Statement on Biden’s Review of Lethal Strikes Abroad, Including Drone Strikes

NEW YORK — Reporting indicates that the Biden administration is reviewing the U.S. program of lethal strikes abroad and has issued temporary guidance imposing some limits.

Hina Shamsi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Security Project, said:

“President Biden promised to end forever wars, but tinkering with the bureaucracy of this extrajudicial killing program will only entrench American abuses. In the name of counterterrorism, U.S. presidents have for two decades authorized unlawful, secretive, and unaccountable killing abroad. This lethal program violates domestic and international law and has caused years of devastating harm to people in the majority-Muslim countries on the receiving end of American power. It must end.”