US Civilians Are Now Helping Decide Who To Kill With Military Drones

Robert Johnson
Business Insider
January 1, 2012

President Obama’s enormous expansion of the U.S. drone program may be pushing too fast for military staffing to keep up.

David S. Cloud of The Los Angeles Times reports the military is now forced to rely on a string of civilian contractors placed at all levels along the “kill chain.” These are the people who analyze incoming drone video and decide when to fire Hellfire missiles.

The practice is not new.

According to Cloud, an American civilian played a “central” role in the Predator attack that accidentally killed 15 Afghans in 2010, information that “surprised” the investigating Army officer.

Read full article

This article was posted: Sunday, January 1, 2012 at 8:18 am

---

---

---

---