A Not-Quite Confirmation of a Memo Approving Killing

[alp227]

Source: NY Times

For months, the Obama administration has refused to confirm or deny the existence of a Justice Department memorandum that approved the targeted killing of a United States citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki, who died in a drone strike in Yemen last September.

But in an exchange at a budget hearing on Thursday, Senator Patrick J. Leahy and Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. came close to implicitly conceding that there is indeed such a memo, which was written by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel.

Mr. Leahy, a Vermont Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, brought up a conversation he said he and Mr. Holder had earlier this week about a speech on “drones and targeting of U.S. citizens” that the attorney general delivered on Monday.

“I still want to see the Office of Legal Counsel memorandum and I would urge you to keep working on that,” Mr. Leahy said to Mr. Holder. “I realize that’s a matter of some debate within the administration but ...”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/09/us/a-not-quite-confirmation-of-a-memo-approving-killing.html

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[MADem]

2. It's not really surprising. We already know what the thing said.

It's very carefully phrased to be a one-off, not a wholesale blessing, according to reports.

They've been nibbling at this biscuit for awhile...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/09/world/middleeast/secret-us-memo-made-legal-case-to-kill-a-citizen.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

The secret document provided the justification for acting despite an executive order banning assassinations, a federal law against murder, protections in the Bill of Rights and various strictures of the international laws of war, according to people familiar with the analysis. The memo, however, was narrowly drawn to the specifics of Mr. Awlaki’s case and did not establish a broad new legal doctrine to permit the targeted killing of any Americans believed to pose a terrorist threat.

The Obama administration has refused to acknowledge or discuss its role in the drone strike that killed Mr. Awlaki last month and that technically remains a covert operation. The government has also resisted growing calls that it provide a detailed public explanation of why officials deemed it lawful to kill an American citizen, setting a precedent that scholars, rights activists and others say has raised concerns about the rule of law and civil liberties.

But the document that laid out the administration’s justification — a roughly 50-page memorandum by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, completed around June 2010 — was described on the condition of anonymity by people who have read it.

The legal analysis, in essence, concluded that Mr. Awlaki could be legally killed, if it was not feasible to capture him, because intelligence agencies said he was taking part in the war between the United States and Al Qaeda and posed a significant threat to Americans, as well as because Yemeni authorities were unable or unwilling to stop him.

[99th_Monkey]

3. I think this is called having cake and eating it too.

Of course we assassinate US citizens if DHS/CIA imagines they are a scary terrorist,
or are in any way associated with (family of, et. al.), affiliated with, connected to,
same.

but Oh NO!! ... Obama would never think of violating any US citizens' constitutional
rights.

Nope.

Not the Obama administration.

No siree.

[SammyWinstonJack]

4. Yeah, never. Amazing that some actually believe that or are okay with it.

[IamK]

5. that whole "due process" thing is kinda outdated .... blowing people up seems more 21st century..