the Obama administration has plans to equip the small and poorly trained Yemeni military to run its own “targeted killing” program

"An American businessman familiar with the program, though not involved in the contracts, said that it "changes the optics, which is important. As much as you can put a Yemeni face on it, it feels better." He also said the program would give the U.S. some deniability in the killings. "If a Reaper" — a type of drone — "kills someone, you know if it's America that did it," he said. "If an Air Tractor, which looks like a World War II aircraft, kills someone, you might think, 'Well, that might be Yemen.'" " (thanks Amir)