Last edited Sat Feb 9, 2013, 02:26 PM - Edit history (1)

http://www.usatoday.com/story/theoval/2013/02/07/obama-brennan-drone-strikes-justice-department-memo/1898009/
The White House is looking to help out CIA nominee John Brennan by showing lawmakers classified information on drone strikes against Americans working with alleged al Qaeda terrorists overseas.

President Obama has directed the Justice Department to provide the Senate and House intelligence committees with Office of Legal Counsel advice related to the administration's drone policy.

The release comes hours before the Senate Intelligence Committee holds confirmation hearings Thursday for Brennan, whom Obama has nominated for CIA director.

Brennan, the White House counter-terrorism adviser the past four years, has helped manage the drone program, and news about strikes has dominated the run-up to his hearing.

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hoo boy!

Predator Drones Stalk US Borders Without Budget or Strategy
Like the government's highly controversial foreign program of hunter-killer drones, it is becoming apparent that the DHS drone operations also deserve urgent public and congressional scrutiny. But not so much because national or international laws are being violated, US citizens targeted, or anyone is being hunted down and killed by these drones - at least thus far. Mostly the DHS drone program needs to be subjected to full transparency and accountability because it's been such a bust - an enormous waste of money.

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CBP boasted in December 20111 that drone operations contributed to 7,500 apprehensions of illegal border crossers and 46,600 pounds of marijuana.

The 7,500 "criminal aliens" that the Border Patrol detained are small potatoes when compared to CBP's overall number of detentions since 2005 - 5.7 million immigrants, including the 327,000 detained in 2011. Expressed as a percentage, this amounts to only .001 percent of those detained during that period.

While categorized by CBP as "dangerous people" because they have crossed the border illegally, mostly they are simply unauthorized immigrants, although a small number are marijuana backpackers.

To give some perspective to the drug haul attributed to UAV surveillance over six years - 46,600 pounds of marijuana - CBP on average seizes 3,500 pounds of marijuana every day in Arizona, making a seizure every 1.7 hours. Drones had a role in the seizure of less than one percent of the Border Patrol's total marijuana in the past six years - only .003 percent to be precise.

http://truth-out.org/news/item/14239-predator-drones-stalk-us-borders-without-budget-or-strategy