Congress has moved to block President Obama’s plan to shift control of the U.S. drone campaign from the CIA to the Defense Department, inserting a secret provision in the massive government spending bill introduced this week that would preserve the spy agency’s role in lethal counterterrorism operations, U.S. officials said. 
 
 The measure, included in a classified annex to the $1.1 trillion federal budget plan, would restrict the use of any funding to transfer unmanned aircraft or the authority to carry out drone strikes from the CIA to the Pentagon, officials said. 
 
 The provision represents an unusually direct intervention by lawmakers into the way covert operations are run, impeding an administration plan aimed at returning the CIA’s focus to traditional intelligence gathering and possibly bringing more transparency to drone strikes. 
 
 The move also reflects some lawmakers’ lingering doubts about the U.S. military’s ability to conduct strikes against al-Qaeda and its regional affiliates without hitting the wrong targets and killing civilians. 
 
 Those apprehensions were amplified after a U.S. military strike in Yemen last month killed a dozen people, including as many as six civilians, in an 11-vehicle convoy that tribal leaders said was part of a wedding procession. U.S. officials said that the strike was aimed at a senior al-Qaeda operative but that reviews of the operation have raised concern that it failed to comply with White House guidelines requiring “near certainty” that no civilians would be harmed. 
 
 Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) read from a Washington Post story on the Senate floor Thursday, slamming the Senate and House Appropriations committee for amending a spending bill so that it would affect policy with regard to drones. (The Associated Press) 
 
 On Wednesday, there were reports that another U.S. strike had killed a farmer in Yemen. 
 
 The extent of the restrictions contained in the drone provision remained unclear. The measure was included by members of the House and Senate appropriations committees, said officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly on the legislation. Other senior lawmakers and congressional officials declined to comment on the contents of the classified annex, which details funding for U.S. spy agencies. 
 
 Still, senior lawmakers have been vocal in expressing concern about the prospect of the CIA ceding responsibility for drone strikes to the military. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a member of the Appropriations Committee, said last year that she had seen the CIA “exercise patience and discretion specifically to prevent collateral damage” and that she “would really have to be convinced that the military would carry it out that well.” 
 
 Feinstein declined to comment on the budget measure this week. But a senior aide said that the senator “stands by her earlier statements” and that the Intelligence Committee has “recently reviewed this issue, and Senator Feinstein believes her views are widely shared on the committee.” 
 
 Asked about the scope of that review, the aide said the panel “took stock of” the program and “came to a conclusion” but would not elaborate. 
 
 Among Feinstein’s colleagues on the Intelligence Committee is Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), who is chairman of the appropriations panel responsible for the budget bill. A spokesman for that committee declined to comment. 
 
 There is no mention of the drone provision in the hundreds of pages of the budget blueprint released to the public. A section outlining $572 billion in Pentagon spending notes that “adjustments to classified programs are addressed in the accompanying classified annex.” 
 
 The Houes voted to adopt the $1.1-trillion measure that funds the government through the fiscal year. (The Associated Press) 
 
 A person familiar with the omnibus bill confirmed that the annex includes language on the drone program but would say only that the provision is more complicated than merely withholding money to prevent drone operations from being transferred to the Pentagon. 
 
 Former U.S. officials familiar with the intelligence appropriations process said that aside from placing restrictions on funding, Congress could create other obstacles — for example, requiring the Pentagon to certify that it has matched the CIA’s capabilities and targeting methodology before it is allowed to proceed. 
 
 Spokespeople for the White House, the CIA and the Pentagon declined to comment. 
 
 The spending bill sets budgets for agencies across the federal government for the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30. The measure cleared the House late Wednesday. It is expected to be approved by the Senate this week and delivered to President Obama for his signature as soon as Saturday. 
 
 The move by Congress carries implications for the course of the U.S. efforts against al-Qaeda at a time when its affiliates in Yemen, Somalia, Iraq and Syria have become more worrisome to American counterterrorism officials than the terrorist organization’s traditional core. 
 
