President Obama has enacted some good policies since taking office. Some other policies, however, are worrisome. One of those worrisome policies is the administration's alleged targeted assassinations of U.S. citizens abroad, even, as Nat Hentoff wrote a February 2010 column, "while engaged ... in the most benign activities carried out far away from any actual battlefield, based solely on [Obama's] say-so and with no judicial oversight or other checks."
And two rights groups are challenging that policy.
On August 30, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality and legality of the targeted killings of U.S. citizens located far from any conflict zone.
"The United States cannot simply execute people, including its own citizens, anywhere in the world based on its own say-so," said Vince Warren, Executive Director of CCR. "The law prohibits the government from killing without trial or conviction other than in the face of an imminent threat that leaves no time for deliberation or due process. That the government adds people to kill lists after a bureaucratic process and leaves them on the lists for months at a time flies in the face of the Constitution and international law."
The suit, Al-Aulaqi v. Obama, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The plaintiff, Nasser Al-Aulaqi is challenging the government's decision to authorize the targeted killing of his son, U.S. citizen Anwar Al-Aulaqi.
Defendants in the lawsuit include Robert Gates, in his official capacity as Secretary of Defense; Leon Panetta, in his official capacity as Director of the CIA; and Barack Obama, in his official capacity of President of the United States.
>> Read the complaint. (PDF)
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