The Assassination Complex
Inside the Government's Secret Drone Warfare Program
New York : Simon & Schuster, 2016.
Format: Book
Edition: First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition.
Description: xviii, 234 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Major revelations about the US government's drone program--bestselling author Jeremy Scahill and his colleagues at the investigative website The Intercept expose stunning new details about America's secret assassination policy.
When the US government discusses drone strikes publicly, it offers assurances that such operations are a more precise alternative to troops on the ground and are authorized only when an "imminent" threat is present and there is "near certainty" that the intended target will be killed. The implicit message on drone strikes from the Obama administration has been trust, but don't verify .
The online magazine The Intercept exploded this secrecy when it obtained a cache of secret slides that provide a window into the inner workings of the US military's kill/capture operations in Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somalia. Whether through the use of drones, night raids, or new platforms yet to be employed, these documents show assassination to be central to US counterterrorism policy.
The classified documents reveal that Washington's fourteen-year targeted killing campaign suffers from an overreliance on flawed signals intelligence, an apparently incalculable civilian toll, and an inability to extract potentially valuable intelligence from terror suspects. This campaign, carried out by two presidents through four presidential terms, has been deliberately obscured from the public and insulated from democratic debate. The Assassination Complex allows us to understand at last the circumstances under which the US government grants itself the right to sentence individuals to death without the established checks and balances of arrest, trial, and appeal.
The book will include original contributions from Glenn Greenwald and Edward Snowden.
When the US government discusses drone strikes publicly, it offers assurances that such operations are a more precise alternative to troops on the ground and are authorized only when an "imminent" threat is present and there is "near certainty" that the intended target will be killed. The implicit message on drone strikes from the Obama administration has been trust, but don't verify .
The online magazine The Intercept exploded this secrecy when it obtained a cache of secret slides that provide a window into the inner workings of the US military's kill/capture operations in Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somalia. Whether through the use of drones, night raids, or new platforms yet to be employed, these documents show assassination to be central to US counterterrorism policy.
The classified documents reveal that Washington's fourteen-year targeted killing campaign suffers from an overreliance on flawed signals intelligence, an apparently incalculable civilian toll, and an inability to extract potentially valuable intelligence from terror suspects. This campaign, carried out by two presidents through four presidential terms, has been deliberately obscured from the public and insulated from democratic debate. The Assassination Complex allows us to understand at last the circumstances under which the US government grants itself the right to sentence individuals to death without the established checks and balances of arrest, trial, and appeal.
The book will include original contributions from Glenn Greenwald and Edward Snowden.
Contents:
Foreword: Elected by circumstance -- The assassination complex -- Death and the watchlist -- Why I leaked the watchlist documents -- Find, fix, finish -- The kill chain -- The heart of the drone maze -- Target Africa -- Death by metadata -- Firing blind -- Stingrays at home -- The life and death of Objective Peckham -- Manhunting in the Hindu Kush -- Afterword.
Subjects:
Drone aircraft -- Government policy -- United States.
Targeted killing -- United States -- History -- 21st century.
Targeted killing -- Moral and ethical aspects -- United States.
Drone aircraft -- Moral and ethical aspects -- United States.
Terrorism -- Prevention -- United States -- Decision making.
Military intelligence -- United States -- Evaluation.
Military intelligence -- Technological innovation -- Moral and ethical aspects.
National security -- United States.
United States -- Military policy -- Moral and ethical aspects.
Drone aircraft -- Government policy -- United States.
Targeted killing -- United States -- History -- 21st century.
Targeted killing -- Moral and ethical aspects -- United States.
Drone aircraft -- Moral and ethical aspects -- United States.
Terrorism -- Prevention -- United States -- Decision making.
Military intelligence -- United States -- Evaluation.
Military intelligence -- Technological innovation -- Moral and ethical aspects.
National security -- United States.
United States -- Military policy -- Moral and ethical aspects.
ISBN:
9781501144134
Availability | |||
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Call Number | Location | Shelf Location | Status |
GOV Military Sca | Sandhills Indoors | Nonfiction | In |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 191-212) and index.