America’s ‘War on Terror’ Has Become a Reign of Terror

By Marjorie Cohn / Truthout Nov 6, 2017 Drone strikes and other targeted attacks outside active hostile areas have increased under President Trump, killing a record number of civilians. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

Sister of 16-Year-Old American Killed in Yemen in 2011 Dies in Raid Ordered by Trump

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig Jan 30, 2017 Abdulrahman al-Awlaki and his sister were children of the US-born Yemeni preacher Anwar al-Awlaki, whom the U assassinated with a drone in 2011. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

Here’s Proof That the U.K. Has Helped America’s National Security Agency With Its Targeted Killings

Staff / Truthdig Sep 6, 2016 "The UK flamboyantly touts its death penalty opposition, yet uses [a] (previously) secret base with the US to target people for due-process-free assassinations," wrote journalist Glenn Greenwald in a Facebook post linking to a groundbreaking Intercept investigation by Ryan Gallagher. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

An Illegal Military Strategy Disguised as Technological Advance

By Rebecca Gordon / TomDispatch Jul 18, 2016 However they are achieved, the United States has now embraced extrajudicial executions on foreign soil. And most of the discussion has focused more on the new instrument—drone technology—than on its purpose: assassination. Dig deeper ( 12 Min. Read )

A Multitrillion-Dollar Bridge to Nowhere in the Greater Middle East

By Andrew J. Bacevich / TomDispatch Jun 1, 2016 The assassination of Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour by a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan is the latest item on a long list of milestones briefly heralded as significant achievements only to prove much less than advertised. Dig deeper ( 9 Min. Read )

New Leaks Reveal Dark Details of U.S. Drone Program

Kasia Anderson / Truthdig Oct 16, 2015 Targeted killings carried out by unmanned drones, though still very controversial, have become a fixture of U.S. foreign policy. On Thursday, The Intercept published a report, "The Drone Papers," which gives the public a close look at the grim realities of drone warfare, based on information leaked by a plugged-in source. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

Royal Air Force Drones Have Been Hunting British Jihadis in Syria for Months

Staff / Truthdig Sep 9, 2015 Unmanned British aerial drones armed with Hellfire missiles have been flying the skies over Syria for months in an effort to target British jihadis on a “kill list” written by senior ministers on the U.K. National Security Council. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Body Counts, Drones and ‘Collateral Damage’ (aka ‘Bug Splat’)

By Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch May 4, 2015 In the twenty-first-century world of drone warfare, one question with two aspects reigns supreme: Who counts? In Washington, the answers are the same. Dig deeper ( 12 Min. Read )

Commander in Drone

Mark Fiore / Truthdig May 1, 2015 Remember a couple years ago, when Obama said we’d shape up his drone program and achieve “near certainty” that civilians wouldn’t be killed and signature strikes would basically end? Turns out that’s not quite true. Dig deeper

Assassination as Washington Policy and How It Failed, 1990-2015

By Andrew Cockburn, TomDispatch Apr 29, 2015 The strangest part of the story is that a strategy that achieved the very opposite of its intended goal in the drug wars would later be applied full scale to the war on terror -- with exactly the same results. Dig deeper ( 13 Min. Read )

U.S. Drone Strike Kills American Hostage of al-Qaida

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig Apr 24, 2015 President Obama expressed “profound regret” over the deaths of two hostages -- an American and an Italian -- in a drone strike on al-Qaida in January before praising what he described as his administration’s exceptionally transparent response to the tragedy. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Leaving the Killing to Computers

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig Mar 19, 2015 The Washington editor of Harper’s Magazine, Andrew Cockburn, tells Jon Stewart about the increasingly technologically dependent and hands-off process that American officials use to kill militants and, inadvertently, civilians in other countries. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )