Blog Post 3: Drone Policy Problem

This week it was reported that a United States citizen and suspected al-Qaida member abroad who was plotting threats against the U.S. was targeted for a drone attack by the CIA.  President Barack Obama's new policy on drone attacks is that only the military, and not the CIA, can attack suspected U.S. citizen terrorists overseas.  So the CIA can watch the suspect using drones in another country, but they cannot attack.  The Pentagon, on the other hand, which is a different department, can attack the suspect, but their drones are barred from the country, and the Justice Department, another separate department is not done developing a case against the same suspect that would authorize the Pentagon to attack.  Before President Obama's new drone policy, the CIA and the Pentagon were basically free to attack any suspected terrorist overseas whether U.S. citizen or not.  This shows the policy complications with drones and with collaborations among the different departments within the government.  

I found this article related to "Reconsidering Political Cynicism and Political Involvement: A Test of Antecedents," by Fu et al because this news article mentions the complications that President Obama's new drone policy causes within the government, which "reveals a feeling of distrust in politics, politicians, and governmental institutions by the public" (Strama, 1998).  Since the current drone policy reveals several jurisdiction issues politically, geographically, and within the government's own departments, it can make it difficult for the average person to keep up with this topic and ultimately confuse the person and discourage his/her trust in the government's structure.  On the other hand the article does clarify the jurisdiction issue so that the average person can get a grasp on the situation and by doing that, it may cause the reader to look into the drone policy and what other politicians think about it.