The co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus says that new details about the Obama administration’s secretive drone war call for heightened oversight.
“The Pentagon documents obtained by The Intercept echo what the Congressional Progressive Caucus has been saying for years. America’s drone program needs transparency and oversight,” said Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., in a statement emailed to The Intercept.
“Extrajudicial killings via drones are highly inaccurate and result in significant civilian casualties. The drone program breeds resentment and erodes our credibility with international partners,” he said.
Rep. Keith Ellison, a Minnesota Democrat.
“Attempts to hide civilian casualties by naming any person within the vicinity of an airstrike an ‘enemy combatant’ is wrong,” Ellison said. “The report makes it clear: The U.S. drone program operates on highly questionable legal ground and offends our principles of justice.”
Ellison has been a vocal critic of targeted killings for years, along with other members of his progressive caucus.
Over the summer, with CPC co-chair Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva, D-Ariz., Ellison tried and failed to attach an amendment to the Intelligence Authorization Act that would have mandated that the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community investigate civilian deaths from drone strikes and report back.
“Congress must exercise its oversight authority and demand more transparency in the U.S. drone program,” the two lawmakers wrote in a statement following the amendment’s rejection.
In January 2013, Ellison authored an opinion piece in the Washington Post titled “Time for Congress To Build a Better Drone Policy,” pointing to the deaths of 35 Pakistanis whose status as terrorists or civilians was unknown. He asked Congress to require the courts to weigh in on the White House’s “kill list” in its drone program, and take the conversation abroad to draw up a universal set of legal requirements surrounding targeted killings.
Other than Ellison’s call for more oversight, Congressional reaction to the newly revealed flaws of the drone program has been muted.
Read the complete Drone Papers.
IT’S EVEN WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT.
What we’re seeing right now from Donald Trump is a full-on authoritarian takeover of the U.S. government.
This is not hyperbole.
Court orders are being ignored. MAGA loyalists have been put in charge of the military and federal law enforcement agencies. The Department of Government Efficiency has stripped Congress of its power of the purse. News outlets that challenge Trump have been banished or put under investigation.
Yet far too many are still covering Trump’s assault on democracy like politics as usual, with flattering headlines describing Trump as “unconventional,” “testing the boundaries,” and “aggressively flexing power.”
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IT’S BEEN A DEVASTATING year for journalism — the worst in modern U.S. history.
We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.
In this most perilous moment for democracy, The Intercept is fighting back. But to do so effectively, we need to grow.
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I’M BEN MUESSIG, The Intercept’s editor-in-chief. It’s been a devastating year for journalism — the worst in modern U.S. history.
We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.
In this most perilous moment for democracy, The Intercept is fighting back. But to do so effectively, we need to grow.
That’s where you come in. Will you help us expand our reporting capacity in time to hit the ground running in 2026?
We’re independent of corporate interests. Will you help us?
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