troubling legacy
The troubling legacy of Obama's drone campaign
The expansive interpretation of legal authority and strong defences of secrecy wielded by a president who at least understood the risks and downsides of drone warfare will now be available to an administration that sees the world in black-and-white, rather than shades of grey. The administration, moreover, continues to resist the release of other legal documents regarding the drone programme and to defend the significant reductions in documents that have been released (whether via government leak or through litigation), including the 11-page factual discussion in the July 2010 Office of Legal Counsel memo regarding the strike that killed American citizen Anwar al-Aulaqi in Yemen. Thus, while Obama has relied primarily on the AUMF for drone strikes, he has interpreted his statutory authority broadly.