** FILE ** An unmanned U.S. Predator drone flies over Kandahar Air ... more >For two years, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has been quietly operating a base for unmanned drones in Saudi Arabia, according to various media reports.
U.S. media have been aware of its existence, but failed to report it, according to the BBC.
The New York Times said the base was built in December 2009 and the first time a drone was flown from there was September 2011, to kill radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. Since, the BBC states, the CIA has reportedly been using the drones to hunt and kill “high-value targets in Yemen,” according to an unnamed U.S. official cited in the report.
Other media sources say President Obama’s counter-terrorism adviser, John Brennan, helped negotiate the building of the drone base with Riyadh officials.
The United States pulled nearly all its troops from Saudi Arabia in 2003, BBC reports.
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Cheryl Chumley is a continuous news writer for The Washington Times. Previously, she was part of the start-up team for The Washington Times’ digital aggregation product, Times247. She’s also a 2008-2009 Robert Novak journalism fellow with The Phillips Foundation. She can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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