Disposition Matrix The Disposition Matrix is a database that United States officials describe as a " next - generation capture / kill list " . Developed by the Obama Administration beginning in 2010 , the " Disposition Matrix " goes beyond existing kill lists , and creates a blueprint for tracking , capturing , rendering , or killing suspected enemies of the US government . It is intended to become a permanent fixture of American policy . The process determining criteria for killing is not public , but has been heavily shaped by presidential counterterrorism adviser John Brennan . Though White House , National Counterterrorism Center ( NCTC ) and Central Intelligence Agency ( CIA ) spokesmen have declined to comment on the database , officials have stated privately that kill lists will expand " for at least another decade " , if not indefinitely . One official stated , " It ’ s a necessary part of what we do . " Paul R . Pillar , the former deputy director of the CIA ’ s counterterrorism center , has stated , " We are looking at something that is potentially indefinite . " The database ' s existence was revealed by a three part series published in " The Washington Post " . The " Post " noted that as of their publication , the number of civilian and militant casualties resulting from American drone strike s would soon exceed the number of people killed in the September 11th attacks . Purpose . The creation of the Disposition Matrix database is part of an effort embraced by U . S . Homeland Security adviser John O . Brennan to codify the targeted killing policies developed by President Obama . Under the Presidency of George W . Bush , Brennan served as top aide to CIA director George Tenet , where he defended the administration ' s use of extraordinary rendition and enhanced interrogation , also described as torture . Brennan ' s association with the CIA ' s interrogation program was controversial , and forced him to withdraw his candidacy for directorship of the CIA or National Intelligence in 2008 . According to the " New York Times " , Brennan has been the " principle coordinator " of American kill lists . Former Obama administration counter - terrorism official Daniel Benjamin has stated that Brennan " probably had more power and influence than anyone in a comparable position in the last 20 years . " The database ' s creation also accompanies an expansion of the drone fleet , turning the CIA into a " paramilitary force " according to the " Washington Post " . It is associated with increased Joint Special Operations Command ( JSOC ) operations in Africa , and increased JSOC involvement in forming kill lists . The database has unified originally separate but overlapping kill lists maintained by both JSOC and the CIA , and was originally proposed by former NCTC director Michael Leiter . Scope . The Disposition Matrix database catalogues biographies , locations , associates , and affiliations of suspects . It also catalogues strategies for finding , capturing , or killing suspects , or subjecting them to extraordinary rendition . The database continues to direct American operations in Afghanistan , Pakistan , Somalia and Yemen , and will facilitate expanded operations in Algeria , Egypt , Mali , Libya , Iran , and throughout east Africa . A clear example of the expansion of targeted killing as managed by the database is the U . S . military base in Djibouti City , Djibouti , near Somalia . Called Camp Lemonnier and originally created by the French Foreign Legion , the camp has clandestinely become the largest U . S . drone base outside Afghanistan . About 3 , 200 U . S . soldiers , contractors and civilians are assigned to the camp , 300 of whom are special operations personnel . One terrorism suspect on the Disposition Matrix is Somali citizen Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame , currently a prisoner of the United States being held in New York . Process . The database eliminates the prior system of dual ( but not judicial ) scrutiny by both The Pentagon and the National Security Council , instead using a " streamlined " system in which suspects are designated by multiple agencies and ultimately presented to Brennan and the Vice President . The head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff , responsible for carrying out orders to kill suspects on the list , no longer contributes to the decision of whether or not to kill them . Instead , the NCTC plays a greater role in determining targets , which they generate at the request of the White House . The criteria and decisions determining who may be targeted for killing are developed in large part by John Brennan , who " wields enormous power in shaping decisions on ' kill ' lists and the allocation of armed drones " . Targets are reviewed every three months with input from the CIA and JSOC , before being passed on top officials in the NCTC , CIA , JSOC , the National Security Council , Pentagon , and U . S . State Department . Ultimately , the authority to kill a suspect outside Pakistan must be approved by the President . The review process also allows the killing of individuals whose identities are unknown , but who are thought to be engaged in certain activities , for instance packing a vehicle with explosives . As reported previously , American citizens may be listed as targets for