The White House says more than a third of the inmates were serving life sentences.
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Seeking to create a precedent for his successor, Obama also signed an executive order that details USA policies to limit civilian casualties and makes protecting civilians a central element in us military operations planning.
The White House will only reveal civilian casualties in countries that are technically not at a USA battlefield, like Libya, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen.
Obama’s executive order covers strikes undertaken “outside areas of active hostilities”, and is the first time the government has been required to issue systematic public reports on a campaign of clandestine drone strikes created by President George W. Bush and escalated dramatically under Obama.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Friday the report was aimed at providing greater transparency.
‘The president believes our counterterrorism strategy is more effective and has more credibility when we’re as transparent as possible, ‘ Earnest said.
Observers also say that without better transparency, it is impossible to gauge the accuracy of US fatality assessments.
But the directive is not necessarily binding on Mr Obama’s successor, who could change the policy with an executive order of their own. This is not the end of the public conversation on USA drone strikes, but just the beginning.
The numbers only include drone strikes in Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan, and Libya.
The executive order, passed by US President Barack Obama, will hold future government accountable for disclosing the number of civilians killed in US drone strikes each year.
The report, released on Friday, shed light on the USA government’s closely monitored and highly controversial drone program, which has been frequently accused of killing civilians in the Middle East and Asia.
While the CIA drone program is widely reported upon and even referenced by government officials, it remains classified and individual strikes aren’t typically confirmed by the agency.
“But by narrowly targeting our action against those who want to kill us and not the people they hide among, we are choosing the course of action least likely to result in the loss of innocent life”, President Obama had previously said.
The Democrat plans to reveal details of the Presidential Policy Guidance, the so-called legal framework used to determine when assassination by drone can be carried out, even though any attacks of this type outside of the battlefield violates worldwide law, according to Mary Ellen O’Connell writing in the New York Times past year.
The long-awaited announcement came on Friday afternoon acknowledges that between 64 and 116 civilians were killed by United States drone operations in Libya, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen and other African countries.
“Civilian casualties are a tragic and at times unavoidable effect of the use of force in situations of armed conflict or in the exercise of a state’s inherent right of self-defense”, the 4-page executive order says. He said his group probably would call on Congress to codify it into law so that future presidents can not throw it out. “But the fact is, these operations that will be the substance of an announcement today are the kinds of operations that just a couple of years ago we wouldn’t even confirm existed”. It makes protecting civilians a central element in USA military operations planning.
The numbers released Friday are hundreds lower than various independent organizations – including human rights groups and investigative reporters – have estimated them to be.
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“This is a remarkable shift, even if you’re skeptical of numbers this reports”, writes Naureen Shah at the Guardian.
