By Andrew Stern
Mar 6, 2012
CHICAGO (Reuters) - The Obama
administration asserted on Monday a right to kill Americans overseas who are
plotting attacks against the United States, laying out specific details for the
first time about a policy that critics argue violates U.S. and international
law.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder
said that Americans who have joined al Qaeda or its affiliates can be targeted
for lethal strikes if there is an imminent threat to the United States and
capturing them is not feasible.
In a speech to the Northwestern
University School of Law, Holder did not refer directly to the CIA drone strike
last year that killed Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born Muslim cleric who joined al
Qaeda's Yemen affiliate and directed many attacks.
"Any decision to use lethal
force against a United States citizen - even one intent on murdering Americans
and who has become an operational leader of al Qaeda in a foreign land - is
among the gravest that government leaders can face," he said.
"The American people can be -
and deserve to be - assured that actions taken in their defense are consistent
with their values and their laws," Holder said.
U.S. officials have linked Awlaki
to several plots against the United States, including the 2009 Christmas Day
attempt by a Nigerian man to blow up a U.S. commercial airliner as it arrived
in Detroit from Amsterdam with a bomb hidden in his underwear.
Holder received a standing ovation
when he entered the crowded auditorium but departed to perfunctory applause as
some in the audience expressed surprise by his remarks. A question and answer
session was canceled, the event organizers said.
LICENSE TO KILL?
Civil liberties groups have
decried the program as effectively a green light to assassinate Americans
without due process in the courts under the U.S. Constitution, a charge that
Holder flatly rejected.
Court approval for such strikes
was unnecessary, he said, adding "the president may use force abroad
against a senior operational leader of a foreign terrorist organization with
which the United States is at war - even if that individual happens to be a
U.S. citizen."
That drew sharp criticism from
some in the audience. A third-year law school student, Russell Sherman, called
such strikes "assassination". Scott Hiley, a language professor at Northwestern
University, said Holder employed "endlessly circular reasoning" to
try to explain the policy.
President Barack Obama and his
aides have fiercely defended their stand on national security in the face of
criticism from Republicans in Congress and on the presidential campaign trail
that terrorism suspects are treated too leniently.
Holder said the use of lethal
force against Americans abroad would have to comply with several principles
governing the law of war, including ensuring the target was of military value
and that steps were taken to limit collateral damage.
"The principle of humanity
requires us to use weapons that will not inflict unnecessary suffering,"
he said, but added that "these principles do not forbid the use of stealth
or technologically advanced weapons."
A U.S. official said that there
was fierce debate within the administration about whether Holder should give
the speech, questioning if it would assuage or irritate Obama's liberal backers
who have been concerned that his policies were too close to that of his
predecessor, President George W. Bush.
"The targeted killing program
raises profound legal and moral questions that should be subjected to public
debate, and constitutional questions that should be considered by the
judiciary," said Hina Shamsi, director of the American Civil Liberties
Union's National Security Project.
AERIAL DRONES
The United States has launched
numerous strikes against al Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan and Pakistan using
drones, unmanned aerial vehicles that at times have killed and wounded
civilians in addition to the intended target, provoking an outcry.
A U.N. special investigator in
2010 called on the United States to halt CIA drone strikes, though the U.N.
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has avoided a direct condemnation and said it was
up to governments and military authorities to decide.
Holder said the administration
abides by "robust oversight" when targeting Americans abroad,
informing senior lawmakers about its counterterrorism operations.
Like the Bush administration,
Holder asserted that conducting counterterrorism operations against al Qaeda,
the Taliban and their affiliates was the purview of the presidency, citing 2001
congressional authorization.
He said the president has
constitutional responsibilities to protect and defend the country.
"Military and civilian
officials must often make real-time decisions that balance the need to act, the
existence of alternative options, the possibility of collateral damage, and
other judgments," Holder said.
The ACLU last month sued the Obama
administration in federal court, demanding that Holder's Justice Department
release what the civil liberties group says it believes are legal memoranda
justifying targeting Americans overseas using lethal force.
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