Drone strikes 4 Americans, Counterterrorism drone strikes have killed four Americans overseas since 2009, the U.S. government acknowledged for the first time on Wednesday, one day before President Barack Obama delivers a major speech on related policy.
In a letter to Senate
Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, Attorney General Eric Holder
said the United States specifically targeted and killed one American
citizen, al Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, in 2011 in Yemen, alleging he
was plotting attacks against the United States.
The letter provided new details about al-Awlaki's alleged involvement in bomb plots targeting U.S. aviation.
Holder also said the
Obama administration was aware of three other Americans who had been
killed in counterterrorism operations overseas.
Holder said Samir Kahn,
Abdul Rahman Anwar al-Awlaki and Jude Kenan Mohammed were not targeted
by the United States but he did not add more details about their deaths.
The letter represents the
first U.S. admission that the four were killed in counterterror strikes
even though their deaths had been reported in the media.
Abdul Rahman Anwar
Al-Awlaki was the 16-year-old son of the al Qaeda cleric and was killed
in Pakistan about two weeks after his father's death.
Khan produced the
English-language magazine Inspire for al Qaeda's affiliate in the
Arabian Peninsula, which included bomb-making instruction. He was killed
alongside the elder al-Awlaki.
Mohammed, who was once
on the FBI's Most Wanted list, was indicted in July 2009 as part of a
North Carolina-based terror ring. He was charged with plotting to
murder, kidnap or maim persons overseas and provide material support to
terrorists. Mohammed was never arrested and for a time reportedly was
living in Pakistan.
The Justice Department did not say when he was killed or provide any details.
Obama will deliver
long-promised remarks on Thursday at National Defense University and
will speak at length about the policy and legal rationale for how the
United States takes action against al Qaeda and its affiliates,
including the use of drones, according to a White House official.
Obama will discuss the administration's rationale for why those strikes are legal and necessary, the official said.
Targeting Americans with
lethal force in counterterror operations overseas was a controversy
that flared publicly during confirmation hearings for CIA Director John
Brennan earlier this year.
Senators aggressively sought the administration's legal reasoning for those operations.
Some lawmakers were
critical of the practice and questions were raised about whether drones
might ever be used against U.S. citizens suspected of terrorism who were
on American soil.
Holder said Obama
directed him to release the latest details, which had been classified
"until now." He said the unprecedented disclosure was made as a way to
build on Obama's commitment in his State of the Union Address earlier
this year to "continue to engage" with Congress on counterterror efforts
and to "ensure that they remain consistent with our laws and values."
Holder noted in one of
his own speeches last year he had made it clear the United States would
only use lethal force against an American citizen "who is a senior
operational leader of al Qaeda or its associated forces, and who is
actively engaged in planning to kill Americans." He also said no
American would be targeted unless he or she posed an imminent threat and
could not be captured.
The senior al-Awlaki was
believed by U.S. authorities to have inspired acts of terrorism against
the United States. It was said his facility with English and technology
made him one of the top terrorist recruiters in the world. He was
considered the public face of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
But Holder said in his
letter that it "was not his words that led the United States to act
against him" but his "direct personal involvement" in the "planning and
execution" of terror attacks against the United States that "made him a
lawful target."
For instance, Holder
said al-Awlaki "planned a suicide operation" for Umar Farouk
Abdulmutallab to blow up a U.S.-bound jetliner.
Holder noted al-Awlaki
directed Abdulmutallab to detonate his bomb, which was hidden in his
underwear, only when the jet was over U.S. soil. The plot that
ultimately involved a Delta Air Lines flight bound for Detroit on
Christmas Day in 2009 failed.
The letter also provided
new details about al-Awlaki's alleged involvement in a 2010 plot to
blow up U.S.-bound cargo planes with explosives hidden in printers.
Holder said al-Awlaki was so involved he even participated in the
development and testing of the explosives used in the plan that was
foiled.
Calling the decision to
use lethal force "one of the gravest our government" can face," Holder
said the operation targeting al-Awlaki received "exceptionally rigorous"
legal review and additional policy screening by the administration.
Congress was also briefed on the possibility of targeting the al Qaeda
figure and informed once the decision was made in 2010.
In his letter Holder
said Obama approved a policy document this week that "institutionalizes
the administration's exacting standards and processes for reviewing and
approving operations to capture or use lethal force against terrorist
targets outside the United States and areas of active hostilities."
Obama focuses on drones, Gitmo
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Judul: Drone strikes have killed four Americans since 2009
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