The Central Intelligence Agency won a reprieve on releasing information about its drone campaign against suspected terrorists when a federal district judge ruled that the agency could withhold almost all information about drone operations and their legal basis. The judge also specifically ruled for the Obama administration’s claim of executive privilege in retaining records of communications between federal agencies and Obama advisers. The ruling contravenes a federal appeals court ruling two years ago ordering the CIA to reveal more about the drone campaign. (Politico, June 18, 2015, by Josh Gerstein)
The ruling last year in the D.C. Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals noted that the CIA could not deny the existence of records on targeted-drone strikes in light of their public announcements about the strikes. (Courthouse New Service, June 22, 2015, by Lorraine Bailey)
Ironically, two different anonymous sources from the same federal agency gave two versions last week of the CIA targeted-killing of Nasir al-Wuhayshi, an al-Qaeda leader. One said the killing grew out of a painstaking collection of data over months; the other claimed that the administration eased guidelines to allow a strike with specific knowledge of the identities of the individuals killed by the drones. Clearly, some sunshine on the records would help reveal the truth. (Just Security, June 20, 2015, by Jameel Jaffer and Brett Max Kaufman)