Source: Ben Swann
It appears the Obama administration is once again considering whether or not to use a drone strike to assassinate an American citizen living overseas. The US citizen is believed to be an al-Qaeda facilitator who is actively planning attacks on Americans overseas. In May 2013, the White House issued a policy statement titled Fact Sheet: U.S. Policy Standards and Procedures for the Use of Force in Counterterrorism Operations Outside the United States and Areas of Active Hostilities, which lists the conditions that must be met before using lethal force 0utside of the U.S.:
Lethal force will be used outside areas of active hostilities only when the following preconditions are met:
First, there must be a legal basis for using lethal force, whether it is against a senior operational leader of a terrorist organization or the forces that organization is using or intends to use to conduct terrorist attacks.
Second, the United States will use lethal force only against a target that poses a continuing, imminent threat to U.S. persons. It is simply not the case that all terrorists pose a continuing, imminent threat to U.S. persons; if a terrorist does not pose such a threat, the United States will not use lethal force.
Third, the following criteria must be met before lethal action may be taken:
- Near certainty that the terrorist target is present;
- Near certainty that non-combatants will not be injured or killed;
- An assessment that capture is not feasible at the time of the operation;
- An assessment that the relevant governmental authorities in the country where action is contemplated cannot or will not effectively address the threat to U.S. persons; and
- An assessment that no other reasonable alternatives exist to effectively address the threat to U.S. persons.
Watch the above video to see why Ben Swann says that despite the appearance of a NEW drone strike policy… nothing has actually changed.
