Under activity-based intelligence, established patterns replace identity as grounds for killing.

Evidence

From the mass of information collected about a particular individual, group, or place gradually emerge patterns, or traceable themes. Activity becomes an alternative to identity. Once a target has been named, instead of trying to localize it, do quite the opposite. Start by establishing surveillance and gathering information. Next, make large-scale graphs to do an analysis of “big data,” picking out nodular points that, by reason of the position and scale they occupy on the diagram, can be identified as threats that need to be neutralized. … The painstaking work of establishing an archive of lives progressively gathers together the elements of a file that, once it becomes thick enough, will constitute a death warrant. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 216

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains the shift from identity-based to activity-based targeting that undergirds signature strikes.
• XREF: Echoes the reader’s core theme: the drone transforms who counts as a combatant — behavior, not identity, marks one for death. — connects to: Activity-based intelligence replaces identity and files of data become death warrants; Signature strikes kill people whose identities are unknown, based only on behavioral patterns; Pattern-of-life strikes kill civilians through unconfirmed behavioral inference (+3 more)

Related

• Activity-based intelligence replaces identity and files of data become death warrants (similarity 0.93)
• Pattern-of-life strikes kill civilians through unconfirmed behavioral inference (similarity 0.93)
• Signature strikes fire blindly on pattern-of-life indicators and kill innocents (similarity 0.93)
• Signature strikes kill based on behavior patterns, not confirmed identity (similarity 0.91)
• Activity-based intelligence replaces identity with behavioral templates as targeting basis (similarity 0.91)
• Most drone strikes target suspects whose identity is unknown at the moment of killing. (similarity 0.86)
• Drones produce constant terror because targets never know when they are tracked. (similarity 0.80)
• Drone targeting decisions rest on probabilistic inference from behavior rather than observed facts. (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Signature strikes kill based on behavior patterns, not confirmed identity #corroborates (0.90)