Obama shifts policy on global war on terror
In a major policy speech, Obama defended his administration’s drone war against al Qaeda and its allies but made clear he was narrowing the scope of targeted killings, a campaign that has faced growing condemnation at home and abroad.
“Our nation is still threatened by terrorists,” Obama said at Washington’s National Defence University. “We must recognise, however, that the threat has shifted and evolved from the one that came to our shores on 9/11.”
Obama said the US will only use drone strikes when a threat is “continuing and imminent”, a nuanced change from the previous policy of launching strikes against a significant threat.
The defence department will take the lead in launching lethal drones, as opposed to the current practice of the CIA taking charge.
That would subject drone operations to more scrutiny from Congress.
Renewing his longstanding vow to close the Guantanamo prison at the U.S. Naval Base in Cuba, Obama is to lift a moratorium on transferring detainees to Yemen, and appoint a State Department coordinator and work with Congress to break a deadlock over the detention camp where most prisoners have been held for more than a decade without trial.
He was interrupted for more than a minute by a heckler from the Code Pink movement, who berated him for not closing the prison.