killing in the database . Suspects are not formally charged of any crime or offered a trial in their own defense . Obama administration lawyers have asserted that American citizens alleged to be members of Al Qaeda and said to pose an " imminent threat of violent attack " against the United States may be killed without judicial process . The legal arguments of US officials for this policy were leaked to NBC News in February 2013 , in the form of briefing papers summarizing legal memos from October 2011 . Endorsement . Officials describing the Disposition Matrix have described it as legally and morally sound , and the " Washington Post " has written that " internal doubts about the effectiveness of the drone campaign are almost nonexistent " . U . S . President Barack Obama has called the decision to kill American citizen and terrorism suspect Anwar al - Aulaqi " an easy one " , and shares counterterrorism views with Brennan , the principal architect of the criteria used when making suspects targets in the database . Referring to President Obama ' s view of drone strikes , Brennan has stated , " I don ’ t think we ’ ve had a disagreement " . U . S . officials speaking to the " Washington Post " seemed " confident that they have devised an approach that is so bureaucratically , legally and morally sound that future administrations will follow suit " . Brennan , a principal architect of the " Disposition Matrix " , stated in April 2012 that " in order to ensure that our counterterrorism operations involving the use of lethal force are legal , ethical , and wise , President Obama has demanded that we hold ourselves to the highest possible standards and processes " . The Obama Administration ' s drone program received approval from Republican Party presidential candidate Mitt Romney during the 2012 U . S . presidential elections . Robert M . Chesney has written for the " Lawfare " blog that " it certainly is a good thing to create an information management tool that makes certain that officials across agencies and departments can have real - time , comprehensive understanding of the options available ( practically , legally , diplomatically , etc . ) in the event specific persons turn up in specific places " . He has also argued that the " Washington Post " article describing the program falsely implies that it has been associated with a change in U . S . counter - terrorism policy . According to research by the RAND Corporation , " drone strikes are associated with decreases in both the frequency and the lethality of militant attacks overall and in IED and suicide attacks specifically . " Criticism . The Pakistani interior minister Rehman Malik has stated that 336 American drone strikes in Pakistan claimed over 2 , 300 victims , 80 % of whom were innocent civilians . A Pew Research Center poll shows that 74 % of Pakistanis believe that America " is the enemy " , an increase from prior years . The American Civil Liberties Union ( ACLU ) has condemned the database , writing in a press release that " anyone who thought U . S . targeted killing outside of armed conflict was a narrow , emergency - based exception to the requirement of due process before a death sentence is being proven conclusively wrong . ” It has also filed freedom of information requests regarding the database and filed a lawsuit challenging its constitutionality . Glenn Greenwald has written that " the central role played by the NCTC in determining who should be killed [ is ] rather odious . . . the NCTC operates a gigantic data - mining operation , in which all sorts of information about innocent Americans is systematically monitored , stored , and analyzed " . Greenwald concludes that the Disposition Matrix has established " simultaneously a surveillance state and a secretive , unaccountable judicial body that analyzes who you are and then decrees what should be done with you , how you should be " disposed " of , beyond the reach of any minimal accountability or transparency " . Former counter - terrorism specialist and military intelligence officer Philip Giraldi has criticized the disposition matrix ' s " everyday " killing of targets with what he calls " little or no evidence , " leaving the White house " completely unaccountable . " Giraldi later commented that Brennan " feels the [ drone ] program has run its course as a CIA operation . " Criticizing strikes organized under the aegis of the database , the " World Socialist Web Site " has written that " the great majority of those killed in Pakistan are targeted for resisting the US occupation of neighboring Afghanistan , while in Yemen they are killed for opposing the US - backed regime there " . Regarding the effect of the database in the United States , the site has written that " the Obama administration has arrogated to itself the most extreme power that can be asserted by any dictatorship — that of ordering citizens put to death without presenting charges against them , much less proving them in a court of law " . They later criticized the relative silence in the media and the political establishment following the revelation . In a commentary reprinted by " Eurasia Review " , Russia Today has called strikes directed by the database " targeted executions " and " extrajudicial murders " , and rhetorically asked how the database will further American