an influx of unmanned aircraft in its skies for more on this changing face of war i'm joined by scott horton contributing editor at harper's magazine hi there scott let's start first of all by talking about the strategic importance of djibouti and what differences there are between the people that are operating drones sitting in camp versus the ones that are in the air conditioned bases in nevada or virginia. well i think you did a very good job and believed in presenting the strategic element here so in fact if you look at recent briefing that's been provided by senior figures in the intelligence community we see something of a pivot going on away from iraq and afghanistan to north africa broadly as an area of concern an arc that runs from mali all the way across the sahara sail region and winds up in the horn of africa and somalia these are areas of focused attention and of course just across the red sea there in that narrow strait is yemen which may be maybe emerging after pakistan is the next major focal area for drone activities and we know that the drones in fact are operated from faci

scott horton is seated next to him. scott is legal affairs national security contributor to harper's magazine, adjunct faculty now a glimmer loss go, one of the people the right to great deal about this it. and next to me, scott shane, national security reporter for the washington bureau of the new york times. i've been told i'm supposed to interrupt everybody. now has been told and read me. but looking forward to trying to move this conversation along, address what i think it certainly from my side of the aisle, an interesting issue which is, how does this play out when there's information classified the incident hands of the press, one of the legal paradigms that should govern that, how it should work as a practical matter in the real world. i combat this issue in a variety of ways. i currently am litigating on behalf of "the new york times" the foia suit to obtain what we believe actually exist, although the government denies, refuses to say, that is the legal memo underlying the drone strikes. some of my colleagues a

. >> scott horton, let me go back to you because scott shane made a point which reinforced a little bit of what david said which is that don't we know about the drones? using that as an example, haven't, hasn't the system worked in the sociological way that david sketched out that there has been significant leaks, and what is it that remains to be known? >> well, readers of the new york times know about the drones, i guess. [laughter] i think we can say that. no, i think, i think journalists have done their work in developing a lot of information about what our national security apparatus thinks, how it's motivated and how it's acting. i think that's true. but what we, but we have not had a fundamental policy discussion in the country that we need to have. and i think -- and i think we can define that along many different lines. but for me the key issue is, um, if we look at what's going on in pakistan, for instance, you know, we have the cia engaged on a traditional, in a traditional theater of war in what historically have been viewed as military tactics over a sustained period of man

scott horton next to him. he national security contributor to harpers magazine, ajunction faculty members at columbia law school, writes about the area, and next to me, scott shane, national security reporter in "the new york times." i've been told i'm supposeed to interrupt everybody. but i'm looking forward to trying to move this conversation along, and address what i think is from my side of the aisle an interesting issue, which is how does this play out when there's information that is classified that ends up in the hand of the press. what are the legal paradigms that should govern that in a real world? i come at this in a variety of ways. i currently am litigating on behalf of "the new york times" the suit to obtain what we believe actually exists, although the government denies or refuses to say, the legal memos underlying the drone strikes, and my colleagues in the aclu have a similar lawsuit and are here today as well. probably the way i most poignantly was involved with the issue was on wikileaks, and

. >> scott horton, let me go back to you. space shane made a point that reinforced a little bit what david said which is don't we know about the drones? using that as an example, hasn't the system worked in a sociological way that david pointed out that there has been significant leaks and what is it that remains to be known? >> the readers of "the new york times" know about the journal i guess you could say that. i think journalists have done their work in developing a lot of information about our national security apparatus thinks, what motivated and how it is acting. i think that's true. but we have not had fundamental policy discussions in the country that we need to have. and i think we can define that along many different lines but for me the key issue is if we look at what is going on in pakistan, for instance, you know we have the cia engaged on a traditional theatre of war and what historic we had been viewed as military tactics over a sustained period of many years involving hundreds of strikes with clear military o