"How Obama Transformed an Old Military Concept So He Can Drone Americans"

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**Ouze**

I think the kill lists are generally classified - al-Awlaki was a rare exception. I doubt the government would admit anyone is a member of that class, they'd (successfully, I bet) claim state secrets and have the case bounced.

**daedalus**

Ouze wrote:

Don't guess, Google is like 3 clicks away.

Well, I was not exactly "guessing". I was relying on information that sounded plausible I had heard elsewhere without fact checking. Almost as bad, admittedly, but I was not the inventor of the misinformation, merely the propagator.

At any rate, good find on the information. That only serves to make this that much more reprehensible.

**skyfi**

If the individual on the kill list has to appear in court themselves to plead with their would be assassins, and the list is classified... how would anyone ever know they needed to go to court over it until a failed assassination attempt? Do you just see a drone strike 20 feet away and think "Oh

gak,, I should check in with the US govt and see if they were aiming that mah-f at me."?

Doesn't seem like it should work that way if it actually does.

**whembly**

Do we know anything more on that 16 yo? Was he an actual target or was collateral?

If he was a target... why?

He's 16 yo for feth sake... I hope the intelligence was rock solid.

EDIT: my google-fu is lacking today...

**Ouze**

Here's a brief story on it, again a little thin on details.

**whembly**

Ouze wrote:
Here's a brief story on it, again a little thin on details.

Wow...

IF true...

That's reprehensible.

There must be more to it that that.

**CptJake**

Ouze wrote:
Here's a brief story on it, again a little thin on details.

Boy is that story slanted and misleading. It seems to leave out the that the 16 year old was not the target of the strike, he was with the target of the strike. It wasn't until after the strike that identification of the other casualties occurred. And frankly, a 16 year old as viewed through the sensors of the drones looks like any military aged male...

**daedalus**

CptJake wrote:

Boy is that story slanted and misleading. It seems to leave out the that the 16 year old was not the target of the strike, he was with the target of the strike. It wasn't until after the strike that identification of the other casualties occurred. And frankly, a 16 year old as viewed through the sensors of the drones looks like any military aged male...

Source?

**whembly**

CptJake wrote:
Ouze wrote:
Here's a brief story on it, again a little thin on details.

Boy is that story slanted and misleading. It seems to leave out the that the 16 year old was not the target of the strike, he was with the target of the strike. It wasn't until after the strike that identification of the other casualties occurred. And frankly, a 16 year old as viewed through the sensors of the drones looks like any military aged male...

That's what I'm confused on...

Was he the target?

**Grey Templar**

Maybe, maybe not. I would argue that he was old enough to be held accountable for his actions. Not to the point of ordering a drone strike of course, but if he was caught in collateral I wouldn't shed a tear.

The bigger issue is not that he was killed, its what sort of precident it could set.

**Breotan**

President Obama is a man who is willing to kill people, even American citizens, via the use of drone strikes but is unwilling to use agressive interrogation techniques on people who are not citizens.

Say what you want about the evils of waterboading but at least you're alive after it's over.

**d-usa**

Remember that we also consider any fighting age male that is near a target a terrorist.

So if we strike a target at a party, and 20 more adults did, we declare that we killed 21 terrorists.

Why would adults hang out with a terrorists unless they hated America!

**CptJake**

daedalus wrote:
CptJake wrote:

Boy is that story slanted and misleading. It seems to leave out the that the 16 year old was not the target of the strike, he was with the target of the strike. It wasn't until after the strike that identification of the other casualties occurred. And frankly, a 16 year old as viewed through the sensors of the drones looks like any military aged male...

Source?

The previous strike, on Oct. 14, 2011 in Azzan in Shabwa province, killed Abdul Rahman al Awlaki, the son of AQAP ideologue Anwar al Awalki, who had been killed in a drone strike two weeks earlier. The Oct. 14 strike targeted an Egyptian named Ibrahim al Bana who served as AQAP's media emir. Al Bana was not killed in the strike.

Just hours before he was killed, Abdul Rahman al Awlaki had said he wanted "to attain martyrdom as my father attained it," according to a Yemeni journalist who supports AQAP. [See LWJ report, Anwar al Awlaki's son hoped 'to attain martyrdom as my father attained it.']

from: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2012/01/us_drone_strike_kill.php

Other reports :

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/10/15/yemen-says-local-al-qaeda-media-chief-six-others-killed/

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-10-15/middleeast/world_meast_yemen-drone-attack_1_anwar-al-awlaki-drone-attack-drone-strike?_s=PM:MIDDLEEAST

A U.S. official said the young man “was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” and that the U.S. was trying to kill a legitimate terrorist — al-Qaeda leader Ibrahim al-Banna, who also died — in the strike that apparently killed the American teenager.

From: http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/u-s-drone-strike-kills-16-year-old-american-citizen/

Initial reports that Banna got capped proved wrong, but he was the target. You have to go back to reports from right after the strike, (soon after 14 Oct 2011) because much of the current reporting is written to condemn the use of drones so leave out the fact that Al Awalki Jr. was not the target.

Wiki mentions the real target: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdulrahman_al-Aulaqi

**whembly**

Thanks CptJake... thats what I was looking for...

**sebster**

Breotan wrote:
President Obama is a man who is willing to kill people, even American citizens, via the use of drone strikes but is unwilling to use agressive interrogation techniques on people who are not citizens.

Say what you want about the evils of waterboading but at least you're alive after it's over.

There's a pretty big difference in the threat level of a terrorist in another country, and a terrorist who has been captured and is surrounded by your armed guards.