The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative
Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other
shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org.
May 6, 2010

CIA Received Expanded Authority for Drone Strikes
-------------------------------------------------



U.S. officials meanwhile have acknowledged the CIA has been launching
drone attacks in Pakistan despite often not knowing the identities of
its targets. The strikes have been carried out under widely-expanded
authority approved by the Bush administration two years ago. The policy
means the CIA’s targets can extend far beyond what was previously a
narrow list of suspects. The Los Angeles Times reports the identities of
the vast majority of over 500 victims killed under the expanded
authority were unknown or subject to fragmentary information. In some
cases, the CIA learned it had targeted a known terror suspect only after
the suspect turned out to have been killed.



.