Secret bases, targeted killings, leaked memos and elaborate cover-ups – the latest developments in an ongoing controversy involving the Obama administration and CIA with a question at its core that has been asked for generations: “How far are we willing to go to protect the citizens of the United States?”

President Obama and intelligence leaders have quietly skirted this issue for years. Unsurprisingly however, the President has recently come under fire for the government’s use of remotely controlled aircraft, known as drones, in lethal overseas military operations targeting individuals and possibly even American citizens. Despite vehement calls for disclosure from organizations such as the ACLU, the lips of the White House and the CIA are sealed, as expected. But they’re not alone. It was revealed on Friday that not only has the United States been launching drone strikes from a secret base in Saudi Arabia, but that the New York Times and Washington Post had agreed with the CIA not to report on the unsavory information.

This comes on top of alarming news that a leaked document from the Department of Justice elaborated on the legal justification for assassinating U.S. citizens abroad who were part of al-Qa’ida leadership or an associated organization. Perhaps the most chilling detail is the general vagueness of the document. One line reads, “Were the target of a lethal operation a US citizen who may have rights under the Due Process Clause and the Fourth Amendment, that individual’s citizenship would not immunize him from a lethal operation.”

The response to it all seems simple, right? If you’re paling around with al-Qa’ida and plotting to kill Americans, it is generally assumed that you’re uninterested in whatever rights and civil liberties this country provides you. Don’t be surprised if the CIA comes knocking on your door late in the night ‒ but that’s beyond the point. The real issue is transparency, of which there is very little.

Secrets have a nasty habit of coming to light when it’s least expected, as was the case earlier this month, when the Open Society Foundations released its report “Globalizing Torture,” detailing the CIA’s use of secret prisons and a practice known as "extraordinary rendition" during the Bush era. The report names 54 governments that participated, and 136 prisoners. How was this allowed to happen? Because the public was kept in the dark, and history has that funny habit of repeating itself.

It is much harder to commit war crimes and violate civil liberties when everyone is watching. It becomes much easier to do so when there is no transparency and lots of secrets. The Obama administration and the CIA must give full disclosure about exactly what the United States is doing with drones in the Middle East, especially involving the targeting of our own citizens. "How far are we willing to go?" is a question best answered by we, not an individual or agency.

 

Reach Contributor Christopher Robinson here; follow him here.