This week saw a fount of new information come to light about the US government's controversial and secretive drone program. Brooke talks to Stanford Law professor James Cavallaro, author of the Living Under Drones project, in which law students conducted interviews in northwest Pakistan to better understand the full impact of our lethal drone strikes.

Yo La Tengo - Cornelia and Jane

The Obama administration's use of unmanned drones is under intense scrutiny this week, culminating in the hearings to confirm new CIA director John Brennan, which begin this afternoon. Two drone skeptics, Omar Shakir, of the International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic at Stanford Law School, and co-author of the report Living Under Drones, and Zeke Johnson, director of Amnesty International's Security with Human Rights campaign, discuss the practice, and the leaked memo detailing the legal parameters by which drones could be used to target American citizens.

→Tune In: WNYC will stream live coverage of the Brennan hearings on our website beginning at 2:30pm today. Listen here.

Earlier this month, NYU graduate student Josh Begley began tweeting every reported American drone strike — starting in 2002. His feed highlights the growing prevalence of a lethal tactic known as the "double tap." The tactic involves bombing a target repeatedly in relatively quick succession. It often results in the death of rescuers responding to the initial attack.

The CIA drone program in Pakistan has targeted and killed more low-level militants than senior commanders, according to a new report by Stanford University and New York University. The drone program, according to the report, traumatizes communities in Northwest Pakistan and results in civilian deaths and injuries.

Dan Klaidman, special correspondent for Newsweek and the author of Kill or Capture: The War on Terror and the Soul of the Obama Presidency, adds to the emerging details of President Obama’s personal involvement with “kill lists” and waging the “war on terror.”

Scott Shane, reporter for the New York Times, discusses his recent series of pieces on the use of drone warfare by the United States—and how some of that reporting has been misconstrued.

According to an article in The New York Times last week, the Obama administration treats “all military-age males in a strike zone as combatants”. Brooke talks to Chris Woods, reporter for the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, who has been working with reporters on the ground to confirm and put names to civilian casualties of drone strikes, about the discrepancies between his reporting and the reports of the US government.

Consisting of one-third of all military aircrafts, drones have played a major role in U.S. military operations in Pakistan, Yemen, and Afghanistan. Relying on a remote pilot to carry out airstrikes, drones are cheaper to build and operate than other types of aircrafts. However a new experimental drone, the X-47-B, will be entirely computer-controlled, and therefore more akin to cruise missiles.

About a year ago, U.S. District Judge John Bates tossed a lawsuit that Anwar al-Awlaki's father had brought against the United States government.  Several months later, al-Awlaki was killed by a drone strike in a remote mountainous area of Yemen, causing much hand wringing among those who think that someone who is hell-bent on making war against our country should be given special treatment because they're an American citizen.

Leading Al Qaeda figure Anwar al-Awlaki was killed in Yemen, according to government officials in the country. Al-Awlaki is connected with many plots against Americans including the failed Christmas Day bombing of 2009, the foiled Times Square car bombing, and the Fort Hood shootings. The American-born Al Qaeda leader was a target of an American operation for months although it is unclear if American forces were involved in the operation. U.S. officials did not have an immediate comment.