 Also at issue is the fundamental mission of the CIA, which during the past decade has morphed into a paramilitary force. Senior officials, including CIA Director John O. Brennan, have warned that the agency’s emphasis on lethal operations deviates from its traditional mission and could impair its ability to focus on gathering intelligence. 
 
 The administration first signaled its intent to shift control of drone operations to the Pentagon last year, when Obama announced new guidelines for counterterrorism missions — including a pledge of greater transparency — during a speech at the National Defense University. At the time, administration officials briefing reporters said there would be “a preference for the Department of Defense to engage in the use of force outside war zones.” 
 
 The remark was a reference to Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia — countries beyond the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan, where the United States has carried out drone strikes against al-Qaeda targets. 
 
 Obama’s policy shift was expected to mainly affect Yemen, where the CIA and the elite U.S. Joint Special Operations Command conduct overlapping drone campaigns. 
 
 The overall pace of strikes has diminished significantly in Pakistan and Yemen, and Brennan has held secret meetings with Pentagon officials in recent months to work out logistical challenges and other impediments to shifting control of drone operations. 
 
 But the CIA still carries out the majority of strikes, and the collateral damage that has accompanied some JSOC strikes has generated growing opposition to removing the agency from such operations anytime soon. 
 
 The Pentagon has refused to release any details on the Dec. 12 strike carried out by JSOC in Radaa, a district that has become a stronghold for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP. Yemen initially insisted that only militants had been killed, but it later acknowledged civilian casualties. 
 
 The government then delivered rifles and other compensation to victims’ families — payments that a Yemeni official described as a “deposit” to encourage clan leaders to take part in tribal mediation and accept further compensation rather than seek retaliation against the Sanaa government. 
 
 “There was a [legitimate] target, and then something happened, a misfire,” the Yemeni official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the secrecy surrounding U.S. strikes. “I’ve never been aware of any incident before where a strike targeted such a large convoy of vehicles.” 
 
 AQAP is responsible for near-miss attacks on the United States, including the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day in 2009. The terrorist group has been driven out of territory it had gained over the past two years but is still considered by U.S. officials to pose a serious threat to the United States. 
 
 In a meeting with U.S., European and Middle Eastern diplomats last week, Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi described the security situation as unstable and warned specifically of indications that potential al-Qaeda recruits from European and other Western nations were seeking to enter the country, according to U.S. and Yemeni officials. 
 
 Lori Montgomery and Ed O’Keefe contributed to this report. ||||| NEW YORK - A Yemeni civilian who lost two innocent relatives to a 2012 covert drone strike has written to President Obama to ask for an apology – in return for which he will drop a court case, due to be heard in Washington DC tomorrow. 
 
 Faisal bin ali Jaber lost his brother in law – a preacher who campaigned against Al Qaeda – and his nephew, a local policeman, in an August 29, 2012 strike on the village of Kashamir in Yemen. 
 
 Mr Jaber – an environmental engineer – will tomorrow (Tuesday) travel to Washington DC to attend what will be the first ever US appellate court hearing in a case brought by a civilian victim of the covert drone program. 
 
 However, Mr Jaber has written to the President to inform him that he will “happily drop the case in exchange for an apology,” and acknowledgment that his brother in law Salem and nephew Waleed “were innocents, not terrorists.” 
 
 Mr Jaber met members of Congress and Obama Administration officials in 2013, but did not receive either an explanation or apology for the strike which killed his relatives. In 2014, his family was offered $100,000 in US dollar bills in a meeting with the Yemeni National Security Bureau (NSB) – during which the Yemeni Government official informed them that the money came from the US and he had been asked to pass it along. Again, there was no acknowledgement or apology from the US. 
 
 In his letter sent this weekend to the President, Mr Jaber points out that “true accountability comes from owning up to our mistakes.” He asks Mr Obama to set a precedent for his successors by acknowledging the error that killed his relatives, apologizing, and disclosing details of the operation that killed them so that lessons can be learned. Mr Jaber also requests that before leaving office, President Obama release more detailed information on civilian casualties from drone strikes, including the names of who was counted and who was not. 
 
