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January 31, 2012

Obama Defends Drone Strikes, Denies Civilian Toll 
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President Obama defended his administration's unprecedented use of armed
drones on Monday during a "virtual interview" that was conducted via
Google+ and You Tube. He also acknowledged the United States was
carrying out drone strikes inside Pakistan. Obama made the comment after
he was asked how he feels about the large number of civilians killed by
drones since he took office.

President Obama: "I want to make sure the people understand actually
drones have not caused a huge number of civilian casualties. For the
most part, they have been very precise precision strikes against
al-Qaeda and their affiliates. And we are very careful in terms of how
it's been applied. I think that there's this perception somehow that
we're just sending in a whole bunch of strikes willy nilly; this is a
targeted, focused effort at people who are on a list of active
terrorists who are trying to go in and harm Americans, hit American
facilities and American bases and so on. It is important for everybody
to understand that this thing is kept on a very tight leash."

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism reported in August that U.S.
drones strikes had killed between about 400 and 800 civilians, including
175 children. The Bureau put the total number of people killed by drones
as high as 3,000.



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