U.S. estimates civilian cost of drone strikes
Between 64 and 116 people were wrongly killed in the secret program, which targets Islamic militants.
WASHINGTON — After escalating one of the most lethal covert operations in U.S. history, President Obama finally made a public estimate of the civilian cost of the nation’s secret drone program, which has targeted Islamic militants in remote corners of the globe.
Human rights groups immediately challenged the estimate and the amount of transparency from the administration, saying both were too limited.
The White House said that 64 to 116 civilians had been wrongly killed in 473 strikes launched by the U.S. between the time Obama was inaugurated and the end of last year. The vast majority of the attacks were launched by drones, officials said, but the estimate also covers some strikes using manned aircraft.
Monitoring groups estimate the number of civilians killed in U.S. strikes ranges from 200 to more than 1,000.
Administration officials defended their figure, but noted that they often do not know for sure who is among the dead after a strike.
“We acknowledge these assessments may be imperfect,” said a senior administration official, who briefed reporters Friday on condition of anonymity.
Determining exact figures is difficult because drone strikes frequently take place in “non-permissive environments,” the official said.
The administration said that the strikes have also killed 2,372 to 2,581 people it classified as combatants.
Obama also issued an executive order that calls for protective measures for civilians and requires future administrations to release civilian casualty estimates on May 1 of each year.
The administration timed the release of its report in a manner likely to minimize attention — the Friday before the Fourth of July weekend. The estimate provided only an aggregate number of deaths over all seven years without breaking it down by country, which makes analysis difficult.
“The disclosure is a step in a positive direction, but aggregate numbers are close to useless,” said Jameel Jaffer, the deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union.
“I should also say it’s easy to promise transparency on behalf of the next administration,” Jaffer said. “The next president can revoke this order with a stroke of a pen.”
The administration also plans to release documents soon that would shed light on the legal rationale behind the government’s claims for its authority to remotely kill militants based on top-secret evidence in countries where the U.S. has not declared war: Yemen, Pakistan, Libya and Somalia.
Known as the Presidential Policy Guidance and nicknamed “the playbook,” the document sets the legal standards that the government has followed in many strikes since 2013.
The ACLU sued the administration to obtain access to the policy guidance. Its release has been delayed by discussions over redacting information.
Until now, most matters related to the drone program, run by the CIA and the U.S. military’s secretive Joint Special Operations Command, have been hidden from public view.
The administration, in most cases, had refused to acknowledge the existence of the program or answer questions about how decisions were made about who is targeted.