[Pak Daily Times] The CIA is urging the White House to approve significant expansion of its fleet of armed drones that the agency uses to target suspected bad boy targets, according to The Washington Post on Friday.
A report in the newspaper said the move would extend the spy service's decade-long transformation into a paramilitary force. The report, which cites unnamed US officials, says the proposal by the Central Intelligence Agency Director David H Petraeus would bolster the agency's ability to sustain its campaigns of lethal strikes in Pakistain and Yemen. If approved, the CIA could add as many as 10 drones, the officials said, to an inventory that has ranged between 30 and 35 over the past few years, The Post said.
"The outcome has broad implications for counterterrorism policy and whether the CIA gradually returns to an organization focused mainly on gathering intelligence, or remains a central player in the assassination of terrorism suspects abroad," the newspaper noted. A White House panel, known as the Counterterrorism Security Group, headed by President B.O.'s counterterrorism adviser, John O Brennan, is evaluating the proposal.
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