![handle is hein.journals/yejloillwo38 and id is 1 raw text is: The Yale Journal of International Law Online
Blurred Lines: An Argument for a More Robust Legal
Framework Governing the CIA Drone Program
Andrew Burtt & Alex Wagner*
I. INTRODUCTION
[Al Qaeda] does not follow a traditional command structure, wear
uniforms, carry its arms openly, or mass its troops at the borders of the nations it
attacks.
Those are the words of John Brennan, President Barack Obama's chief
counterterrorism advisor at a September 2011 speech outlining the Obama
administration's legal framework for its counterterrorism efforts.' Brennan's
speech underscored the widespread understanding that, due to its basic
organizational structure and failure to present itself formally as a recognizable
armed force, al Qaeda lacks the legitimacy to participate in armed conflict and is
not entitled to its concomitant privileges under international law.
The irony of Brennan's argument, however, is that many prominent
academics argue that the same case can be made about the status of the reportedly
civilian CIA employees who operate the armed, unmanned aerial drone
counterterrorism strikes against al Qaeda militants. In general, CIA employees
T Yale Law School, J.D. expected 2014.
1 Special Advisor for Rule of Law and Detainee Policy, Office of the Secretary of Defense, and
Adjunct Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center. All views expressed herein
are solely those of the authors and not those of the United States, the Office of the Secretary
of Defense, or the Department of Defense.
1. John O. Brennan, Strengthening Our Security by Adhering to Our Values and Laws, Remarks
at the Program on Law and Security, Harvard Law School (Sept. 16, 2001), available at
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/09/16/remarks-john-o-brennan-strengthening
-our-security-adhering-our-values-an.
2. See, e.g., Rise of the Drones II: Examining the Legality of Unarmed Targeting: Hearing
Before the Subcomm. on National Security and Foreign Affairs, 111th Cong. 6 (2010)
(statement of Mary Ellen O'Connell, Professor of Law, Univ. of Notre Dame), available at
http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2010_hr/042810oconnell.pdf [hereinafter Rise of the Drones
II] (Only members of the United States armed forces have the combatant's privilege to use
lethal force without facing prosecution. CIA operatives are not trained in the law of armed
conflict. They are not bound by the Uniform Code of Military Justice to respect the laws and
customs of war. They are not subject to the military chain of command.); Gary Solis, CIA
Drone Attacks Produce America's Own Unlawful Combatants, WASH. POST, Mar. 12, 2010,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/11/AR2010031103653.html.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/yejloillwo38&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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