# The Drone Papers

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "The Drone Papers," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-drone-papers/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*The trove of classified documents leaked by Daniel Hale and published by The Intercept, later collected in book form as 'The Assassination Complex', exposing how the U.S. drone program selected and killed targets; John Kiriakou relied on it in his own writing on the war in Afghanistan.*

- **Source:** Daniel Hale
- **Published by:** The Intercept
- **Book form:** The Assassination Complex

**The Drone Papers** are the classified documents leaked by targeting analyst [Daniel Hale](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/daniel-hale) and published by [The Intercept](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-intercept), later collected in book form as *The Assassination Complex*.[1] [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) says he relied on the leak in his own book on the war in Afghanistan, *Fool's Errand*.[1] The documents, he says, reveal that the drone program killed *"blindly,"* targeting people identified not by a cell-phone number but by association, *"numbers of people who ever were associated with a cell phone that ever called another cell phone that ever called another cell phone"*, then labeling all of the dead *"enemies killed in action unless it's proven otherwise, which it never is."*[2] Kiriakou notes the papers document an *"infinitesimally small"* rate of actually killing the intended target relative to the collateral dead.[3] He makes the same point about official "enemy killed in action" (EKIA) designations elsewhere, stating they are unreliable because casualties are presumed to be terrorism suspects or militants without follow-up investigation into their actual identities, meaning official U.S. government civilian-casualty accounts should not be trusted.[4]

## The two figures Kiriakou cites

Summarising the disclosure in his own voice, Kiriakou gives the statistic and the accounting rule that made it invisible. During one five-month period in 2012, *"nearly 90 per cent of those people killed in drone strikes were not the intended targets but civilian bystanders."*[5]

The second half is the classification practice: innocent people killed *"were classified as enemies killed in action unless proven otherwise."*[5] Between them, the two facts explain how a programme could report almost no civilian casualties while producing them at that rate.

The documents went to [The Intercept](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-intercept), and [Daniel Hale](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/daniel-hale) spoke about the programme again in the award-winning film [*National Bird*](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/national-bird).[5]

## See also

- [Daniel Hale](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/daniel-hale)
- [The Intercept](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-intercept)
- [Signature strikes](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/signature-strikes)

## Sources

1. John Kiriakou on the Persecution of Daniel Hale (Ep. 5533) (2021-06-01), at 12:05. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tU2jvrjAx0&t=725s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2021-06-01-scott-horton-daniel-hale-persecution/
2. John Kiriakou on the Persecution of Daniel Hale (Ep. 5533) (2021-06-01), at 12:37. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tU2jvrjAx0&t=757s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2021-06-01-scott-horton-daniel-hale-persecution/
3. John Kiriakou on the Persecution of Daniel Hale (Ep. 5533) (2021-06-01), at 13:08. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tU2jvrjAx0&t=788s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2021-06-01-scott-horton-daniel-hale-persecution/
4. Ep. 5567 – Kevin Gosztola and John Kiriakou on the Sente (2021-08-01), at 37:05. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OV3V3wFJUwY&t=2225s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2021-08-01-scott-horton/
5. Enema of the State (2023-03-05), at 0:36. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgGxUpHktUU&t=36s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-03-05-enema-of-the-state-enema-of-the-state/

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