WEST POINT, N.Y. — President Obama says he will continue to “take direct action” by ordering drone strikes and capture operations against terror suspects “when necessary to protect ourselves.”
In a speech outlining a new foreign policy framework stressing cooperation with allies, the president said there still would be times when the U.S. must go it alone. He restated a policy he disclosed last May, however, that no drone strike should occur unless there is “a near certainty” that no civilians will be harmed.
That policy has contributed to a reduction in U.S. drone attacks and claims of civilian deaths. The CIA has acknowledged to Congress, though, that a child — the brother of a targeted militant — was killed in a drone strike in Yemen last June.