US Senator McCain seeks to end CIA control over drone strikes
US senator calls for military to take charge after two hostageskilled in Pakistan
US Senator John McCain is renewing his effort to end the CIA's control over US drone strikes after an attack on an al-Qaeda compound in Pakistan killed two hostages.
Now that drones have become "an integral part" of US military operations, it makes sense for such air strikes to be managed by the nation's armed services rather than by spy agencies, the Arizona Republican said on Sunday on CNN's show .
McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, acknowledged his bias in seeking to give the defence department greater control, adding that the military has "the capabilities and the equipment" that the Central Intelligence Agency lacks to conduct effective drone strikes.
The accidental killing of two hostages, one American and one Italian, in a January drone strike was disclosed last week. It may force Congress to revisit an issue that in the past had become a turf battle among lawmakers, with intelligence committees favouring the CIA and defence committees backing the Pentagon.
Tom Donilon, Obama's former national security adviser, defended operating the programme under the CIA when asked why it hasn't been transferred to the Pentagon for more congressional oversight.
"You have real congressional oversight over these operations," Donilon said on Sunday on NBC's programme. The protocol requiring "near certainty" that a strike won't injure civilians was followed, he said, though it "turned out to be inaccurate" in the latest case.
The CIA has conducted seven drone strikes in Pakistan this year, killing 33 to 45 people, according to information collected by the London-based Bureau for Investigative Journalism.
