Gates defends drone strikes

Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates is defending the use of military drones, but said there's “merit” in restricting a president’s power to use them to strike Americans.

After calling himself “a big advocate of drones,” Gates said in an interview aired Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that they serve a substantial military reconnaissance purpose.

But when asked about the president having unchecked authority to authorize drone strikes on American citizens, Gates, who served under both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, suggested there could be a system in place like the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which requires a president to receive judicial approval before tapping electronic or phone communications.

“Something similar, whether it's a panel of three judges or one judge or some – something that would give the American people confidence that there was, in fact, a compelling case to be – to launch an attack against an American citizen," Gates said, "I think just as an independent confirmation or affirmation, if you will, is something worth giving serious consideration to.”

Gates said the Obama administration has not abused the practice, but warned the same could not be promised for future presidents.

“The practices that the Obama administration has followed are quite stringent and are not being abused. But who is to say about a future president?” Gates said. “I think this idea of being able to execute, in effect, an American citizen, no matter how awful, having some third party being – having a – having a say in it or perhaps some – informing the Congress or the intelligence committees or something like that, I just – I think some check on the ability of the president to do this has merit, as we look to the longer term future.”