Well, sort of. I wonder how the Bush-and-Cheney-hating crowd will react to the former vice president’s comments in the latest Bloomberg Businessweek about the 44th president’s drone program.
[John] Brennan discussed drones at his confirmation hearing, which some see as a continuation of Bush policies. How do you see it?
Well, I like the drone program. When we came in we had the drones as intelligence platforms. They were unarmed. It was about the time of 9/11, or shortly before that, that we began to arm the drones. I think it’s a good program. And I don’t disagree with the basic policy that the Obama administration has pursued. I’d put a caveat on there. I don’t think they have the capacity at this point to capture al-Qaeda individuals and develop them as intelligence sources. My impression is, they’re using the drones as aggressively as they do because they’ve given up the capacity to capture and interrogate high-value detainees.
