The Drone Memos: Targeted Killing, Secrecy, and the Law

by Jameel Jaffer (Editor)

The Drone Memos collects for the first time the legal and policy documents underlying the U.S. government’s deeply controversial practice of “targeted killing”—the extrajudicial killing of suspected terrorists and militants, typically using remotely piloted aircraft or “drones.” The documents—including the Presidential Policy Guidance that provides the framework for drone strikes today, Justice Department white papers addressing the assassination of an American citizen, and a highly classified legal memo that was published only after a landmark legal battle involving the ACLU, the New York Times, and the CIA—together constitute a remarkable effort to legitimize a practice that most human rights experts consider to be unlawful and that the United States has historically condemned.

In a lucid and provocative introduction, Jameel Jaffer, who led the ACLU legal team that secured the release of many of the documents, evaluates the “drone memos” in light of domestic and international law. He connects the documents’ legal abstractions to the real-world violence they allow, and makes the case that we are trading core principles of democracy and human rights for the illusion of security.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Law, Crime

224 pages, Hardcover

Published November 15, 2016

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredibly important topic that all Americans should be educated on in order to be more informed, ethical, and responsible citizens.

[Gunnar · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book brought me to the intersection of two of my favorite topics: military technology and law. It's mostly a collection of primary source documents: the government memos around the legal structure of the use of drones for targeted killing in the global war on terror. The introduction tells the story of getting access to the memos and information about the secret program, more than it tells the internal government story of how the program got structured, legally justified and the memos written.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

The introduction was very helpful in framing the memos included, and the book achieves its purpose of chronicling the government’s publicly available justifications behind the use of drone warfare. Given how similar many of the memos were in their arguments, I think the book could’ve benefited from further unpacking the core legal theories the memos rely upon in a concluding chapter.

[Mills College Library]

344.73053 D786 2016

[Carl]

Pretty much a tangle of legal opinions & governmental efforts at CYA over the drone program. Makes it clear that government gives up its secrets only grudgingly if at all.