New York Times National Security Correspondent and Pulitzer-Prize winner Mark Mazzetti discusses how the increased use of drone strikes, following 9/11, have contributed to the rise of “secret wars”—conflicts the American public knows very little about in terms of causes or consequences.
“Congress has, for the most part, allowed two successive presidents-- one republican, one democrat-- to use this executive authority to carry out this secret war. And have demanded very little by way of real actual oversight and certainly not public accountability.”
Mazzetti, author of “The Way of the Knife: The CIA, a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth,” also talks about the tendency of the Obama administration to be less than forthright when discussing civilian casualties resulting from U.S. drone strikes abroad.
“They’ve had, in recent years to correct the record in a way where they once said zero civilians have been killed during this period of time,” said Mazzetti.
Watch the entire PRESS Pass interview above to hear more about the secrecy around drone strikes and how it has defined the United States terms of engagement in the Middle East over the last decade.