Trump Gives CIA Permission To Perform Drone Strikes

a reply to: Gryphon66

LOL

"U.S. officials said"

originally posted by: xuenchen
a reply to: Gryphon66

LOL

"U.S. officials said"

Ah. You're just quibbling.

Carry on then.

Obama authorized CIA of drone strikes. When the president changes, the new president has to give approval because the previous president's approval does not carry over to the new administration.

originally posted by: allsee4eye
Obama authorized CIA of drone strikes. When the president changes, the new president has to give approval because the previous president's approval does not carry over to the new administration.

Okay, got a source for that?

The articles I've read say that Obama was trying to downgrade the way these strikes were working, and Trump just opened the door wide. In other words, Trump just EXPANDED what the CIA can do in terms of covert strikes on foreign powers.

So ... can you help us by linking what you're describing?

Not a smart move. He might be the first victim.

originally posted by: vinifalou
Not a smart move. He might be the first victim.

Yes, that's related to the question I am asking here.

President Trump has been presented as "at war" with the Deep State.

Why would he give a major player in that MORE POWER?

originally posted by: xuenchen
a reply to: Gryphon66

LOL

"U.S. officials said"

Ironic that you scoff at source validation given how you make threads hypocrite.

LOL

"Spokesmen for the Pentagon and the CIA declined to comment." That is as close as it gets beyond admitting it, because if it were untrue, surely they would deny it.

To the OP: Between this and the Saudi arms green lighting, it seems to prove that the position of presidency is still limited and controlled by other forces/entities. So even Trump gets trumped.

Julian Assange has weighed in:

Twitter

By handing unilateral power to the CIA over its drone strikes at this time White House signals that bullying, disloyalty & incompetence pays

originally posted by: waftist

originally posted by: xuenchen
a reply to: Gryphon66

LOL

"U.S. officials said"

Ironic that you scoff at source validation given how you make threads hypocrite.

LOL

"Spokesmen for the Pentagon and the CIA declined to comment." That is as close as it gets beyond admitting it, because if it were untrue, surely they would deny it.

To the OP: Between this and the Saudi arms green lighting, it seems to prove that the position of presidency is still limited and controlled by other forces/entities. So even Trump gets trumped.

Understood. Also Trump has not revoked the Obama EO to facilitate "information sharing" among the different arms of the IC.

That dry patch is looking swampier every day, LOL.

a reply to: Gryphon66

I say he is not bowing to the pressures of the Military Industrial Complex / Deep State, but have always been owned by them.

but honestly what do I know.. just my hunch.

originally posted by: windword

This is my concern too. I wasn't aware that the CIA operated oversees.

Overseas is the only place the CIA DOES operate. They can't do a lot domestically, unless it involves foreign nationals.

Um. Basically, nothing much changed with this, except the CIA has slightly less oversight in how they pursue their copy of "the list".

Whilst HuffPo is bandying about that somehow Trump has given this evil greenlight to go do what they will, it's just HuffPo's way of reframing the actual story into something that sounds sinister and anti-Trumpish, and just ignoring the bigger picture.

That picture is that the CIA has paramilitary sections, always has, and that Obama used them constantly as has every other president in recent history.

It's also that there is a 'list' of high priority targets overseas, there is a protocol for putting someone on the list, and that protocol involves the VP or President in conjunction with the NSC, Secretary of State and the Attorney General. The JCS and CIA discuss new nominees, the NSC and the Veep or President decide, State and the AG gives feedback as to whether it's lawful or desirable, and the guy goes on the list(s) or not. The list was worked just as hard under Obama. It's just that CIA wasn't allowed to use less specific methods for getting their target without oversight. So if you wanted to obliterate a building to do so, you had to get permission. You want to use one of the newer, very specific drone carried systems that can pick a person in the driver's seat and probably not kill the other passengers, that's different.

There are two versions of the list, one goes to the deputy director of the CIA, the other to the deputy secretary of defense. They're probably identical.

Well, I didn't comment on any of the HuffPo spin ... what I am talking about is that Trump has acted to greenlight CIA drone strikes.

That can be spun any way one likes, obviously.

However, it does fairly much put the lie to the idea that Trump is some white knight fighting against the darkness of "the Deep State."

He just gave one of the blackest knights a new sharp sword.

originally posted by: Gryphon66

He just gave one of the blackest knights a new sharp sword.

No, the knight always had the sword. He just wasn't allowed to burn down the hut to get one peasant without the king's writ.

eta: they could ALWAYS do drone strikes. What's different is that you can now do them in groups, whereas before, you could do that only with permission

From your OP's cite:

Strikes by missile-armed Predator and Reaper drones against oversea targets began under former President George W. Bush and were expanded by Obama.

Note the bolded bit. Obama rarely checked up with a drone strike.

However, I sort of like the newer systems. Someone on ATS recently posted a pic of a car with a sort of rectangular hole over the driver's seat, with a dead terrorist inside. No big explosion. Just an anti-personnel kinetic kill weapon launched from a drone. Very precise, limited collateral damage.

The name is something non-creative like Avenging Sword (not actually it). I liked "Ignatz".

Unless you're a historical comic strip aficionado, Ignatz was a mouse with a brick and unnatural aim:



This would make a good mission patch:

I think Trump has been sat down and talked to and he is now compliant with the so-called “Deep State” agenda completely. This is another indication that he is being whipped into shape