 Commenting, Jennifer Gibson, staff attorney at international human rights organization Reprieve, which is assisting Mr Jaber said: 
 
 “President Obama is right to be worried about what a Trump Administration might do with his secret drone program. But if he is serious about bringing it out of the shadows, he must stop fighting against accountability. He must own up to the hundreds of civilians that even the most conservative estimates say the program has killed, and apologize to those that have lost their loved ones. 
 
 “Faisal’s relatives took great risks speaking out against Al Qaeda, and trying to keep their community safe. Yet they were killed by an out of control drone program which made appalling errors and did more harm than good. Instead of fighting Faisal in court, President Obama should simply apologize, admit his mistake, and devote the rest of his time in office to building true accountability into a program hidden in the shadows for too long.” 
 
 ### ||||| The Obama administration acknowledged Wednesday that it has killed four Americans in overseas counterterrorism operations since 2009, the first time it has publicly taken responsibility for the deaths. 
 
 Although the acknowledgment, contained in a letter from Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to Congress, does not say how the four were killed, three are known to have died in CIA drone strikes in Yemen in 2011: Anwar al-Awlaki, his 16-year-old son and Samir Khan. 
 
 The fourth — Jude Kennan Mohammad, a Florida native indicted in North Carolina in 2009 — was killed in Pakistan, where the CIA has operated a drone campaign against terrorism suspects for nearly a decade. His death was previously unreported. 
 
 Holder’s letter came the day before President Obama is due to deliver a major speech designed to fulfill a promise in his State of the Union address in January to make elements of his controversial counterterrorism policies more transparent and accountable to Congress and the American public. 
 
 Obama is also under pressure to explain how he intends to make even modest progress on other priorities that were centerpieces of a pledge he made at the beginning of his first term. At the top of that list is closing the Guantanamo Bay prison, where 103 of the 166 detainees still in custody are on a hunger strike. 
 
 The administration is planning to restart the transfer of the detainees, 86 of whom have been cleared to leave. A White House official said without elaboration that Obama “will announce a number of specific steps to advance” his goal of closing the facility. 
 
 In addition to disclosure of the four killings, Holder wrote that Obama has approved classified briefings for Congress on an overall policy document, informally called the “playbook.” The document, more than a year in the making, codifies the administration’s standards and processes for its unprecedented program of targeted killing and capture of terrorism suspects outside of war zones. 
 
 Nearly 400 drone strikes, in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, have been launched by the CIA and U.S. military forces during Obama’s presidency. Although the administration has acknowledged the existence of the drone program and outlined its justification under international and domestic law, specific operations are considered classified. 
 
 The secrecy surrounding the program — including the criteria for choosing targets — has led to widespread opposition from international law and human rights advocates and, increasingly, from Congress and the public. Although the administration has stressed the precision accuracy of drones, independent groups have charged that thousands of civilians have been unintentionally killed. 
 
 Congressional and public criticism reached a crescendo this year when Obama nominated John Brennan, then his principal counter­terrorism adviser, as CIA director. Before they would confirm Brennan, lawmakers demanded access to Justice Department legal opinions justifying the killing of U.S. citizens overseas without due process or other constitutional protections. Although the documents were made available to the Senate and House intelligence committees, other members insisted that they had a right to the information. 
 
 One of them was Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), who threatened last month to subpoena the administration for the opinions. After that threat, Leahy said in an interview, the documents were produced for the committee in a classified meeting. 
 
 Leahy said Wednesday afternoon that Holder called him to say he would receive a letter with information about the four killings and to tell him about upcoming briefings on the classified playbook. Although Holder’s letter was addressed to Leahy, it was copied to the rest of the Judiciary Committee. 
 
 “I think it’s a significant effort at openness,” Leahy said. He said he also received a call from the White House inviting him to Obama’s Thursday speech at the National Defense University at Fort McNair. 
 
 Others were less certain that critics would be satisfied. 
 
 “The desire to put this on a normal, rule-of-law footing keeps clashing with the imperatives of national security, which entail extreme institutional secrecy,” said Jack Goldsmith, former director of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. “That clash has been going on since the first day of the administration.” 
 
