Drones, computers new weapons of U.S. shadow wars
June 17, 2012
WASHINGTON (AP) - After a decade of costly conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan,
the American way of war is evolving toward less brawn, more guile.
An unmanned U.S. Predator drone flies over Kandahar Air Field, southern
Afghanistan, on a moon-lit night.
Drone aircraft spy on and attack terrorists with no pilot in harm's way.
Small teams of special operations troops quietly train and advise foreign
forces. Viruses sent from computers to foreign networks strike silently,
with no American fingerprint.
It's war in the shadows, with the
<
http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/U.S> U.S. public largely in the
dark.
In Pakistan, armed drones, not U.S. ground troops or B-52 bombers, are
hunting down al-Qaeda terrorists, and a CIA-run raid of Osama bin Laden's
hide-out was executed by a stealthy team of
<
http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Organizations/Military+and+Paramil
itary/Navy+SEALs> Navy SEALs.
In Yemen, drones and several dozen U.S. military advisers are trying to help
the government tip the balance against an al-Qaeda offshoot that harbors
hopes of one day attacking the U.S. homeland.
In Somalia, the <
http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Horn+of+Africa>
Horn of Africa country that has not had a fully functioning government since
1991,
<
http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/People/Politicians,+Government+Off
icials,+Strategists/Executive/Barack+Obama> President Obama secretly has
authorized two drone strikes and two commando raids against terrorists.
In Iran, surveillance drones have kept an eye on nuclear activities while a
computer attack reportedly has infected its nuclear enrichment facilities
with a virus, possibly delaying the day when the U.S. or Israel might feel
compelled to drop real bombs on Iran and risk a wider war in the
<
http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Places,+Geography/Regions/Middle+E
ast> Middle East.
The high-tech warfare allows Obama to target what the administration sees as
the greatest threats to U.S. security, without the cost and liabilities of
sending a swarm of ground troops to capture territory; some of them almost
certainly would come home maimed or dead.
But it also raises questions about accountability and the implications for
international norms regarding the use of force outside of traditional armed
conflict. The
<
http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Places,+Geography/Landmarks,+Landf
orms/White+House> White House took an incremental step Friday toward greater
openness about the basic dimensions of its shadowy wars by telling Congress
for the first time that the U.S. military has been launching lethal attacks
on terrorist targets in Somalia and Yemen. It did not mention drones, and
its admission did not apply to
<
http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Organizations/Government+Bodies/Ce
ntral+Intelligence+Agency> CIA operations.
"Congressional oversight of these operations appears to be cursory and
insufficient," said
<
http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Steven+Aftergood> Steven
Aftergood, an expert on government secrecy issues for the Federation of
American Scientists, a private group.
"It is Congress' responsibility to declare war under the Constitution, but
instead it appears to have adopted a largely passive role while the
executive takes the initiative in war fighting," Aftergood said in an
interview.
That's partly because lawmakers relinquished their authority by passing a
law just after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that essentially granted the
White House open-ended authority for armed action against al-Qaeda.
Secret wars are not new.
For decades, the CIA has carried out covert operations abroad at the
president's direction and with congressional notice. It armed the mujahedeen
in Afghanistan who fought Soviet occupiers in the 1980s, for example. In
recent years the U.S. military's secretive commando units have operated more
widely, even in countries where the U.S. is not at war, and that's blurred
the lines between the intelligence and military spheres.
In this shroud of secrecy, leaks to the news media of classified details
about certain covert operations have led to charges that the White House
orchestrated the revelations to bolster Obama's national security
credentials and thereby improve his re-election chances. The White House has
denied the accusations.
The leaks exposed details of U.S. computer virus attacks on Iran's nuclear
program, the foiling of an al-Qaeda bomb plot targeting U.S. aircraft, and
other secret operations.
Two U.S. attorneys are heading separate
<
http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Organizations/Government+Bodies/Fe
deral+Bureau+of+Investigation> FBI investigations into leaks of national
security information, and Congress is conducting its own probe.
It's not just the news media that has pressed the administration for
information about its shadowy wars.
