White House approves broader Yemen drone campaign 25 Apr 2012 The United States has begun launching drone strikes against suspected al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen under new authority approved by President Obama that allows the CIA and the military to fire even when the identity of those who could be killed is not known, U.S. officials said. U.S. officials said that Obama approved the use of “signature” strikes this month in 2010 and that the killing of an al-Qaeda operative near the border of Yemen’s Marib province this week was among the first attacks carried out under the new authority. The expanded authority will allow the CIA and JSOC to fire on targets based solely on their intelligence “signatures” — patterns of behavior that are detected through signals intercepts, human sources and aerial surveillance, and that indicate the presence of an important operative or a plot against U.S. interests. Until now 2010, the administration had allowed strikes only against known terrorist leaders who appear on secret CIA and JSOC target lists and whose location can be confirmed. [Oops! This April 2012 Washington Post article by Greg Miller, 'White House approves broader Yemen drone campaign,' reports as 'new' 2010 Pentagon-CIA killer drone target policy. The killer drone expansion criteria was cited in a May 2010 Los Angeles Times article by David S. Cloud, 'CIA drones have broader list of targets.' --Lori Price]
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