US releases Presidential Policy Guidance (PPG) UAV lethal strike 'playbook'

Scanned Document - presidential_policy_guidance.pdf

Reaper launches Hellfire Missiles

How did the concept of global reach for a killer drone originate

As with many other things, the law is trying to catch up with technology. The creation of the first weapon in history whose operators can stalk and kill an individual enemy on the other side of the globe with no personal risk was far more than clever engineering. As Richard Whittle shows in Predator, it was one of the most profound developments in the history of military and aerospace technology. From chapter 9 on, he shows how the CIA and Air Force Big Safari, driven by the hunt for Bin Laden, overcame legal resistance, organizational, operational, and technical problems with sensors, weapons, and C3I to develop the armed RPV capability. Now the government is trying to update international and domestic law to leash this capability.

Once considered fragile toys, drones were long thought to be of limited utility. The Predator itself was resisted at nearly every turn by the military establishment, but a few iconoclasts refused to see this new technology smothered at birth. The remarkable cast of characters responsible for developing the Predator includes a former Israeli inventor who turned his Los Angeles garage into a drone laboratory, two billionaire brothers marketing a futuristic weapon to help combat Communism, a pair of fighter pilots willing to buck their white-scarf fraternity, a cunning Pentagon operator nicknamed "Snake," and a secretive Air Force organization known as Big Safari. When an Air Force team unleashed the first lethal drone strikes in 2001 for the CIA, the military's view of drones changed nearly overnight.


Grading the Obama Administration's Progress on Drone Policy - Lawfare
In his May 2013 speech at National Defense University, President Obama called for new ways to think about drones and the United States’ policy on using these systems in counterterrorism operations. Now, nearly 3 years later, the Obama administration is in danger of leaving a legacy on drones that is long on rhetoric but short on substance.

The Stimson Center heeded President Obama’s call and in June 2014, the Stimson Task Force on U.S. Drone Policy released a report and eight detailed and concrete recommendations designed to ensure that U.S. drone policy is transparent, accountable, and consistent with long-term U.S. national security goals, foreign policy ideals, and commercial interests. In the 18 months since the release of the Task Force report, Stimson analyzed the administration’s progress towards implementing these recommendations and assigned “grades” based on this progress. On February 23, Stimson launched this “report card,” which describes steps taken by the administration to implement the task force’s recommendations based on publicly available information. In sum, the report card reveals that the administration has failed to be more transparent and more accountable with regard to its use of armed drones and its lethal drone policy. The administration has failed to develop robust oversight and accountability mechanisms, including by not publicly releasing the legal framework that supports the lethal drone program. Although the administration has assured the public that it is working towards greater oversight and accountability, there have been few examples of such improvements in practice.

1.  – Conduct a strategic review and cost-benefit analysis of the role of lethal drones in targeted counterterrorism strikes - U.
2.  – Improve transparency in Targeted UAV strikes – D (with subgrades of C, F, and F).
3.  – Transfer general responsibility for lethal drone strikes from the CIA to the military - D.
4.  – Develop more robust oversight and accountability mechanism for targeted strikes outside of traditional battlefield – F (with sub-grade of U).
5.  – Foster the development of appropriate international norms for use of lethal force outside of traditional battlefields - D.
6.  – Assess UAV-related technological developments and likely future trends, and develop an interagency research and development strategy geared toward advancing US national security interests in a manner consistent with US values - U.
7.  – Review and reform UAV-related export control and FAA rules - C.
8.  – FAA should accelerate its efforts to meet the requirements of the 2012 FAA Reauthorization Bill - C.

the report provides 6 pragmatic and achievable steps—based in part on the task force’s original recommendations—that the administration could take now to help ensure a sensible and comprehensive U.S. drones policy.

1. Release the Presidential Policy Guidance on “U.S. Policy Standards and Procedures for the Use of Force in Counterterrorism Operations Outside the United States and Areas of Active Hostilities” to provide the basic framework for U.S. drone strikes.
2. Conduct a publicly available strategic review and cost-benefit analysis of lethal drone strikes, particularly in counterterrorism operations.
3. Provide the domestic and international legal framework for the U.S. drone program, including the release of the legal memos undertaken by the Office of Legal Counsel, the CIA, and DoD that contain the interpretations used by the United States with regards to international humanitarian law and international human rights law.
4. Provide historical data, even in aggregate and after strikes have occurred, regarding the specific details of U.S. lethal drone strikes, including the number of strikes in a particular location, the number of casualties, and who conducted the strikes.
5. Set out high-level thoughts on an international law framework for drone use, and a clear and distinct negotiating process to work toward that framework.
6. Propose a revised scope of ITAR/USML coverage for UAVs, in the context of the ongoing USML list reform exercise.

Obama releases drone strike 'playbook' - POLITICO
President Barack Obama has to personally approve the killing of a U.S. citizen targeted for a lethal drone strike outside combat areas, according to a policy Obama adopted in 2013.

The president also is called upon to approve drone strikes against permanent residents of the U.S. and when "there is a lack of consensus" among agency chiefs about whom to target, but in other cases he is simply "apprised" of the targeting decision, the newly-disclosed document shows.

The presidential policy guidance on drone strikes, often called the drone "playbook," was disclosed in an edited form Friday night in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Are There Any Limits on Obama’s Drone War, Really? | New Republic
From the very first line, the document seems unclear about its objective. “This Presidential Policy Guidance (PPG) establishes the standard operating procedures for when the United States takes direct action,” it starts, effectively asserting that it is both a document about policy—laying out what rules have to be followed—and a document about the procedures needed to implement that policy. That’s not the way policies and procedures are supposed to work: one is a high-level document, the other a more granular implementing one. Here they mix.
After a page and a half laying out “principles and priorities” for direct action, eight sections lay out procedures associated with those principles. In the sections pertaining to lethal targeting of high-value and other targets, additional policies are embedded. And right in the middle of it all, Section 5 “sets forth the procedures for approving proposals that vary from the policy guidance otherwise set forth in this PPG.” In other words, the exceptions to the rules that have just been laid out.
The sections that deal with lethal targeting are problematic in themselves, reversing the logic of consideration. If your goal is truly to prioritize capturing a suspected terrorist, rather than killing him, a procedure should start by asking whether someone can be captured. If so, it should move on to the process of deciding what to do with him once the U.S. gets him. Here, the PPG process starts when an agency decides to use lethal force against the target.

US releases redacted drone strike 'playbook'

The US government has released a once-secret policy document once dubbed "the playbook" that shows how officials select drone targets in areas outside war zones and the key role the president has in the process.

The 18-page Presidential Policy Guidance (PPG), published Saturday by the American Civil Liberties Union, provides more details than the government had previously revealed on how drone strikes are approved.

"Actions, including lethal action against designated terrorist targets, shall be as discriminating and precise as reasonably possible," the PPG states.

President Barack Obama typically must personally sign off on plans to strike terror suspects who are located outside war zones in which America is officially fighting. Such zones include Pakistan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.

Strikes in combat theaters such as Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan are controlled by the military.

Each case for action is subjected to legal review before it goes to the National Security Council and then the president.

The government’s treatment of civilian casualties in counterterrorism operations [updated] | Just Security
The government has just released two important documents. One is an assessment by the Director of National Intelligence of the cumulative civilian casualties from U.S. counterterrorism “strikes” outside areas of active hostilities — which it defines as all nations apart from Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria — from January 2009 through 2015. The other document is an Executive Order issued by the President that requires more robust protection of civilians than international law demands in all U.S. operations, and that requires publication of an annual report assessing civilian casualties.