Sudden Justice explores the secretive history of the United States' use of armed drones and their key role not only on today's battlefields, but also in a covert targeted killing project that has led to the deaths of thousands. Days after 9/11, a CIA Predator in Afghanistan executed the world's first lethal drone strike. The Agency's role was no accident -- it had nurtured and developed drones for almost a decade, seeking a platform from which it could monitor its targets and act lethally and instantly on what was learned. Since then remotely piloted aircraft have played a critical role in America's global counter-terrorism operations and have been deployed to devastating effect in conventional wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. From the publisher.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 361-365) and index.

View to a kill : armed drones on the battlefield -- Birth of a predator : the origins of lethal drones -- The rise of targeted killing : Yemen and Palestine -- The cauldron : Iraq 2003-2011 -- The occasional assassin : Bush in Pakistan -- The enemy without : Western citizens killed by drones -- Obama's obsession : "AfPak" -- Game face on : the intimacy of remote killing -- An absence of transparency : Yemen and Somalia -- The long road home : Afghanistan and Pakistan -- The inconstant value of a civilian life -- Countermeasures and critiques -- Appendix: Reports of Westerners killed in US targeted strikes, September 2001 to December 2014.