U.S. official defends drone strikes as legal, effective

U.S. President Barack Obama's top counter-terrorism adviser publicly acknowledged the administration's use of drone strikes against suspected terrorist targets and defended them, vociferously, as legal and effective tools to protect the United States.

John O. Brennan, assistant to the president for homeland security and counter-terrorism, said drones "apply with all applicable laws, including the laws of war."

The American people expect the government to use the latest technology to wage war, he said at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The president, in turn, has the constitutional duty to protect the country "from any imminent threat of attack."

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