New AP Poll on U.S. Targeted Killing Program

A new AP-GFK poll released today finds broad swaths of the American public continue to strongly support the U.S. targeted killing program. The poll was conducted in the days immediately following President Barack Obama's announcement that the United States had mistakenly killed an American and Italian hostage in a drone strike on a suspected al Qaeda compound. The poll finds 60 percent of Americans favor the use of drones to "target and kill people belonging to terrorist groups like al-Qaida," while only 13 percent oppose. Most strikingly, of those who "support" or "neither favor nor oppose" the targeted killing program, 86 percent believe it is acceptable for the United States to target and kill American citizens overseas who are members of terrorist groups. You can read the full AP write up here. The topline numbers from the poll are available here.