Freedom of Information Act

     In a December 29, 2011 article in the LA Times, David S. Cloud writes on the topic of civilian contractors and their roles in U.S. drone operations. The article begins with an air strike in Afghanistan in 2010 that killed “at least” 15 people. According to Cloud, an Army officer investigating the incident was “surprised to discover” a civilian playing a key role in the analysis of the Predator drone video feeds. Cloud goes on to explain the contractors role in the “kill chain” that occurs before Hellfire missiles are launched and the increasing reliance of the Military on civilian contractors due to the immense amount of manpower involved in an unmanned operation. Kill chain, according to Jargondatabase.com is Air Force jargon that involves “target identification, force dispatch to target, decision and order to attack the target, and finally the destruction of the target.” The article states that approximately 168 people are needed to keep a Predator drone flying for 24hrs, the larger Global Hawk needs 300 people and, in contrast, the F-16 requires “fewer than 100 people per mission.” Cloud quotes a Maj. Gen. Timothy McHale from a transcript obtained through the Freedom of Information Act(FOIA), “What company do you work for?” after discovering the contractor was not in the military.



     This marks the only time the FOIA is mentioned in this article. From the amount of publicly available information in this article, this single statement does very little to help the reader understand the article. The article is well researched and well written with one exception. The article is heavily front loaded with information about government contractors and the amount of money these private companies make. Also, the legality of allowing civilian personnel to “communicate targeting information directly to pilots” was brought into question. It is only at the very end of the article that we return to the incident that we opened with and it is explained that this contractor stated there appeared to be children or adolescents on these vehicles, the vehicles had turned away from the Americans location and that the threat may already be nullified. Furthermore, it is finally stated that the contractor is an analyst only, working in conjunction with military personnel and in no way has any say on whether or not to fire on a target.

     The quality of reporting has slipped considerably in the past few years, due to many factors.  And people wonder why we get our news from biased pundits and Comedy Central.