More on the White House Drone Report

The newly released statistics help to delineate the overall dimensions of a drone program that grew from an experimental CIA platform designed to hunt Osama bin Laden into a clandestine air force carrying out hundreds of strikes from bases in at least nine countries on two continents.


In making the case for why their casualty estimate of between 64 and 116 civilians killed was the best available — compared with independent organizations with far higher numbers, administration officials said strict rules were followed and outsiders did not have access to the government’s wide-ranging intelligence.
  WaPo

Believe us. If you knew what we know, you'd agree with us. But we can't let you know what we know. Typical.

“The main concern about putting out numbers was that people would ask for methodology — what is your test for distinguishing combatant and non-combatant?” the former official said. “The intelligence community] always said, ‘We’ll never get praise for [releasing drone data] so why do it?’”

[...]

“The purpose here is not to dispute the assessments of conscientious people,” said one of several senior officials who briefed reporters under White House anonymity rules. “It’s simply to be transparent about the information we have based on our vantage point.”

Which we can't share.

But officials acknowledged that acceptance of what was sharply limited information about what it said were 473 total strikes, conducted by the CIA and the U.S. military’s elite Joint Special Operations over a seven-year period, was largely a matter of trust.

“At the end of the day, this is U.S. government information and people can make their own judgments about how they receive it,” another official said.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.