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SKY’S THE LIMIT

CIA Gets New Africa Drone Base for Expanded Strikes

Obama-era restraints on drone ops have been reversed.

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TOBIAS SCHWARZ/Getty AFP

A secretive CIA drone-strike program that was curtailed by President Obama is now expanding again under President Trump. The New York Times reports of a growing CIA-operated drone base in Dirkou, Niger, which it says is to be used for operations against militants in nearby southern Libya, an area known as a hotbed of extremist groups. The U.S. policy that sought to limit the ability of the CIA to conduct drone operations, including lethal strikes, was changed last year, the Times says, after lobbying by now-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was the CIA director at the time.

Read it at The New York Times

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