For First Time, U.S. Admits Drones Killed 4 Americans
One
day before President
Obama is due to deliver
a major speech on
national security, his
administration on
Wednesday formally
acknowledged that the
United States had killed
four American citizens
in drone strikes in
Yemen and Pakistan.
In a letter to
Congressional leaders
obtained by The New
York Times, Attorney
General Eric H. Holder Jr.
disclosed that the
administration had
deliberately killed Anwar
al-Awlaki, a radical
Muslim cleric who was
killed in a drone strike in
September 2011 in
Yemen.
The American
responsibility for Mr.
Awlaki’s death has
been widely reported,
but the administration
had until now refused
to confirm or deny it.
The letter also said
that the United States
had killed three other
Americans: Samir Khan,
who was killed in the
same strike; Mr.
Awlaki’s son
Abdulrahman al-Awlaki,
who was also killed in
Yemen; and Jude
Mohammed, who was
killed in a strike in
Pakistan.
“These individuals were
not specifically targeted
by the United States,”
Mr. Holder wrote.
While rumors of Mr.
Mohammed’s death had
appeared in local news
reports in Raleigh, N.C.,
where he lived, his
death had not been
confirmed by the United
States government
until Wednesday.
According to former
acquaintances of Mr.
Mohammed in North
Carolina, he appears to
have been killed in a
November 2011 drone
strike in South
Waziristan, in
Pakistan’s tribal area.
Mr. Mohammed’s wife,
whom he had met and
married in Pakistan,
subsequently called his
mother in North Carolina
to tell her of his death,
the friends say.
Mr. Holder, in a speech
at Northwestern
University Law School
last year, laid out the
administration’s basic
legal thinking that
American citizens who
are deemed to be
operational terrorists,
who pose an “imminent
threat of violent
attack” and whose
capture is infeasible
may be targeted. That
abstract legal thinking
— including an elastic
definition of what
counts as “imminent”
— was further laid out
in an unclassified white
paper provided to
Congress last year,
which was leaked
earlier this year.
But Mr. Holder’s letter
went further in
discussing the death of
Mr. Awlaki in particular,
an operation the
administration had
previously refused to
publicly acknowledge. He
said it was not Mr.
Awlaki’s words urging
violent attacks against
Americans that led the
United States to target
him, but direct actions
in planning attacks.
Mr. Holder alleged that
Mr. Awlaki not only
“planned” the
attempted bombing of
a Detroit-bound airliner
on Dec. 25, 2009, a claim
that has been widely
discussed in court
documents and
elsewhere, but also
“played a key role” in an
October 2010 plot to
bomb cargo planes
bound for the United
States, including taking
“part in the
development and
testing” of the bombs.
“Moreover, information
that remains classified
to protect sensitive
sources and methods
evidences Awlaki’s
involvement in the
planning of numerous
other plots against U.S.
and Western interests
and makes clear he was
continuing to plot
attacks when he was
killed,” Mr. Holder wrote.
He added, “The decision
to target Anwar al-
Awlaki was lawful, it
was considered, and it
was just.”
Mr. Obama announced
the death of Mr. Awlaki
on Sept. 30, 2011, and
credited United States
intelligence agencies,
but he did not explicitly
acknowledge that Mr.
Awlaki had been killed
by an American strike.
Critics were not
assuaged by Mr.
Holder’s letter. “The
Obama administration
continues to claim
authority to kill virtually
anyone anywhere in the
world under the ‘global
battlefield’ legal theory
and a radical redefinition
of the concept of
imminence,” said Zeke
Johnson, an official with
Amnesty International.
“President Obama
should reject these
concepts in his speech
tomorrow and commit
to upholding human
rights, not just in word
but in deed.”
day before President
Obama is due to deliver
a major speech on
national security, his
administration on
Wednesday formally
acknowledged that the
United States had killed
four American citizens
in drone strikes in
Yemen and Pakistan.
In a letter to
Congressional leaders
obtained by The New
York Times, Attorney
General Eric H. Holder Jr.
disclosed that the
administration had
deliberately killed Anwar
al-Awlaki, a radical
Muslim cleric who was
killed in a drone strike in
September 2011 in
Yemen.
The American
responsibility for Mr.
Awlaki’s death has
been widely reported,
but the administration
had until now refused
to confirm or deny it.
The letter also said
that the United States
had killed three other
Americans: Samir Khan,
who was killed in the
same strike; Mr.
Awlaki’s son
Abdulrahman al-Awlaki,
who was also killed in
Yemen; and Jude
Mohammed, who was
killed in a strike in
Pakistan.
“These individuals were
not specifically targeted
by the United States,”
Mr. Holder wrote.
While rumors of Mr.
Mohammed’s death had
appeared in local news
reports in Raleigh, N.C.,
where he lived, his
death had not been
confirmed by the United
States government
until Wednesday.
According to former
acquaintances of Mr.
Mohammed in North
Carolina, he appears to
have been killed in a
November 2011 drone
strike in South
Waziristan, in
Pakistan’s tribal area.
Mr. Mohammed’s wife,
whom he had met and
married in Pakistan,
subsequently called his
mother in North Carolina
to tell her of his death,
the friends say.
Mr. Holder, in a speech
at Northwestern
University Law School
last year, laid out the
administration’s basic
legal thinking that
American citizens who
are deemed to be
operational terrorists,
who pose an “imminent
threat of violent
attack” and whose
capture is infeasible
may be targeted. That
abstract legal thinking
— including an elastic
definition of what
counts as “imminent”
— was further laid out
in an unclassified white
paper provided to
Congress last year,
which was leaked
earlier this year.
But Mr. Holder’s letter
went further in
discussing the death of
Mr. Awlaki in particular,
an operation the
administration had
previously refused to
publicly acknowledge. He
said it was not Mr.
Awlaki’s words urging
violent attacks against
Americans that led the
United States to target
him, but direct actions
in planning attacks.
Mr. Holder alleged that
Mr. Awlaki not only
“planned” the
attempted bombing of
a Detroit-bound airliner
on Dec. 25, 2009, a claim
that has been widely
discussed in court
documents and
elsewhere, but also
“played a key role” in an
October 2010 plot to
bomb cargo planes
bound for the United
States, including taking
“part in the
development and
testing” of the bombs.
“Moreover, information
that remains classified
to protect sensitive
sources and methods
evidences Awlaki’s
involvement in the
planning of numerous
other plots against U.S.
and Western interests
and makes clear he was
continuing to plot
attacks when he was
killed,” Mr. Holder wrote.
He added, “The decision
to target Anwar al-
Awlaki was lawful, it
was considered, and it
was just.”
Mr. Obama announced
the death of Mr. Awlaki
on Sept. 30, 2011, and
credited United States
intelligence agencies,
but he did not explicitly
acknowledge that Mr.
Awlaki had been killed
by an American strike.
Critics were not
assuaged by Mr.
Holder’s letter. “The
Obama administration
continues to claim
authority to kill virtually
anyone anywhere in the
world under the ‘global
battlefield’ legal theory
and a radical redefinition
of the concept of
imminence,” said Zeke
Johnson, an official with
Amnesty International.
“President Obama
should reject these
concepts in his speech
tomorrow and commit
to upholding human
rights, not just in word
but in deed.”
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