 Prior to the Obama administration, the only known American killed by a drone strike was Kamal Derwish, who died in a strike launched in Yemen in 2002 under President George W. Bush. 
 
 In September 2011, Obama announced the death of Awlaki, a New Mexico-born cleric described as the foreign operations director for Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, known as AQAP. Although Obama did not claim U.S. responsibility, the fact that Awlaki was killed by a CIA drone was one of the worst-kept secrets in Washington. 
 
 According to Holder’s letter, Awlaki was the only U.S. citizen the administration “has specifically targeted and killed.” Khan, who edited an AQAP online magazine that provided bomb-building instructions allegedly used to carry out the Boston Marathon attack, was not targeted but was at Awlaki’s side and killed in the same strike. 
 
 Two weeks after Awlaki’s death, his 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman — who had gone to the Yemeni desert in search of his father — was killed in a drone strike meant for someone else. That strike was similarly un­acknowledged, although a senior administration official privately characterized it as a “mistake.” 
 
 The fourth American death, Jude Kennan Mohammad, was previously unreported. According to an information sheet released by the Justice Department, the former North Carolina resident was charged in 2009 with conspiracy “to provide material support to terrorists, including currency, training, transportation and personnel” and “to murder, kidnap, maim and injure persons abroad.” 
 
 Mohammad had fled the United States for Pakistan in the fall of 2008. According to Pakistan news accounts, the 20-year-old Mohammad, whose father was Pakistani, was detained by authorities when he tried to enter a tribal region near the Afghan border but was later released. 
 
 Mohammad’s mother, Elena Mohammad, said in a telephone interview that she was aware that her son had been killed in a drone strike but that she got the news from people in Pakistan, not U.S. authorities. She said she had no details on when and where her son was killed. 
 
 “I dealt with that, and I don’t have to deal with it anymore because it’s already over with,” she said. “So whatever transpired I don’t want it back in my life anymore. It’s gone. There are no questions. I don’t have to hear any authorities; the FBI has finished coming to my house. It’s over. That’s it.” 
 
 In regard to Guantanamo, the large Yemeni population there — at least 84 of the 166 detainees — could be one area where Obama chooses to act. After the failed attempt to bomb a commercial plane over Detroit on Dec. 25, 2009, a plot that was linked to Awlaki and AQAP, the president suspended all transfers of detainees to Yemen. 
 
 The government of Yemen and human rights groups have urged Obama to lift the moratorium and begin the staggered repatriation of some of these detainees. Of the Yemenis held at the military detention center in Cuba, 26 have been cleared for transfer and 30 others could be sent home if security conditions in the country improved, according to U.S. officials 
 
 Yemen President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi recently set up a detainee affairs committee made up of cabinet ministers and officials in the defense, intelligence and internal security agencies to manage any return and work with the United States to create and implement a resettlement plan, according to Mohammed Albasha, a spokesman for Yemen’s Embassy in Washington. 
 
 An additional 30 detainees of various nationalities were also cleared for transfer by an inter­agency task force in the first year of Obama’s first term but remain at the facility. 
 
 Greg Miller and Julie Tate contributed to this report.
– Congress' $1.1 trillion spending bill contains a secret provision torpedoing President Obama's plans to pass the drone program from the CIA to the Pentagon. In a classified annex, the bill specifically prohibits any funds being used to facilitate such a transfer, the Washington Post reports. Obama wants to shift the CIA from its paramilitary footing back to an intelligence one, and perhaps bring greater transparency to the drone program. But lawmakers don't trust the military with the keys. One source said the provision was more complicated than simply withholding money for the switch, and former officials said it could contain language forcing the military to demonstrate its targeting procedures were up to CIA standards. Intelligence Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein last year said she'd "really have to be convinced" that the military could exercise as much "patience and discretion" as the CIA in avoiding civilian casualties, statements she says she stands behind. The military didn't help its case last month either by hitting a wedding party in Yemen; in an op-ed yesterday, Yemen's minister for human rights said that strike had sent a "wave of outrage" across the country. Yesterday also saw a drone strike kill a Yemeni farmer.