The president personally approves each name on a weekly drone kill list.

Evidence

“It is the strangest of bureaucratic rituals,” write two New York Times reporters. “Every week or so, more than 100 members of the government’s sprawling national security apparatus gather, by secure video teleconference, to pore over terrorist suspects’ biographies and recommend to the president who should be the next to die.” In Washington, this weekly meeting has been labeled “Terror Tuesday.” Once established, the list of nominees is sent to the White House, where the president orally gives his approval to each name. With the “kill list” validated, the drones do the rest. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 209

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s prior interest in presidential power and ‘imperial combatants’ — the personal, direct presidential sanction of deaths is a striking feature of the new warfare.