The Presidential Policy Guidance, once known as “the Playbook”, was issued by President Obama in May 2013 following promises of more transparency and stricter controls for the drone program.
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The release of the Presidential Policy Guidance document and other Department of Defense papers comes after a freedom of information lawsuit filed past year, the American Civil Liberties Union said Saturday.
The document states that counter terrorism operations, including deadly action against designated terrorist targets, shall be exact as reasonably possible.
In 2012, the President directed his administration to tighten procedures and standards, resulting in his May 2013 Presidential Policy Guidance and a major national security speech at National Defense University.
Three years and thousands of deaths later, the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama late Friday finally made public its guidelines for conducting lethal drone strikes.
The playbook also stipulates that all operational plans “shall be presented to the president for decision” when there is lack of consensus or the designated target is a USA citizen.
“In no event will additional detainees be brought to the detention facilities at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base”, it says. The administration then said it would prepare the redacted version.
“Our counterterrorism actions are effective and legal, and their legitimacy is best demonstrated by making public more information about these actions as well as setting clear standards for other nations to follow”, Price said.
“Its release now will inform an ongoing debate about the lawfulness and wisdom of the government’s counterterrorism policies”, Jaffer said in a statement.
Last month, following the Administration’s release of remarkably low civilian casualty figures, Amnesty International USA wrote the Central Intelligence Agency to urge it to finally acknowledge responsibility for the death of Mamana Bibi, a woman who was killed in a drone strike witnessed by her grandchildren.
The guidance does not apply to operations in “areas of active hostilities”, which the administration now defines as Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan.
Early this year, after Judge Colleen McMahon, in the Southern District of NY, questioned that privilege, the government said it would publicly release a redacted version. The guidance also includes a large waiver for the president to disregard it in cases of “national self-defense”, “fleeting opportunities”, or even to authorize a strike against someone who posed a threat “to another country’s persons”.
Besides the PPG, the White House also released four Pentagon documents.
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Amnesty International has also welcomed the disclosures but cautioned that the redacted version only offers a part of the full picture. Individuals who have been targeted for killing must be identified and represent an imminent threat to United States citizens.