counter - terrorism policies if it alienates its allies . Describing the criteria for killing established by the database and drone program , " Voice of Russia " has written that " in essence , this means that based on intelligence evidence , the administration assumes the right to judge and execute anyone without bothering about such minor things as proper court hearings , or the right of the accused person for proper legal defense " . It has accused the Obama Administration of violating American principles of due process , stating , " the fact that such operations clearly violate the principles propagated by the U . S . itself , like the right of everyone for legal defense , does not seem to bother the administration " . Speaking at Harvard Law School on 25 October 2012 , United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights and counter terrorism , Ben Emmerson , stated that he would launch " an investigation unit within the special procedures of the Human Rights Council to inquire into individual drone attacks " . Emmerson and Christof Heyns , UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial , summary or arbitrary executions , have described some American drone attacks as " war crime s " . John Hudson , writing in the Atlantic Wire , has raised the concern that from a semantic perspective , the term " Disposition Matrix " sanitizes and perhaps obscures the more descriptive phrase " kill list " . The United States Senate is split over how to handle the issue , with Democrats urging the creation of a special court to review the matrix and John McCain ( R - Ariz . ) calling for all armed drones to be moved from the CIA to the Pentagon . While Dianne Feinstein doubts that the Pentagon would take the same level of care to avoid collateral damage . Drone strike casualties . Reports on civilian casualties in Pakistan resulting from American drone attacks have been compiled by a number of institutions including the Bureau of Investigative Journalism , the Long War Journal , the New America Foundation , and researchers at Stanford University and New York University law schools . The New York Times reported that the Obama Administration embraced a disputed method for counting civilian casualties , which in effect counts all military - age males in a strike zone as combatants , giving partial explanation to the official claims of extraordinarily low collateral deaths . The Bureau of Investigative Journalism ( TBIJ ) reports that between 2004 and 2012 , CIA directed drone strikes killed 475 - 885 Pakistani civilians , of 2 , 593 - 3 , 378 persons killed altogether . The report finds that drone strikes killed 176 children , and injured an additional 1 , 250 or more people . The TBIJ report estimates that drone strikes in Pakistan declined from 904 to 228 between 2010 and 2012 . TBIJ reports that during the same timeframe , drone strikes killed 60 - 163 Yemeni civilians , of 362 - 1 , 052 persons killed altogether in Yemen , including 24 - 34 children ; strikes killed 11 - 57 Somali civilians of 58 - 170 persons killed in Somalia , including 1 - 3 children . The Long War Journal ( LWJ ) , published by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies , reports that 136 Pakistani civilians have been killed by drone attacks since 2006 . According to LWJ , the majority of drone strikes in Pakistan since 2004 occurred under the Obama Administration , which has ordered over 247 strikes since 2009 , compared the Bush Administration ' s 45 . The New America Foundation ( NAF ) has published a report titled " Year of the Drone , " finding that between 2004 and 2012 , American drone strikes killed 1 , 618 - 2 , 769 militants , of 1 , 908 - 3 , 225 killed altogether in Pakistan . The foundation also found that during the same period , reported civilian casualties from drone strikes were 15 - 16 % , dropping from 60 % in 2006 to 1 - 2 % in 2012 . A report by researchers at Stanford and New York University Law Schools , working at the Stanford International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution clinic and at the Global Justice Clinic , has evaluated casualty reports produced by TBIJ , LWJ and NAF , also conducting its own interviews with witnesses and victims . The report finds that casualty estimates obtained by TBIJ are " the best currently available , " while it finds " omissions and inconsistencies in New America Foundation ’ s dataset , " and challenges their finding that civilian casualties have been low in 2012 . The report criticizes reliance on anonymous officials for estimates of civilian casualties , and widespread use of the term " militant " by the media when describing non - civilian casualties . The report concurs with that published by the NAF , stating the number of " high level targets " killed by drone strikes in Pakistan constitutes about 2 % of all drone strike casualties . Meg Braun , an author of the NAF study , has written that the Stanford and New York University researchers were " not impartial , " adding that while " the U . S . government ' s claims that civilian casualties from drone strikes during Obama ' s term in office are in the single digits are manifestly untrue , [ there ] is no need to overstate the rate of civilian deaths to make the point that drones strikes are legally suspect and morally hazardous . "