Secret ‘Kill List’ Tests Obama’s Principles

“It is also because Mr. Obama embraced a disputed method for counting civilian casualties that did little to box him in. It in effect counts all military-age males in a strike zone as combatants, according to several administration officials, unless there is explicit intelligence posthumously proving them innocent.”

• Military-age men have a wide range of ages.
• But being in a strike zone does not necessarily make them terrorists.
• The only way to find out if they are innocent is after they have been killed, which means that innocent people can be killed without remorse.

“While scores of suspects have been killed under Mr. Obama, only one has been taken into American custody, and the president has balked at adding new prisoners to Guantánamo.“Their policy is to take out high-value targets, versus capturing high-value targets,” said Senator Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, the top Republican on the intelligence committee.”

• Basically, it is too much of a hassle to distinguish between high-profile suspects and even ordinary citizens.
• Killing them is easier than imprisoning them, especially since Obama is trying to close Guantanamo.
• The death toll count is higher because innocent people are killed along with the suspects.

“But some State Department officials have complained to the White House that the criteria used by the C.I.A. for identifying a terrorist “signature” were too lax. The joke was that when the C.I.A. sees “three guys doing jumping jacks,” the agency thinks it is a terrorist training camp, said one senior official. Men loading a truck with fertilizer could be bombmakers — but they might also be farmers, skeptics argued.”

• These definitions of a terrorist are too loosely interpreted.
• Anyone can be mistaken for a terrorist under these terms.