What Will Happen When Donald Trump Takes Over U.S. Drone & Targeted Assassination Program?

[portlander23]

What Will Happen When Donald Trump Takes Over U.S. Drone & Targeted Assassination Program?
Democracy Now!

AMY GOODMAN: We turn now to look at what will happen when Donald Trump takes over President Obama’s drone war program. Joining us now, Jameel Jaffer, founding director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, previously the deputy legal director at the ACLU. His new book, The Drone Memos: Targeted Killing, Secrecy, and the Law.

You begin your book, the introduction, "Chekhov’s Drones," with a very powerful paragraph about what happened in just one period in February of 2016 in a number of different countries. Explain.

JAMEEL JAFFER: Yeah. So, you know, I think that at this point, most Americans don’t even notice the drone campaign. You know, this is something that has faded into the background. But in a period of just a few weeks earlier this year, the Obama administration authorized drone strikes in seven different countries and expanded its authority to use drones or its ability to use drones, armed drones, in Libya. So, this is a—this is a campaign now that extends beyond conventional battlefields. It extends to—not just to Afghanistan and Pakistan and Iraq and Syria, but also Yemen and Somalia and Libya.

And, you know, there’s no—there’s no legal reason. I mean, there’s no—there’s no line that the Obama administration has drawn that the Trump administration will have to honor. I think that, you know, for the last eight years, Americans have invested very broad powers in the presidency because they trusted the president. But the problem with doing that is that the powers that you invest in the presidency will be available to every president after this one, even if you think President Obama has used these powers wisely—you know, and I have real complaints about some of the ways that the administration has used the powers. But even if you think that the Obama administration has used the powers wisely, those powers may be used very differently by President Trump or by whoever comes after him.

[Cracklin Charlie]

1. Oh, crap.

I'm probly gone.

[anarch]

2. I've just been assuming the drones will be used against domestic targets

Why not? Who's going to stop that from happening?

In fact, I'd guess local police forces will be further militarized over the next few years...maybe they'll all get armed drones to help quell any potential anti-establishment uprisings.

[Ms. Toad]

3. One of many reasons that many of us have always opposed drone and targeted assasinations.

Aside from it just being morally, and I would argue legally, wrong to exact punishment without a trial, trusting a political leader to determine who lives and dies only works as long as you trust that particular leader with God-like powers - AND - are confident no one else in that role will be someone you don't trust with those powers.