Barack Obama’s Hit List

The current central element in the war on terror is the use of unmanned drones against al-Qaida ringleaders. George W. Bush imprisoned them; Barack Obama has them executed. 2009 marked a turning point in the war on terror.

President Obama knows it’s not good news whenever John Brennan turns up unexpectedly in the Oval Office, interrupts him during a meeting or takes him to a secure telephone. Obama knows then that there’s a life and death situation happening because Brennan, the ex-CIA agent and anti-terrorism advisor Obama describes as a John Wayne type, will give him a “hit list” of planned unmanned drone strikes. So says author Daniel Klaidman in his latest book, “Kill or Capture,” that provides a peek into the Obama administration’s secret anti-terror war and a glimpse of what goes on inside the White House.

The president has stipulated that he must personally approve every drone attack against suspected al-Qaida members. The meetings are held in the White House situation room and at the Pentagon where high-ranking military and intelligence experts gather to refine their lists and discuss each case individually on what they call “Terror Tuesday.” Just a few days ago, U.S. drones killed two ringleaders in Afghanistan and Yemen with deadly precision.

Obama’s “Specialty”

Drone attacks have escalated during Obama’s tenure, the attacks becoming an Obama “specialty.” Drones account for far more kills than they did during the Bush era — some of the victims are innocent civilians, much to the displeasure of the Afghan and Pakistani governments. Human rights activists as well as some Republicans don’t put too fine a point on their criticism, saying that what Guantanamo was to George W. Bush, the remote controlled war from the air is to Barack Obama. For U.S. troops, this modern form of warfare has an undisputed advantage: This so-called “clean” war produces far fewer American casualties.

The turning point in the war on terror dates back to autumn of 2009, when U.S. military psychologist Major Nidal Hasan opened fire on a group of American soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, killing 13 of them. He was in contact with the fundamentalist guru Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen, the same charismatic preacher who had inspired the “underwear bomber,” Umar Faruk Abdulmutallab, only a few weeks earlier.

The president was angry about the near-failure; at his insistence Awlaki was moved up on the most wanted list, second only to Osama bin Laden. When Awlaki was finally taken out by a drone, criticism immediately flared up. Awlaki, born in New Mexico, was a U.S. citizen. In addition, the United States was not at war with Yemen. The debate raising legal and moral questions about the killing, however, was quickly nipped in the bud.

The trained constitutional lawyer who, during the campaign, took George W. Bush to task over torture and who promised to close Guantanamo as soon as he took office turned out to be a brazen anti-terrorism warrior. After initial attempts to follow the letter of the law failed and the prospects of success dimmed in the face of political opposition, Obama ended up following the same policies as George W. Bush. Other than a few symbolic strokes of the pen, such as forbidding waterboarding, he continued the CIA practice of maintaining secret prisons.

But he came up with a pragmatic approach: Instead of imprisoning terrorism suspects at Guantanamo, thus provoking an outcry from the rest of the world (not to mention embarking on a long, drawn out legal process), he simply ordered them summarily executed. His order to get Osama bin Laden — America’s enemy number one — earned him worldwide respect. Obama was recognized as a prudent but tough president. National defense policy, long the traditional Achilles’ heel of the Democratic Party, had suddenly been turned into one of its main strengths.