--- title: Obama Drone Program: Former Officials Knock Targeted Killings description: "A serious counterterrorism strategy needs to consider carefully… the potential unintended consequences of increased reliance on lethal UAVs" canonical: https://time.com/2929266/former-officials-knock-u-s-drone-program/ author: Noah Rayman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-26T20:45:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T08:39:36.663Z article:section: Politics og:title: Obama Drone Program: Former Officials Knock Targeted Killings og:description: "A serious counterterrorism strategy needs to consider carefully… the potential unintended consequences of increased reliance on lethal UAVs" og:url: https://time.com/2929266/former-officials-knock-u-s-drone-program/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt189fa07954858249/6986890913c79f5f081916fd/163356010.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1500 og:image:height: 844 og:image:alt: Predator Drone og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Obama Drone Program: Former Officials Knock Targeted Killings twitter:description: "A serious counterterrorism strategy needs to consider carefully… the potential unintended consequences of increased reliance on lethal UAVs" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt189fa07954858249/6986890913c79f5f081916fd/163356010.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Former Officials Knock U.S. Drone Program > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Noah Rayman](https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/)  ## Noah Rayman Jun 26, 2014 8:45 PM UTC  Maintenence personel check a Predator drone on March 7, 2013 in Sierra Vista, Arizona. Maintenence personel check a Predator drone on March 7, 2013 in Sierra Vista, Arizona. John Moore—Getty Images  by [Noah Rayman](https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/)  ## Noah Rayman Jun 26, 2014 8:45 PM UTC A bipartisan group of former senior intelligence and military officials broadly criticized [the Obama Administration’s program of targeted drone strikes](http://www.stimson.org/spotlight/recommendations-and-report-of-the-stimson-task-force-on-us-drone-policy/) Thursday and called for the U.S. to reassess the practice. Their critique, in [a report](http://www.stimson.org/spotlight/recommendations-and-report-of-the-stimson-task-force-on-us-drone-policy/) published Thursday by the Washington think tank Stimson Center, represents the [latest challenge](http://world.time.com/2013/10/22/amnesty-international-and-human-rights-watch-blast-u-s-drone-strikes/) to the use of armed drones for targeted killings, days after courts [forced the release](http://time.com/2912137/memo-anwar-al-awlaki-doj-drone/) a legal memo justifying the killing of alleged American terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki in a strike in Yemen. The report warns that armed drones create a “slippery slope” that could lead to continual wars, as the relative low-risk associated with their use could encourage the U.S. to fly more missions. Among other recommendations, the panel called for the U.S. to conduct a strategic cost-benefit analysis of the their use, provide greater transparency in the process, and shift the authority over the program away from the Central Intelligence Agency and to the military. “We are concerned that the Obama administration’s heavy reliance on targeted killings as a pillar of US counterterrorism strategy rests on questionable assumptions, and risks increasing instability and escalating conflicts,” the report says. “While tactical strikes may have helped keep the homeland free of major terrorist attacks, existing evidence indicates that both Sunni and Shia Islamic extremist groups have grown in scope, lethality and influence in the broader area of operations in the Middle East. The panel, which was jointly led by retired General John P. Abizaid, the former head of United States Central Command, and Rosa Brooks, a law professor at Georgetown University, also called for President Barack Obama to create an independent commission to regularly review the use of lethal drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles. “A serious counterterrorism strategy needs to consider carefully… the potential unintended consequences of increased reliance on lethal UAVs,” the report says. Caitlin Hayden, a National Security Council spokesman, [told the New York _Times_](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/26/world/use-of-drones-for-killings-risks-a-war-without-end-panel-concludes-in-report.html)ahead of the report’s release to the public that the Administration would review the findings on the use of armed drones but added that the U.S. needs to preserve “the ability to continue those operations. “The administration is exploring ways we can provide more information about the United States’ use of force in counterterrorism operations outside areas of active hostilities, including information that provides the American people with a better understanding of U.S. assessments of civilian casualties,” she told the _Times._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2929266/former-officials-knock-u-s-drone-program/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2929266/former-officials-knock-u-s-drone-program/"},"headline":"Former Officials Knock U.S. Drone Program","datePublished":"2014-06-26T20:45:35.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T08:39:36.663Z","description":"\"A serious counterterrorism strategy needs to consider carefully… the potential unintended consequences of increased reliance on lethal UAVs\"","url":"https://time.com/2929266/former-officials-knock-u-s-drone-program/","keywords":["Foreign Policy","White House","intelligence","CIA"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt189fa07954858249/6986890913c79f5f081916fd/163356010.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Noah Rayman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt189fa07954858249/6986890913c79f5f081916fd/163356010.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Predator Drone","caption":"Predator Drone","creditText":"John Moore—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/foreign-policy/","name":"Foreign Policy"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2929266/former-officials-knock-u-s-drone-program/","name":"Former Officials Knock U.S. Drone Program"}}]}] ```