by Greg Miller
Over the past two years, the Obama administration has been secretly
developing a new blueprint for pursuing terrorists, a next-generation
targeting list called the "disposition matrix."
The matrix contains the names of terrorism suspects arrayed against an
accounting of the resources being marshaled to track them down, including
sealed indictments and clandestine operations. U.S. officials said the
database is designed to go beyond existing kill lists, mapping plans for the
"disposition" of suspects beyond the reach of American drones.
Although the matrix is a work in progress, the effort to create it reflects
a reality setting in among the nation's counterterrorism ranks: The United
States' conventional wars are winding down, but the government expects to
continue adding names to kill or capture lists for years. . . .
The United States now operates multiple drone programs, including
acknowledged U.S. military patrols over conflict zones in Afghanistan and
Libya, and classified CIA surveillance flights over Iran.
Strikes against al-Qaeda, however, are carried out under secret lethal
programs involving the CIA and JSOC. The matrix was developed by the NCTC,
under former director Michael Leiter, to augment those organizations'
separate but overlapping kill lists, officials said.
The result is a single, continually evolving database in which biographies,
locations, known associates and affiliated organizations are all catalogued.
So are strategies for taking targets down, including extradition requests,
capture operations and drone patrols. . . .
FULL TEXT
Realpolitik and Terrorism
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[As combatants, drone operators are targetable at any time.--Aroop Mukharji, "Drone Operators: Soldiers or
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[Chabelley Airfield allows U.S. drones to cover Yemen, southwest Saudi Arabia, a
large swath of Somalia, and parts of Ethiopia and southern Egypt.--Nick Turse, "THE STEALTH EXPANSION OF A SECRET U.S. DRONE BASE IN
AFRICA," theintercept.com, October 21, 2015]
Philip Giraldi, "Obama Legitimizes the Drone Wars," theamericanconservative.com, June 3, 2016