The Assassination Complex

Inside the Government's Secret Drone Warfare Program

By: Jeremy Scahill, The Staff of The Intercept, Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill - introduction

Narrated by: George Newbern

“A searing, facts-driven indictment of America’s drone wars and their implications for US democracy and foreign policy. A must-read for concerned citizens” (Library Journal, starred review) from bestselling author Jeremy Scahill and his colleagues at the investigative website The Intercept.

Drones are a tool, not a policy. The policy is assassination. But drone strikes often kill people other than the intended target. These deaths, which have included women and children, dwarf the number of actual combatants who have been assassinated by drones. They have generated anger toward the United States among foreign populations and have even become a recruiting tool for jihadists.

The first drone strike outside a declared war zone was conducted more than twelve years ago, but it was not until May 2013 that the White House released a set of standards and procedures for conducting such strikes. However, there was no explanation of the internal process used to determine whether a suspect should be killed without being indicted or tried, even if that suspect is an American citizen. The implicit message of the Obama administration has been: Trust, but don’t verify.

The Assassination Complex reveals stunning details of the government’s secretive drone warfare program based on documents supplied by a confidential source in the intelligence community. These documents make it possible to begin the long-overdue debate about the policy of drone warfare and how it is conducted. The Assassination Complex allows us to understand at last the circumstances under which the US government grants itself the right to sentence individuals to death without the established checks and balances of arrest, trial, and appeal—“readers will be left in no doubt that drone warfare affronts morality and the Constitution” (Kirkus Reviews).

Very frightening book

A chilling look at what our country has become since 9/11 - and how much further into the sewer of totalitarianism we are now likely to go.

America, this is the cancer on your soul

Americans and others who wish to be informed on the abject failure of the war on terror and US Foreign Policy, extra judicial murder abroad, targeted assassinations and unlawful violations of 4th Amendment rights domestically, the book gives all the details on th unsustainable way the American intelligence apparatus is harming us all.

Excellent alternative to radio on long drives

I thought this review was optional but then it requires twenty words to submit, oh.

Drone Warfare

After reading this truly enlightening book, its blatantly apparent why we are losing our longest war, our country's assets and what few allies we had in the world. The President has been disingenuous with us and the Military Industrial Complex is leading us down the primrose path.

Powerful

It's a must-read for any person concerned with knowing the truth about American interventionism abroad.