As the U.S. continues to use drone strikes as a means to oust it's enemies, then more information should be publicly known about the program, or so the press says. Last week, John O. Brennan, the president's nominee as the Director of Central Intelligence, went through Congressional hearings, as the nomination and confirmation process requires. One of the issues that was heavily discussed was the use of unmanned aerial drones. Members of the press and other media have been trying for years to pry some information about the drone program out into the view of the public, but feel that the government is trying to cover it up. They cited a statistic, approximately 3500 people killed in 420 drone strikes. The fear is that there is not enough legislation and checks to keep someone from initiating a drone strike. A big reason behind this fear is that they targeted and killed Anwar al-Awlaki, who was a U.S. citizen in Yemen, without due process of law.
Personally, I feel that when it comes to a national security issue, the press should not get involved and the public should not have to know about government programs. The reason that people can't just get their hands on the information is because they can unknowingly and unwillingly compromise the security of a necessary program. There is a system and criteria that must be met before a drone strike is authorized. It takes weeks, months, even years, to locate a potential target and take action against it. Also, many drone strikes are used as military support, such as when a special operations group needs a truck full of enemy fighters gone in order to accomplish their objective. This article is from the New York Times website and is typical of the liberal stance that they take on these issues. T
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