The United States can lawfully kill a U.S. citizen overseas if it determines the target is an immediate threat to its national security, a legal memo has indicated. NBC News obtained a copy of the so-called "Kill American" memo, explaining how justifications have been used in the past, and has only increased in the Obama administration as part of its counterterrorism strategy.
The 16-page memo provided the broad legal reasoning behind a secretive and controversial use of drone strikes against al-Qaida suspects abroad, including those aimed at American citizens who are complicit in terrorist activity. One such U.S. drone killed American-born, and Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. The imam had not been previously indicted by the U.S. government, nor charged with any crimes, but was seen as instigating a slew of terrorist-related incidents.
The document expansively defined an "imminent threat;' it need not be based on intelligence about anything specific or planned directly by al- Qaeda but rather the memo reads: "imminence must incorporate consideration of the relevant window of opportunity... such determinations can be made by an informed, high-level official of the U.S. government."
The American Civil Liberties Union on Monday night described the document as "profoundly disturbing... a stunning overreach of executive authority - the claimed power to declare Americans a threat and kill them far from a recognized battlefield and without any judicial involvement before or after the fact."
"Democrats have to think now about how they conducted themselves and the questions they raised about Bush administration tactics," Democrat Howard Ford Jr. said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" show.
Joe Scarborough flatly declared, also on the show, that had the policy come to light under Bush, it would have been "ended" by the ensuing outcry.
Politico reported that a bi-partisan group of 11 senators appealed directly to President Barack Obama to give lawmakers his administration legal justification for using armed-drones or counterterrorism operations to kill American citizens; 8 were Democrats.
Obama's pick to be the next CIA Director John Brennan, his current national security advisor, has long been a vocal supporter of the drone program and other counter terrorism tools dating back to the George W. Bush administration.
