Reply #116: You answered this yourself earlier...

[ClarkUSA]

Vattel (1000+ posts) Wed Apr-07-10 07:10 PM
Response to Reply #74
98. One question here is whether he can be apprehended.

If it is likely that he will murder if not apprehended or killed, and it is impossible to apprehend him, then due process would not be violated by killing him. I don't know how strong the evidence is that he poses a significant threat of serious harm, nor do I know how feasible apprehension might be. So like you I am worried about whether due process is being respected, but unlike you I'm not convinced that it is.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=433&topic_id=262344&mesg_id=262586

I think you hit the nail on the head. For the Obama administration to take this "extraordinary step" Awlaki must pose an imminent and "significant threat of serious harm" and since he is hiding in Yemen, it is be well nigh impossible to apprehend him.

From the NYT article:

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has taken the extraordinary step of authorizing the targeted killing of an American citizen, the radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who is believed to have shifted from encouraging attacks on the United States to directly participating in them, intelligence and counterterrorism officials said Tuesday.

Mr. Awlaki, who was born in New Mexico and spent years in the United States as an imam, is in hiding in Yemen. He has been the focus of intense scrutiny since he was linked to Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Tex., in November, and then to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian man charged with trying to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Dec. 25.

American counterterrorism officials say Mr. Awlaki is an operative of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the affiliate of the terror network in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. They say they believe that he has become a recruiter for the terrorist network, feeding prospects into plots aimed at the United States and at Americans abroad, the officials said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/world/middleeast/07yemen.html?hp