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Issues about what the nsa does, the wiretapping, the data collection. they're obviously going to be civil libertarians on the right, civil libertarians on the left that are against this. you start hearing this you can see those polls going up. it's kind of like on drones. i think i'm in the minority on drones but, you know what, americans see the crisis drop the drones drop them anywhere. we don't care. >> it's why president obama was able to go back on his campaign commitments about guantanamo, about nsa, about the drone programs because he had huge numbers of the public behind him on all of ...

People should not get too sanctimonious and some of the countries lecturing us about torture, they have violated a lot more human rights and i think we need to have a serious conversation in the united states. i thought mr. brennan yesterday provided a much more balanced account, acknowledging mistakes. i think that david is right that we need to talk about these drone programs. i think that's fair conversation and within the country and internationally but what we got yesterday was a much more balanced, less one-sided view of what happened than i think it worth understanding. we had a report ...

It. we have a program right now called the drone programs. some drones are called signature strikes. signature strike means you don't need to know who the person is. before a drone attack comes and kills them. you just have to know how they behave. if you drive in a pickup truck in a part of pakistan where a lot of terrorists are known to operate, they see you from above, you look like a terrorist, you act like a terrorist, you can get hit. five years from now, two years from now, are we going to have another commission and take to task all the people who are operating the drone program now in...

>> not quite the 13-hour filibuster. but he did give a compassioned 30-minute to us. outlines the government's authority for killing u.s. citizens potentially overseas who are suspected of terrorism using those drones. the obama administration agreed to a court order to make edited versions of that memo public. the senate is expected to vote on whether to proceed with baron's nomination within the hour. some lawmakers actually called for a full review of the drone program before voting on baron's appointment. this is a hot bed of controversy right now. i'm joined now to look at all of this by ...

Officials claim. joining me now, declan walsh. welcome to you. when u.s. officials do acknowledge the drone programs, they usually describe the strikes as surgical and civilian casualties are rare. according to your reports, they're a lot higher. what are we talking about, what kind of numbers? >> it's difficult to say exactly. according to groups that monitor these strikes, they estimate there's been between 400 and 900 civilian casualties since the drone program started in pakistan about ten years ago. but exact figures are very difficult to get from the tribal belt because this is an inacce...