A cache of secret documents on the

drone wars of the Obama

administration, leaked to The
Intercept

Nia Kapitanova and Camila Sanches

 Paper 1 - The Assassination Complex
Drones used by US military and CIA to hunt down targets Obama
administration deemed worthy of execution

Use of drones condoned on bases that drones are more precise and
have “near certainty” that intended target gets eliminated
Paper 2 - Drone Wars Terms
● Birds - drones themselves, when fired,
room far away is full of people watching
● Objectives - the targeted person
● Jackpot - when drone hits and kills
objective
● EKIA - label for when target is missed and
someone else is killed
● Baseball Card - an individual’s stats that
military creates for visualizing information
● Watchlist - geolocation of targets, using
target’s cellphone
● Find, Fix, Finish - cycle of ISR that
amounts to human hunting
● Touchdown - when a night raid/drone
strike successfully neutralizes a target’s
phone
Paper 3 - The Kill Chain
● 2 part process: Developing &
Authorizing → Actioning
● Sometimes there is a degree of
cooperation with host country
● May 2013 - Obama says action taken
only against people who pose a
“continuing imminent threat to the
American people,” and who could not
be captured
● Strike would occur only with
“near certainty” of no civilian casualty
● 60 day/2 month window
Paper 4 - Find. Fix. Finish.
Back in 2008, a team of special ops commanders, war planners, and Pentagon officials pressed new pres
to increase shadow wars in Yemen and Somalia to fight the emerging threats – called for sweeping
away bureaucratic obstacles and streamlining lethal ops

“It is the politically advantageous

thing to do -- low cost, no U.S.
casualties, gives the appearance
of toughness,” - Adm. Dennis Blair,
Obama’s former director of
national intelligence

“The drone campaign right now really is only about killing. When you hear the phrase
‘capture/kill,’ capture is actually a misnomer. In the drone strategy that we have, ‘capture’ is
a lower case ‘c.’ We don’t capture people anymore,” Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, former head
of the Defense Intelligence Agency
Paper 5 - Manhunting in the Hindu Kush
● period: 2011 to 2013
● name of the operation: Haymaker campaign
● location: Hindu Kush – Afghanistan’s northeastern border with Pakistan
● objective: Destroy the Taliban and al Qaeda forces (by capturing or killing them) in
the region using the best military tools that the American warfare could offer
● main problems: Did not succeed to degrade al Qaeda’s operation and even stirred
insurgent leaders in the region (Haji Mating)
Paper 7 - The Life and Death of Objective Peckham

● period: 2007 to 2012

● main target: Bilal el-Berjawi – A British-Lebanese citizen suspected of having ties
with senior al Qaeda members in Somalia
● Timeline of Berjawi’s life:

Young Life 2006 2007-2008 2009 2010 2012

Left London and While visiting

Interrogated in The British After two
Ordinary life as any attended a training Kenya to go on a
Lebanon, but government unsuccessful
other London boy camp of al-Qaeda in safari, he got
arrived back in revoked his drone strikes,
and after associated East Africa and then he arrested and
started to provide London without any passport and he Berjawi was killed
with a Muslim gang tortured by Kenyan
funds for the problems moved to Somalia on January 21
in North London anti-terror police
organization
Paper 6 - Firing Blind: Flawed intelligence and the limits of drone technology

● Documents showed that the U.S. military had faced many critical errors in the
technology and intelligence tools used to find and kill the alleged terrorists in
Yemen and Somalia
● Tyranny of distance: the difficulty to employ efficient surveillance intelligence
from computers and cellphones in the region
● Main issues:
a. Flights are limited by fuel
b. Few drones in the region to do effective surveillance - one drone needed to spy on
multiple targets
c. Hard to build more closer bases due to political reasons
Paper 8 - Target Africa: the U.S. Military’s expanding
footprint in East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula
Further Notes

● US’s intentions // legitimacy thanks to the public

● Drone wars are repression tactics for others, not for personal people
● Three modes of transnational repression represented: direct attacks, co-
opting with other countries, threat from a distance
● The role of technology and relying on it as well and how this has changed the
way that operations are conducted
● The psychological effects of the usage of drones in those areas
Discussion Questions

1. Referring to the glossary terms we showed earlier, what is the symbolism of

the American government using these words and how does it portray the
overall mission of drones?
● Birds - drones themselves,
when fired, room far away is
full of people watching
● Objectives - the targeted
person
● Jackpot - when drone hits and
kills objective
● EKIA - label for when target is
missed and someone else is
killed
● Baseball Card - an individual’s
stats that military creates for
visualizing information
● Watchlist - geolocation of
targets, using target’s
cellphone
● Find, Fix, Finish - cycle of ISR
that amounts to human hunting
● Touchdown - when a night
raid/drone strike successfully
Discussion Questions
1. Referring to the glossary terms we showed earlier, what is the symbolism of the
American government using these words and how does it portray the overall
mission of drones?
2. What are the consequences of transnational repression by states like the US for
the overall chances of containing transnational repression by other states such as
Russia, China, etc. ?
3. In the case of the elimination of Bilal el-Berjaw that we previously discussed, what
are your thoughts on the joint role of the UK government with the US security
forces? How may this affect modes of repression from authoritarian states?