Biden Administration's Presidential Policy Memorandum Governing Direct Action Counterterrorism Operations Outside Areas of Active Hostilities (PPM)

In October 2022, the Biden administration confirmed the existence of the White House’s latest set of policy rules governing the United States’ use of lethal force outside of recognized battlefields abroad. These new rules are known as the “Presidential Policy Memorandum (PPM).” The administration made the partially-redacted PPM public in response to the latest in a series of ACLU lawsuits to force transparency about the U.S. government’s secretive, unlawful, and controversial use of lethal force abroad, including through the use of drones.

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration has released the rules governing lethal strikes outside of recognized warzones abroad in response to lawsuits filed by the American Civil Liberties and The New York Times after the news outlet reported their existence in 2022. Presidents Obama and Trump also issued initially secret lethal force policies, which became public in redacted form after the American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Times sued and forced their release in 2016 and 2021. Brett Max Kaufman, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Center for Democracy, issued the following response: “While we welcome the Biden administration’s release of its lethal force rules, it should not require lawsuits to bring these controversial killing policies to light. And while these rules appear to restore the minimal safeguards against civilian harm that the Trump administration previously gutted, they still do not go far enough. “Only Congress has the power to authorize use of force abroad, yet these rules further entrench unilateral assertions of presidential power. Biden’s promise to protect civilians rings hollow as these rules continue to rely upon vague and permissive terms like ‘imminence’ and ‘near certainty’ to excuse harm time and time again. And most concerningly, the policy’s weak civilian harm rules do not even apply to strikes conducted in ‘collective self-defense’ of U.S. partner forces, a novel legal theory the Biden administration has repeatedly invoked to exempt deadly strikes in Somalia from its rules. “Until these loopholes are closed, we will continue to see America’s lethal strikes program exact an appalling toll on Muslim, Brown, and Black civilians around the world, perpetuating the very wars President Biden pledged to end.”

President Biden has reportedly signed new classified rules governing lethal strikes outside of recognized warzones abroad. According to The New York Times, the new Biden rules are not public, and are accompanied by a classified counterterrorism strategy memo. Presidents Obama and Trump also issued secret lethal force policies, which eventually became public in redacted form after the American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Times sued and forced their release in 2016 and 2021. Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU's National Security Project, issued the following response: “President Biden promised to end America’s forever wars, but this secret new extrajudicial killing policy will only entrench them. For two decades now, successive presidents have flouted the constitutional separation of powers by authorizing unlawful and unaccountable killing abroad. Experience shows that the most stark result of this lethal program has been years of devastating harm to Black and Brown people in majority-Muslim countries. “It’s also unacceptable that this new lethal force policy is secret. Secrecy prevents public oversight and democratic accountability, and the American people have a right to know what rules govern killing in their name. “President Biden could have set our country on a rights-promoting path by ending the unlawful lethal strikes program and investing instead in lawful intelligence-gathering, peacebuilding, diplomacy, and other tools that experts identify as more effective to address conflict and violence abroad. Instead, he appears to be repeating President Obama’s failed approach of authorizing extrajudicial killing with weak and inadequate bureaucratic safeguards that can be easily cast aside by the next president – as President Trump did when he took office, with horrifying consequences.”

NEW YORK — Today marks the one year anniversary of the U.S. drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan that killed an aid worker and his family. For a week after the strike, the U.S. government refused to acknowledge its mistake, even defending it by repeating allegations that it had properly targeted an alleged terrorist. After news footage squarely refuted the government’s story, the Biden administration finally apologized, and promised to evacuate and eventually compensate the extended family of the mistakenly targeted aid worker, Zemari Ahmadi, as well as his colleagues at Nutrition & Education International staff and headquarters devastated by the strike. Those killed were Zemari Ahmadi and three of his children, Zamir, 20, Faisal, 16, and Farzad, 10; Romal Ahmadi’s three children, Arwin, 7, Benyamin, 6, and Hayat, 2; Emal Ahmadi’s daughter, Malika, 3; the child of Mr. Ahmadi’s cousin and stepdaughter, Sumaya, 3; and Mr. Ahmadi’s cousin Naser, 30. As of today, only 11 of the 144 people the government promised to help are in the United States. 32 of them are still awaiting evacuation in Afghanistan, while the remainder are in third countries awaiting security and immigration processing by the U.S. government. Below are comments from Dr. Steven Kwon, founder and president of NEI, and Brett Max Kaufman, senior staff attorney with ACLU’s Center for Democracy, in response: Brett Max Kaufman, senior staff attorney at the ACLU: “It’s been a year since a U.S. drone strike in Kabul wrongly targeted Zemari and wrecked countless innocent lives. Unfortunately, the government still hasn’t made good on its promises to evacuate our clients, let alone resettle them in the U.S. “We’re grateful for what the government has done to bring many of Zemari’s loved ones to safety, but for those who remain, the situation is getting more desperate by the day. After the strike, the U.S. government made a rare promise to make amends for the dire consequences of their ‘mistake’ and it would be a tremendous institutional failure if the government failed to follow through. The government needs to urgently act before it’s too late.” Dr. Steven Kwon, founder and president of Nutrition and Education International: “Zemari was a proud father who spoke constantly about building a better future for his seven children. Nothing can bring him, his three sons, or his six nieces and nephews back, but the U.S. government can and must help the innocent people whose lives they destroyed by bringing them to safety and helping them rebuild their lives. “On the one-year anniversary of the strike, I’m hoping my government will finally keep its promise and quickly evacuate all the survivors and their families.”