If you attended or watched the video of Wednesday’s John Locke Foundation/Campbell Law School Federalist Society forum on the Anwar al-Awlaki killing, you might recall the recommendation that future targeted killings of U.S. citizens ought to involve some form of oversight. Doug Bandow of the Cato Institute recommended something along the lines of “assassination warrants.”
The New York Times reports this week that the Obama administration’s top Pentagon lawyer wants no such oversight.
The Obama administration’s top Pentagon lawyer on Wednesday said that American citizens who join Al Qaeda can be targeted for killing and that courts should have no role in reviewing executive branch decisions about whether someone has met such criteria.
“Belligerents who also happen to be U.S. citizens do not enjoy immunity where non-citizen belligerents are valid military objectives,” said Jeh C. Johnson, the Defense Department general counsel, in a speech at Yale Law School.
Mr. Johnson’s remarks offered an unusually comprehensive and public declaration of the Obama administration’s national security legal policy views in the war against Al Qaeda and its allies. While the outlines of those views have been aired in pieces before, officials usually discuss such matters only on condition of anonymity.
HT: Jeff A. Taylor
