The White House "kill list"--a regularly updated chart showing the world's most wanted terrorists used by President Barack Obama during kill or capture debates--may soon be getting a rule book to go with it.
According to the New York Times, the administration--faced with the possibility that President Obama might lose the 2012 election to Mitt Romney--"accelerated work in the weeks before the election to develop explicit rules for the targeted killing of terrorists by unmanned drones, so that a new president would inherit clear standards and procedures."
Until now, President Obama has had the "final moral calculation" overseeing the "kill list," the existence of which was first revealed in May in the wake of a drone strike that killed an al-Qaida leader.But according to the paper, administration officials are looking to curb the power of the commander in chief with the rule book:
"There was concern that the levers might no longer be in our hands," said one official, speaking on condition of anonymity. With a continuing debate about the proper limits of drone strikes, Mr. Obama did not want to leave an "amorphous" program to his successor, the official said. The effort, which would have been rushed to completion by January had Mr. Romney won, will now be finished at a more leisurely pace, the official said.MORE
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Oh, so he wanted to make sure that his suck-sessor has rules to follow when it comes to murdering whoever TPTB deems is an enemy.That was mighty white of him.....
Looks like it came to bite him in the ass, though. Now he has to admit that rules are a good idea, publicly, that is. Then he can go back to doing whatever the fuck he wants.
There will be a suck-sessor not by force?
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