sherwood-Randall as saying.The policy shift applies to drone strikes in areas such as those governed by Islamist militants but not considered areas of active hostilities, the report said.The Defense Department will now also have to obtain permission from the State Department’s chief of mission in a country before conducting a drone strike there, limiting targeting to named individuals who are believed with “near certainty” to be terrorists, the report added.However, the policy does not require presidential approval for strikes conducted in self-defense, according to the report.The change in policy comes after a botched drone strike in Afghanistan in August 2021, where the United States killed ten civilians, including seven children, after mistakenly targeting an aid worker. The strike was conducted two days after an explosion killed 13 US service members working on withdrawal operations.
