Up front about drone ops

The Obama administration is weighing bringing more transparency to its drone program in the hope that disclosures could defuse criticism of unmanned attacks, The Wall Street Journal reports.

A debate is brewing within the administration on how much openness officials can tolerate. The policy changes under consideration could include clarifying which extremist groups can be targeted by the military drone program. Details of CIA strikes, however, are likely to remain classified, the report said, citing officials familiar with the matter.

The issue is complicated by the fact that the military and CIA conduct similar counterterrorism strikes. A concern is that if the Pentagon starts to describe military drone ops more publicly, mission-sensitive details of covert strikes could be exposed.