Secrets, Secrets are no fun, unless you share them with everyone.

• Report: US Special Forces Deployed in 75 Countries
• UN Rapporteur: Drones Attacks Undermine "International Accountability"

A senior United Nations official has unveiled a report calling on the Obama administration to halt or scale back CIA drone strikes on alleged militant suspects in Pakistan. In a briefing to the UN Human Rights Council, Philip Alston, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, stopped short of declaring the drone strikes in violation of international law. But Alston said the drone strikes are undermining the "principle of international accountability."
UN Rapporteur Philip Alston: "Because this program remains shrouded in official secrecy, the international community does not know when and where the CIA is authorized to kill, the criteria for individuals who may be killed, how it ensures killings are legal, and what follow-up there is when civilians are illegally killed. In a situation in which there is no disclosure of who has been killed, for what reason, and whether innocent civilians have died, the legal principle of international accountability is, by definition, comprehensively violated."





The Washington Post has revealed new details of the Obama administration’s expansion of covert military operations abroad. Special Operations forces are now deployed in seventy-five countries, compared to sixty at the start of last year. US commanders are said to be planning for increased operations in Somalia. Plans for military strikes in several regions have been developed in the event of attacks or the discovery of terror plots. Describing the changes under the Obama administration since President George W. Bush left office, an unnamed military official said, "They are talking publicly much less but they are acting more. They are willing to get aggressive much more quickly."