"For nearly a decade Brett Velicovich was at the center of America's new warfare: using unmanned aerial vehicles--drones--to take down the world's deadliest terrorists across the globe. One of an elite handful in the entire military with the authority to select targets and issue death orders, he worked in concert with the full human and technological network of American intelligence--assets, analysts, spies, informants--and the military's elite operatives,...

When the US government discusses drone strikes publicly, it offers assurances that such operations are a more precise alternative to troops on the ground, but the implicit message from the administration has been trust, but don't verify. The online magazine The Intercept obtained a cache of secret slides that provide a window into the inner workings of the US military's kill/capture operations in Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somalia, and show assassination...