president obama secretly granted the cia an exemption relaxing restrictions on drone strikes in pakistan after enacting more stringent rules in 2013 to reduce the risk of civilian casualties , it was revealed today .
according to the wall street journal , which first reported the story monday citing current and former government officials , obama gave the spy agency a pass on providing proof that intended targets of drone strikes posed an imminent threat to the us .
had the cia been subjected to the same stringent rules as other agencies , the january drone strike that killed two hostages , one of them an american , could have been postponed or even prevented entirely .