Some in Congress, particularly those lawmakers most skeptical of the need
for U.S. foreign interventions, are objecting to the administration's drone
wars. They are demanding a fuller explanation of how, for example, drone
strikes are authorized and executed in cases in which the identity of the
targeted terrorist is not confirmed.
"Our drone campaigns already have virtually no transparency, accountability
or oversight," Democratic Rep.
<
http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/People/Politicians,+Government+Off
icials,+Strategists/U.S.+Representatives/Dennis+Kucinich> Dennis Kucinich
and 25 other mostly anti-war members of Congress wrote Obama on Tuesday.
A few dozen lawmakers are briefed on the CIA's covert action and clandestine
military activity, and some may ask to review drone strike video and be
granted access to after-action reports on strikes and other clandestine
actions. But until two months ago, the administration had not formally
confirmed in public its use of armed drones.
In an April speech in Washington, Obama's counterterrorism chief,
<
http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/John+Brennan> John Brennan,
acknowledged that despite presidential assurances of a judicious use of
force against terrorists, some still question the legality of drone strikes.
"So let me say it as simply as I can: Yes, in full accordance with the law -
and in order to prevent terrorist attacks on the
<
http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Places,+Geography/Countries/United
+States> United States and to save American lives - the United States
government conducts targeted strikes against specific al-Qaeda terrorists,
sometimes using remotely piloted aircraft, often referred to publicly as
drones," he said.
<
http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/President+George+W.+Bush>
President George W. Bush authorized drone strikes in Pakistan and elsewhere,
but Obama has vastly increased the numbers. According to Bill Roggio of The
Long War Journal, an online publication that tracks U.S. counterterrorism
operations, the U.S. under Obama has carried out an estimated 254 drone
strikes in Pakistan alone. That compares with 47 strikes during the Bush
administration.
In at least one case the target was an American. Anwar al-Awlaki, an
al-Qaeda leader, was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen in September.
According to a White House list released late last year, U.S.
counterterrorism operations have removed more than 30 terrorist leaders
around the globe. They include al-Qaeda in East Africa "planner" Saleh Ali
Saleh Nabhan, who was killed in a helicopter strike in Somalia.
The drone campaign is highly unpopular overseas.
A Pew Research Center survey on the U.S. image abroad found that in 17 of 21
countries surveyed, more than half of the people disapproved of U.S. drone
attacks targeting extremist leaders in such places as Pakistan, Yemen and
Somalia. In the U.S., 62 percent approved of the drone campaign, making
American public opinion the clear exception.
The U.S. use of cyberweapons, like viruses that sabotage computer networks
or other high-tech tools that can invade computers and steal data, is even
more closely shielded by official secrecy and, arguably, less well
understood.
Republican Sen.
<
http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/People/Politicians,+Government+Off
icials,+Strategists/U.S.+Senators/John+McCain> John McCain has been a
leading critic of the administration's handling of information about using
computers as a tool of war.
"I think that cyberattacks are one of the greatest threats that we face,"
McCain said in a recent interview, "and we have a very divided and not very
well-informed Congress addressing it."
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and national security officials often talk
publicly about improving U.S. defenses against cyberattack, not only on U.S.
government computer systems but also against defense contractors and other
private networks linked, for example, to the U.S. financial system or
electrical grid. Left largely unexplained is the U.S. capacity to use
computer viruses and other cyberweapons against foreign targets.
In the view of some, the White House has cut Congress out of the loop, even
in the realm of overt warfare.
Democratic Sen. <
http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/James+Webb> James
Webb, who saw combat in Vietnam as a Marine, introduced legislation last
month that would require that the president seek congressional approval
before committing U.S. forces in civil conflicts, such as last year's armed
intervention in Libya, in which there is no imminent security threat to the
U.S.
"Year by year, skirmish by skirmish, the role of the Congress in determining
where the U.S. military would operate, and when the awesome power of our
weapon systems would be unleashed has diminished," Webb said.
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Received on Sun Jun 17 2012 - 15:08:15 EDT
