The admission by the US that a drone strike on an Al Qaeda compound in Pakistan in January inadvertently caused the deaths of two hostages – an American and an Italian – has thrown fresh scrutiny on the long-standing program of remote killing.

President Obama apologized and said he took “full responsibility” for counterterrorism operations.

(CNN)

Scott Shane writes at The New York Times that the incident “reveals an uncomfortable truth – the US is often unsure about who will die.”

By most accounts, hundreds of dangerous militants have, indeed, been killed by drones, including some high-ranking Qaeda figures. But for six years, when the heavy cloak of secrecy has occasionally been breached, the results of some strikes have often turned out to be deeply troubling.

Every independent investigation of the strikes has found far more civilian casualties than administration officials admit. Gradually, it has become clear that when operators in Nevada fire missiles into remote tribal territories on the other side of the world, they often do not know who they are killing, but are making an imperfect best guess.

The Wall Street Journal walks through a Q&A on the drone program and reports that the “intelligence that underpinned the drone strike turned out to have been tragically incomplete.”

Five Thirty Eight writes that while the President’s apology “was highly unusual…the death of civilians in U.S.-led drone strikes is not” and says that “it’s hard to know how many casualties may be missing” from data on such deaths.

Congressional reaction across both parties was one of regret that innocent people were killed, but, the National Journal writes, it would seem “drone strikes are here to stay.”

On Capitol Hill, the incident has brought into sharp focus the unintended consequences and risks associated with the president’s drone program—a cornerstone of his counterterrorism strategy in the Middle East.

Yet, the same Congress that spent years reviewing and chronicling the enhanced-interrogation techniques administered under the Bush administration does not appear to be moved to overhaul the lethal drone program over Thursday’s revelations. Nor, do they seem to think the program is fundamentally flawed in a major way.

While Politico reports that hawkish Republicans “remain staunchly committed” to the drone program, many GOP Presidential hopefuls were restrained in their response. The Wall Street Journal reports:

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who has called for limits on drone use and staged a 13-hour filibuster two years ago protesting drone policy, offered a brief statement on the hostages’ deaths. “It is a tragedy that these hostages lost their lives,” he said. “My prayers and thoughts are with their families.”

Meanwhile, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who joined Mr. Paul’s filibuster and is now running against him for the Republican presidential nod, put the blame for the hostages’ death squarely on the militants holding them.

“Today we received another reminder that radical Islamic terrorism remains a deadly threat to our nation,” Mr. Cruz said.

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* WORLD * Thursday’s emergency summit of EU leaders agreed to triple spending on search-and-rescue operations in the Mediterranean in an effort to curb the shipwreck deaths of migrants fleeing Africa and the Middle East. But as the BBC‘s Chris Morris writes:

Even if naval operations manage to rescue the vast majority, there are bitter disputes about how to deal with the tens of thousands who make it to safety. Britain for example has said it will provide significant naval support, but it won’t accept more asylum seekers.

Some people in southern Europe say that’s not enough. The burden has to be more equitably shared. But there is no common asylum and immigration policy within the EU. Different countries have very different priorities.

It will take years to get the balance right. This summit is only the start.

 

In Vienna, diplomats from the US, the EU and Iran are pressing on towards a final draft of a  nuclear deal, as the June 30 deadline approaches. US Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif could meet next week in New York during the UN conference on the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

EU ministers said there would be “no deal” struck on Greece‘s debt arrangements on Friday. German Chancellor Angela Merkel held a “constructive” meeting with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Thursday and said  “everything must be undertaken” to prevent Greece running out of money before reaching a reform deal with creditors. But The Economist explains why a Greek exit from the Euro “may soon become inevitable.”

Unless Syriza suddenly capitulates—and a meeting of euro-zone finance ministers on April 24th is one of its last chances to do so—Greece will fail to pay its creditors. If that happens, its exit from the euro will be just a step away.

