How to Generate Distrust on Drones President Obama says he wants greater transparency for the clandestine killing of terrorists overseas, largely using missiles fired by drones. There has been little public action on this pledge, but if he is serious, he should consider many of the recommendations made this week by a former legal adviser to the State Department, Harold Koh. Speaking at Oxford University on Tuesday, Mr. Koh said the legal standards and procedures of the killing program are far too secret, even to Congress and American allies. That has fostered a growing sense that the program is "illegal, unnecessary and out of control," he said. "The administration must take responsibility for this failure," he said. Its persistent and counterproductive lack of transparency has led to the release of necessary pieces of its public legal defense too little and too late. This is a significant rebuke from a lawyer who served through Mr. Obama's first term. It was Mr. Koh who assured the public in 2010 that the practices for choosing targets "are extremely robust." But neither he nor the administration ever formally explained those practices, and what safeguards protect the innocent. Who ensures that all methods short of assassination have been explored? Most urgent, what special checks are put in place when an American citizen is in the cross hairs? This week, Mr. Koh urged that all these questions be answered, and that the method for counting civilian casualties be clarified. If there is a dispute about a drone strike's justification, he said, the administration should release the factual record, showing why the threat was imminent and real, and explaining why the government of the affected country either consented to the strike or was unable to carry it out on its own. These are just the minimal standards the president should meet. We think Mr. Koh should have recommended judicial consent when a terror suspect - particularly an American citizen - is placed on a kill list, perhaps through a special secret court. Administration lawyers, in the same branch as drone pilots, are an insufficient assurance that domestic and international laws are followed. Mr. Koh, now a Yale law professor, pointed out that the "global war on terror" must have an end. Echoing Jeh Johnson, a former Pentagon counsel, he said Al Qaeda and its affiliates will eventually be defeated or diminished to the point where a state of war is not necessary. "Just because someone hates America or sympathizes with Al Qaeda does not make them our lawful enemy," he said. Last month, the Obama administration refused to send anyone to a Senate hearing on targeted killings, repeating a pattern verging on arrogance. A sincere move toward transparency cannot come soon enough.