U.S. Must Explain Targeted Killings of Its Own Citizens (especially the killing of a 16year-old boy) [View All]

[Cali_Democrat]

Remember, the fifth amendment to the United States Constitution prevents individuals from being deprived of life, liberty, or property without "due process of law."

U.S. Must Explain Targeted Killings of Its Own Citizens
Posted by Nathan Freed Wessler, National Security Project at 3:41pm

Today the ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking information about the legal and factual basis for the targeted killings of three U.S. citizens in Yemen. Last month, Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan were killed when unmanned drones operated by the CIA and the U.S. military fired missiles at the car in which they were traveling. Last week, al-Awlaki's 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, was killed in a similar drone strike.

The killing of three American citizens raises serious and troubling questions about whether the U.S. government was acting lawfully when it placed Anwar al-Awlaki's name on a "kill list" and when it ordered the deadly drone strikes. But the government is hiding behind a veil of secrecy and is refusing to publicly release information about its justifications for killing U.S. citizens far from any active battlefield. We know from reports in the press that the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) produced a memorandum providing legal justifications for killing al-Awlaki and that he was placed on a so-called "kill list" by a secret group of government officials. The government refuses to release the OLC memo or any other information about the legal and factual bases for killing Anwar and Abdulrahman al-Awlaki and Samir Khan, however.

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Editorial pages from around the country, including the Washington Post, Washington Times, and L.A. Times, have called for greater transparency, as has the Public Editor of the New York Times.

The government must tell the public why it thinks it can order the deaths of U.S. citizens without going to court or otherwise ensuring due process of law. It is unacceptable for the government to hide behind claims of official secrecy when its actions are challenged, but then to leak carefully selected information to the press when it wants to rally support for its actions. Our FOIA request joins the chorus of voices urging real transparency and a full public debate.

Read the whole piece: http://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security/us-must-explain-targeted-killings-its-own-citizens

I agree 100% with the ACLU. This must be explained. I consider this to be an extremely important issue. The fact that a secret panel of government officials can put US citizens on a kill list is EXTREMELY disturbing. Do we want Republicans to be doing this if they are in the Oval Office? What's also troubling is the fact that a 16 year-old US citizen was killed by his own government without due process. A kid.