Rep. Ellison: Drone strikes make enemies for America

At the recent Netroots Nation conference in Rhode Island, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) said that Congress should be very concerned with the use of drones.

The Obama administration publicly acknowledged in May that it was using aerial drones to strike suspected terrorists in Yemen and Pakistan. The New York Times later revealed the President was intimately involved in who was on the so-called kill or capture list. The Obama administration has also controversially defined “militants” as all military-age males in a given strike zone.

Members of Congress, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), have expressed outrage that senior Obama administration officials spoke to the press about the drone program and have called for investigations into the leaks.

But Ellison said Congress should focus on the drone program itself.

"What is the quantum of proof needed to put somebody on a kill list?" he told RT's Alyona Minkovski. "How much collateral damage is tolerable? Is there a review process?"

Ellison suggested members of Congress either approved of the drone strikes or were afraid of appearing to be soft on terrorism.

"It is going to come back to bite us. It is coming back to bite us now," he said. "When you see drones basically take out a wedding party, this inflames people... it makes enemies for America. The fact is, we've got to get a handle on this thing. We don't even understand it very well, quite frankly."

Watch video, courtesy of RT, below: