By Michael Isikoff
National Investigative Correspondent, NBC News
A confidential Justice Department memo concludes that the U.S.
government can order the killing of American citizens if they are
believed to be “senior operational leaders” of al-Qaida or “an
associated force” — even if there is no intelligence indicating
they are engaged in an active plot to attack the U.S.
The 16-page memo,
a copy of which was obtained by NBC News, provides new details about
the legal reasoning behind one of the Obama administration’s most
secretive and controversial polices: its dramatically increased use of
drone strikes against al-Qaida suspects, including those aimed at
American citizens, such as the September 2011 strike in Yemen that
killed alleged al-Qaida operatives Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan. Both
were U.S. citizens who had never been indicted by the U.S. government
nor charged with any crimes.
The secrecy surrounding such strikes is fast emerging as a central
issue in this week’s hearing of White House counter-terrorism adviser
John Brennan, a key architect of the drone campaign, to be CIA
director. Brennan was the first administration official to publicly
acknowledge drone strikes in a speech last year, calling them
“consistent with the inherent right of self-defense.” In a separate talk
at the Northwestern University Law School in March, Attorney General
Eric Holder specifically endorsed the constitutionality of targeted
killings of Americans, saying they could be justified if government
officials determine the target poses “an imminent threat of violent
attack.”
But the confidential Justice Department “white paper” introduces a
more expansive definition of self-defense or imminent attack than
described by Brennan or Holder in their public speeches. It refers,
for example, to what it calls a “broader concept of imminence” than
actual intelligence about any ongoing plot against the U.S. homeland.
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