US Air Force scrubs drone strike data from reports
As the US military continues to court scrutiny regarding drone use, the Air Force has stopped sharing information on the number of drone strikes in Afghanistan. Going one step further, it has removed those statistics from prior reports on its website. - The Air Force's Central Command began keeping track of drone weapon releases in October 2012, according to the Air Force Times. The move was described at that time as a bid to “provide more detailed information on [drone] ops in Afghanistan,” said Central Command spokeswoman Capt. Kim Bender, the magazine reports. Statistics were recorded as part of the policy for November, December and January. But when February's numbers were published on March 7, there was only a blank space where the drone statistics were normally placed.