Awlaki Killing Memo Must Be Disclosed, 2nd Circuit Says

MANHATTAN (CN) - Federal agencies must reveal a memorandum that outlines the legal basis for assassinating Anwar al-Awlaki while the U.S. citizen was living Yemen, the 2nd Circuit unanimously ruled today.

An American Civil Liberties Union official called the decision a "resounding rejection of the government's effort to use secrecy and selective disclosure to manipulate public opinion about the targeted killing program."

"The government can't pretend that everything about the targeted killing program is a classified secret while senior officials selectively disclose information to paint the program in the most favorable light," Jameel Jaffer, who heads the ACLU Center for Democracy, said in an email.

Awlaki Killing Memo Must Be Disclosed, 2nd Circuit Says

Well, the victories are small but they DO come and they come in big neon letters sometimes. I looked around but couldn't see where anyone else may have picked this up.

Apparently ordering the execution of an American citizen without attempts made to capture for trial ..then just say "We know what we're doing..trust us!" is NOT going to cut it. Nor should it. Lines are being crossed these days that are BIG BIG ones, but with all the casual notice of the many small ones that led here.

This line got drawn hard, for once at least. This far and no further. Now lets make sure someone grabs the material when it comes out. I really want to see why they thought targeted assassination was the only option, eh?

This is a victory for us, however minor it may be.

a reply to: Wrabbit2000

Very interesting development, thanks for this. Flagging the thread so when the memo is disclosed I will (hopefully) see it updated on the myats page =)

WE have rules in place for things like Trial in Absentia.

The fact that they are unwilling to take that step,

Put the intel up to scrutiny, from the same people that gave us WMDs in Iraq...

Its just Lazy at BEST, and purposefully obscuring the truth to assassinate citizens at worst.

The worst of us deserve a trial, its our constitutional right, if they can take it from one citizen, they can take it from another.

I wish more would comment here. too much thinkin required, perhaps. it's not easily digestible like reality tv or some militia up-in-arms martial law ruckus.
If the ordinary would take an interest in the processes that really get things done, perhaps we wouldn't have to have THIS conversation on a thread like this. Sweaters of knit lambswool for the eyes of the herd. I usually DESPISE comments like that, but this thread needs a bump in Recents, so there I go w my comment adding NOTHING to the convo.

a reply to: benrl

sandf Wrabbit

to illustrate Ben's point

Obama 'Surprised,' 'Upset' When Anwar Al-Awlaki's Teenage Son Was Killed By U.S. Drone Strike

www.huffingtonpost.com...

i wonder where the term manslaughter, or rather teenageslaghter went to...

"surprised and upset and wanted an explanation" when he learned of Abdulrahman al-Awlaki's October 2011 death, which one former White House official calls "a mistake, a bad mistake."

The anecdote is one of many new details mentioned in Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield, investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill's book chronicling the targeted killing of Abdulrahman's father, Anwar al-Awlaki. The elder al-Awlaki was a U.S. born cleric who took a leadership role in al Qaeda's operations in the Arab Peninsula. Scahill writes that the CIA tried to pay Anwar al-Awlaki's younger brother Ammar a sum of $5 million to turn in his brother.

Anwar al-Awlaki was killed on Sept. 30, 2011 in a CIA drone strike in Yemen, the first known time a U.S.-controlled drone strike deliberately targeted and killed an American citizen. The killing prompted praise from Obama, who called it a "major blow to al Qaeda's most active operational affiliate."

But when a separate attack killed Abdulrahman al-Awlaki just two weeks later, Scahill writes that the Obama administration found itself scrambling to determine what went wrong.

A former senior official in the Obama administration told me that after Abdulrahman’s killing, the president was "surprised and upset and wanted an explanation." The former official, who worked on the targeted killing program, said that according to intelligence and Special Operations officials, the target of the strike was al-Banna, the AQAP propagandist. "We had no idea the kid was there. We were told al-Banna was alone

"The government can't pretend that everything about the targeted killing program is a classified secret while senior officials selectively disclose information to paint the program in the most favorable light," Jameel Jaffer, who heads the ACLU Center for Democracy, said in an email. -

That's heartening, to say the least!

a reply to: benrl

You have a great point there. They didn't even need to capture him. They could have tried him without his being in custody at all. That would have required a formal record of his charges and evidence though.

I'll never say this guy was a sweetheart and if he was with the people who publish Inspire, then he was good for what he got. Then again....so are many of the guys on Death Row. The difference is....Death Row guys at least get a trial, not a personal opinion.

I can't wait to see this......or see how they try to block it again.