1 WASHINGTON - Under pressure from Congress and international allies, President Barack Obama announced a change in what has been a central piece of his counterterrorism strategy, saying he would place new restrictions on the targeting of terrorists with missiles fired from drones.
2 In a speech that takes stock of America's long battle with al-Qaida, the president said he would continue ordering lethal drone strikes to stop potential terror attacks because the relative precision of drone warfare is preferable to major troop deployments or traditional bombing.
3 But a newly codified rule book, administration officials said, would hold U.S. authorities to a tougher standard when deciding whom to kill, where, and under what circumstances.
4 Under the new policy, strikes will only be authorized against militants who pose 'a continuing, imminent threat,' aides said, instead of 'a significant threat,' which had been the previous standard.
5 Before any strike is undertaken, 'there must be a near certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured,' said a senior administration official who spoke under ground rules that did not allow him to be named.
6 Strikes against foreign militants will be conducted under the same standard as those against U.S. citizens who have joined forces with al-Qaida, the official said.
7 'To say a military tactic is legal, or even effective, is not to say it is wise or moral in every instance,' Obama said in his address at the National Defense University.
8 The result, aides said, would be a curtailing of the frequent, secret drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen that have marked much of Obama's time in office.
9 At the same time, Obama reserved the right to order covert lethal action anywhere the administration finds a threat from al-Qaida.
10 Obama didn't spell out exactly why he was throttling back on drones, a program he inherited from President George W. Bush and then dramatically expanded.
11 His administration has faced skepticism from Congress, which has held a series of hearings on targeting killing.
12 None of America's major allies has fully embraced the U.S. legal theory of why the strikes are justified.
13 The policy reasons driving the change, aides said, are that the core group of al-Qaida leaders in Pakistan is all but defeated and the war in Afghanistan is winding down.
14 That means less reason to hit massed groups in Pakistan under a tactic known a 'signature strikes,' where the CIA fired missiles at groups of suspected militants whose identities were unknown.
15 Obama spoke to that issue obliquely, saying, 'In the Afghan war theater, we must support our troops until the transition is complete at the end of 2014.
16 That means we will continue to take strikes against high-value al-Qaida targets, but also against forces that are massing to support attacks on coalition forces.
17 However, by the end of 2014, we will no longer have the same need for force protection, and the progress we have made against core al-Qaida will reduce the need for unmanned strikes'.
18 In Yemen, where the CIA and the military have launched numerous drone strikes, a new pro-American government is making progress against the al-Qaida affiliate, U.S. officials said, and that is making U.S. drone strikes less crucial.

WASHINGTON - Under pressure from Congress and international allies , President Barack Obama announced a change in what has been a central piece of his counterterrorism strategy , saying he would place new restrictions on the targeting of terrorists with missiles fired from drones .
Under pressure
why was he under pressure?