Court: CIA cannot continue to deny basic information on drone program

[unhappycamper]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/15/court-cia-cannot-continue-to-deny-basic-information-on-drone-program/


Court: CIA cannot continue to deny basic information on drone program
By Stephen C. Webster
Friday, March 15, 2013 12:59 EDT

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) will have to rethink how to turn away information requests regarding the agency’s suspected use of drone aircraft to bomb targets overseas thanks to a court ruling issued Friday.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals held in a 3-0 vote on Friday that the CIA must reveal whether it has any “involvement” or “interest” in the U.S. drone program, saying its refrain that the agency cannot acknowledge the program’s existence is undermined by officials’ public statements.

Those public statements came from President Barack Obama, newly-minted CIA director John Brennan and former CIA Director Leon Panetta, all of whom have confirmed that some agency of the U.S. government uses drone aircraft to drop bombs. Brennan in particular has even confirmed in public comments that the nation’s intelligence agencies are consulted about drone strikes.

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“Given these official acknowledgments that the United States has participated in drone strikes, it is neither logical nor plausible for the CIA to maintain that it would reveal anything not already in the public domain to say that the Agency ‘at least has an intelligence interest’ in such strikes,” the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling (PDF) explains. “The defendant is, after all, the Central Intelligence Agency. And it strains credulity to suggest that an agency charged with gathering intelligence affecting the national security does not have an ‘intelligence interest’ in drone strikes, even if that agency does not operate the drones itself.”