Today, a federal appeals court ordered the official release of a Department of Justice memorandum justifying the 2011 drone strike that killed Anwar al-Awlaki. The strike was the first targeted drone killing of a US citizen, made independent of the courts system and without due process, so the memorandum stands as the only legal justification for the killing. A white paper from the Department of Justice that leaked last February described the killing as justified if the target was a senior operational leader of al-Qaida or an associated force who poses an imminent threat to the United States. Still, lawyers and activists have been clamoring for more information about the Department of Justices work on the case.
Comments are closed.
