ACLU: Admission of US Drone Strikes Does Nothing to Justify Program’s Legality

[The Northerner]

President Obama's top counter-terrorism adviser, John Brennan, gave a speech in Washington on Monday in which he admitted publicly that the US does, in fact, carry out lethal drone airstrikes in foreign nations with which the United States is not at war. Despite that the drone program has long been an 'open secret,' it was the first formal, public admission made by the administration that the program exists.

Human rights groups, however, were not impressed, as Brennan argued that the clandestine program -- which has killed hundreds of innocent civilians over the last decade -- was "legal", "ethical" and "wise".

“Mr. Brennan supplies legal conclusions, not legal analysis," argued ACLU Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer. "We continue to believe that the administration should release the Justice Department memos underlying the program – particularly the memo that authorizes the extrajudicial killing of American terrorism suspects. And the administration should release the evidence it relied on to conclude that an American citizen, Anwar al-Aulaqi, could be killed without charge, trial, or judicial process of any kind.”

Read more: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/05/01-0

[xchrom]

1. 'legal, ethical & wise'

Until somebody starts lobbing drones at us.

This works...until it doesn't.