Jeremy Scahill: 'Sad Day for America'

Comment

Comment by Tony Nuspl on June 23, 2014 at 3:30pm

follow up 2014 June: 

The Justice Department memo "confirms that the government’s drone killing program is built on gross distortions of law", said Pardiss Kebriaei, a lawyer with the Center for Constitutional Rights who challenged the Awlaki killing, who added that the "forced transparency comes years late". 

The ACLU, which sought along with the New York Times to compel the release of the memo, vowed to fight the government's additional arguments for secrecy around other legal foundations of what it calls its "targeted killing" program.

“We will continue to press for the release of other documents relating to the targeted-killing program, including other legal memos and documents relating to civilian casualties," said deputy legal director Jameel Jaffer.

"The drone program has been responsible for the deaths of thousands of people, including countless innocent bystanders, but the American public knows scandalously little about who is being killed and why.”

US senator Ron Wyden praised the memo's release and called for more transparency on Monday. "For example, how much evidence does the president need to determine that a particular American is a legitimate target for military action? Or, can the president strike an American anywhere in the world? What does it mean to say that capturing an American must be ‘infeasible’? And exactly what other limits and boundaries apply to this authority?" he said.

"I urge the executive branch to build on today’s disclosure and start answering these additional questions."

source:

"US cited controversial law in decision to kill American citizen by drone"

Court documents reveal Obama administration cited law blessing global war against al-Qaida in killing of Anwar al-Awlaki

by Spencer Ackerman in New York
theguardian.com,

Monday 23 June 2014

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/23/us-justification-drone...