Report: Drone shift to Pentagon stalled

The Obama administration’s plan to shift control of its lethal drone program from the CIA to the Pentagon has stalled, Foreign Policy reports.

President Obama said in May that he wanted to move the drone program under Pentagon control in order to increase its transparency.

{mosads}But that transfer has remained elusive, and U.S. officials said the operational and cultural differences between the Pentagon and CIA make it unlikely to happen anytime soon.

“The physics of making this happen quickly are remarkably difficult,” one U.S. official told the magazine. “The goal remains the same, but the reality has set in.”

Another official said that the transfer is still happening, while acknowledging it’s a slow-moving process.

“This is the policy, and we’re moving toward that policy, but it will take some time,” the official said. “The notion that there has been some sort of policy reversal is just not accurate. I think from the moment the policy was announced it was clear it was not something that would occur overnight or immediately.”

In Congress, some lawmakers have pushed for the Pentagon to take over drone operations in places like Yemen.