By the time the approval is given the buildings, vehicles and fighting positions have been abandoned.

Via NY Times:

The Obama administration has disclosed its rules and procedures for targeting individuals for killing outside conventional war zones — including with drones — further lifting the secrecy surrounding one of its most disputed tactics for fighting terrorism.

The newly declassified document shows that if the top lawyers and leaders of the departments and agencies on the National Security Council agree that a proposed strike would be lawful and appropriate, the Pentagon or the Central Intelligence Agency can proceed.

If they disagree, or if the person to be targeted is an American citizen, the matter must go to the president for a decision.

President Obama issued the 18-page set of rules, sometimes called the drone strike “playbook” but formally known as the Presidential Policy Guidance, in May 2013. It was classified, although the administration publicly said it tightened standards for strikes — including requirements that targets must pose a threat to Americans and the “near certainty” that there would be no civilian deaths.

The government had said this year that it intended to make the guidance public as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union. It provided the document to the A.C.L.U. late Friday, and the organization posted it on its website Saturday morning.

“From one perspective it might be seen as reassuring, because it makes clear that these decisions are considered by many different senior people,” Jameel Jaffer of the A.C.L.U. said. “On the other hand, the document drives home how bureaucraticized, and therefore normalized, this practice of killing people away from conventional battlefields has become.”

Ned Price, a National Security Council spokesman, said in a statement Saturday, “The president has emphasized that the U.S. government should be as transparent as possible with the American people about our counterterrorism operations, the manner in which they are conducted and their results.”

He added, “Our counterterrorism actions are effective and legal, and their legitimacy is best demonstrated by making public more information about these actions as well as setting clear standards for other nations to follow.”[…]

The guidance shows that in the case of a capture, rather than the killing of a terror suspect, the administration generally prefers to let other countries handle detention. If that is unworkable, the United States will take custody and try to prosecute the suspect, it says, but adds, “In no event will additional detainees be brought to the detention facilities at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base.”

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