Finally, a federal court does something right on drones

Score one for transparency!

A federal appeals court sided with common sense Friday by reversing a lower court ruling that granted the CIA the ability to keep secret not only the amount and targets of drone strikes, but the fact they are happening at all.

That’s right, the CIA will neither confirm nor deny who, where and why they are killing people abroad and, fantastically, don’t think they should have to answer to anyone. I love the line from the three-judge panel that it is neither “logical nor plausible” that the CIA doesn’t even need to answer if they keep records on these strikes.

Excuse me while I stand and applaud.

Besides the argument as to whether the CIA should be operating a secret, private army and killing people it deems “bad guys” with little to no oversight, we should all be thankful that our system of checks and balances is at least working on some level. And it is beyond laughable that the CIA argued that it has a legal basis to deny access to drone strike records for fear of compromising national security.

That is if the records or drone strikes themselves existed in the first place. Wink, wink.

There are bad people who wish us harm and I am thankful there are men and women who dedicate their lives to stopping these threats. That DOES NOT excuse the wild power grab and secrecy going on that we know has already targeted American citizens on foreign soil and that the attorney general recently conceded “could” occur on American soil.

We need a national debate about what power we want to grant government and, specifically, a spy agency like the CIA when it comes to our life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.