Judge Says Pentagon, CIA Allowed to “Neither Confirm Nor Deny” US Citizens Killed by Drone Strikes

We can neither confirm nor deny that this is our first tweet.

— CIA (@CIA) June 6, 2014

The CIA’s first official Tweet

Does the title of this story remind you of the first tweet that the CIA sent out?

“We can neither confirm nor deny that this is our first tweet.”

But it is no joke.

A federal judge recently ruled, “the CIA and Defense Department (DOD) do not have to confirm or deny whether they have records on the ‘factual basis for the killing’ of either Samir Khan or Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, who were killed in two separate drone strikes in September and October of 2011.”

Judge Colleen McMahon’s decision allows the government to keep drone information secret from the public and enables the DOD and CIA to “avoid increased scrutiny of what happened in those drone strikes as well.” The information that the judge ordered disclosed was already “officially acknowledged.”

By the way, did you know that the CIA is the only agency that can also waive FOIA exemptions on behalf of itself? As JustSecurity.Org points out, “CIA and OLC Must Release More ‘Secret’ Documents on Aulaqi Drone Strike.”