 

Friday and Saturday will see ceremonies in Turkey marking the 100th anniversary of the battle of Gallipoli, “arguably the most ill-conceived, poorly led and, ultimately, senseless campaign of the first world war,” according to Jon Henley in The Guardian. He says there have been accusations

..that Ankara deliberately brought the Gallipoli centenary commemorations forward to deflect attention from the 100th anniversary – also on 24 April – of the Ottoman massacre of between 1 million and 1.5 million Armenians, which Turkey has always refused to acknowledge as genocide.

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* POLITICS *

After a lengthy journey in the Senate, Loretta Lynch was finally confirmed as Attorney General, a day after her father’s 83rd birthday. ABC News in Raleigh, NC reports:

Reverend Lorenzo Lynch carried a young Loretta Lynch on his shoulders through churches and the civil rights movement of her youth.
On Wednesday, the Durham pastor turned 83, and got the call to head to the nation’s capital, and watch his daughter make history.
Even after she’d experienced the longest confirmation wait of any U.S. Attorney General, Lynch believed in his daughter.
“I never had any doubts that my daughter was qualified. I never had any doubts that my daughter should be nominated, but I wasn’t sure of the technicalities or the slip-ups, or the things beyond her control,” the elder Lynch said Thursday.

 

With further stories emerging about the finances of the Clinton Foundation and their possible effect on Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, the author of Clinton Cash is reportedly working on a similar investigation of Jeb Bush’s finances that he hopes to publish in the summer, according to Bloomberg.

In a column for New York magazine, Jonathan Chait analyzes the “disastrous Clinton post-presidency,” writing that

The best-case scenario is bad enough: The Clintons have been disorganized and greedy. The news today about the Clintons all fleshes out, in one way or another, their lack of interest in policing serious conflict-of-interest problems that arise in their overlapping roles.

Dylan Byers writes at Politico that Hillary’s dismissal of the book is now “dead in the water,” while a New York Times editorial says the “problem is not going away.” 

The candidate’s Congressional difficulties also seem to show no sign of easing anytime soon.

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* BRITISH ELECTION * Following the recent furore over Wikipedia edits and so-called “sock-puppetry” The Drum’s election podcast looks at politicians’ relationship to the online oracle, as well as whether personal attacks are having the desired effect.

Meanwhile, there’s an interesting post by Peter Jukes on the declining influence of print newspapers in the campaign.

More acutely, the industrial model of newsprint – press a lever and millions of copies of your ideas and arguments arrive on doorsteps –  is fast fading. To communicate your views in the peer to peer world of Twitter or Facebook, you have to be able to defend them, cajole, persuade and amuse assailants and interlocutors.

 

The BBC looks at the likely influence of potential voters who weren’t born in the UK.

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* BUSINESS * Comcast could announce on Friday that it is abandoning its $45billion merger with Time Warner Cable after chasing the deal for more than a year. Bloomberg reports that 

The decision marks a swift unraveling of a deal that awaited federal approval for more than a year. Opposition from the U.S. Justice Department and Federal Communications Commission took shape over the past week, leaving officials of the two companies to conclude the deal wouldn’t pass muster.

Deutsche Bank is to pay a record $2.5billion in penalties to settle a case involving accusations of interest rate manipulation. Deutsche Welle writes that “many questions remain unanswered and a raft of other problems facing the bank still simmer.”

HSBC bosses are gearing up for a “testing” shareholder meeting on Friday. The FT writes: “Interviews by the Financial Times with six of the top 20 shareholders at HSBC found that while there is widespread support for the top two executives, some feel the bank needs more radical action after a string of scandals and missed financial targets.”

(Financial Times)

 

Apple Watch. Want one?

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* SPORTS * Every ticket for the May 2nd fight in Las Vegas between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao sold out within sixty seconds. Yahoo Sports’ Jay Hart looks at how the secondary market is shaping up, while Kevin Iole reports on the last minute deal among the fight’s promoters, and how Senate minority leader Harry Reid got involved.