Speaking today in Ethiopia, Secretary of State John Kerry hyped the ongoing US drone strike program, declaring it an overwhelming success which had only been used to kill terrorist leaders.

“I am convinced we have one of the strictest, most accountable and fairest programs,” insisted Kerry, adding that the US had never fired a missile when civilians were nearby, despite well-documented confirmations of large numbers of civilian deaths in the program, and only a handful of the thousands of slain Pakistanis ever identified by name.

Kerry went on to confirm the recent lull in drone attacks in Pakistan, which analysts have chalked up to the Pakistani elections being held this month. Kerry claimed that to the contrary the lower number of attacks just proved how successful the strikes had been, and that essentially the US had killed so many “al-Qaeda in Pakistan” that there just weren’t many potential targets left.

The Obama Administration has made a point of promising a more well-defined aerial assassination program in the future, but analysts have noted that President Obama’s recent remarks suggest he may just be formalizing a broader use of the tactic by declaring that 9/11 justifies attacks on a large number of targets across the entire planet.