On Thursday, American drones in Yemen tried to kill Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen and self-professed terrorist with suspected ties to al-Qaeda.
The strike, which missed al-Awlaki but killed two others, has been sharply critiqued by those who claim President Obama has grossly overstepped his Constitutional authority, particularly the Fifth Amendment, which states "no person shall be deprived of life without due process of law."
Now, the Center for Constitutional Rights – a non-profit founded in 1966 by civil rights lawyers – has weighed in with a sharp critique...
First, let me present CCR's recently-released statement:
We are deeply concerned about reports of resumed strikes in Yemen aimed at U.S. citizen Anwar Al-Aulaqi, whose addition to secret kill lists maintained by the CIA and the U.S. military’s Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) based on secret criteria was announced last year.
The use of lethal force against Al-Aulaqi in Yemen, a country against which the United States is not at war, is illegal under the U.S. Constitution and international law in all but the narrowest circumstances – as a last resort to protect against a concrete, specific, and imminent threat of death or serious physical injury. U.S. officials are obliged to comply with these standards.
Notwithstanding the government’s allegations against Al-Aulaqi, he has never been given any form of process that would be due a U.S. citizen or any individual before execution by the state. The executive’s policy of targeting suspects based only on its own say-so also poses the real risk that the government, which has clearly made mistakes, as the past decade has shown, will target the wrong people.
It is shameful that at a time when the people of Yemen and the Middle East are struggling for the rule of law, human rights and democracy, and protesting against violence by their governments, the U.S. is resuming strikes for which there is no transparency or accountability, and only escalating violence.
This is a strongly-worded denunciation of the Obama Administration's construction of a kill list that includes on it U.S. citizens. Nevermind the standing or status of such citizens regarding their involvement in terror activities – at issue for the CCR and others is the Constitutional requirement that criminals and combatants be given the opportunity for due process, that such individuals cannot be killed by the stroke of the President's pen without proof that such a stroke is legal and justified.
In short: CCR views killing U.S. citizens without evidence presented at a trial as patently and grossly illegal.
What CCR doesn't touch, and what many supporters of U.S. drone strikes on professed terrorists, such as al-Awlaki, argue is that capture and prosecution of such criminals is impossible. Essentially, the argument goes, it would be endangering the lives of U.S. soldiers to attempt the presentation of warrants and/or capture of said U.S. citizens due to the likelihood of such attempts being met with deadly force.
The issue is a complex and difficult one, to be clear. On one side stands the unmistakable dictates of the U.S. Constitution that the President does not have the power to order the killing of an American citizen without due process. On the other side stands what some would view as an untenable and dangerous imposition upon the lives of American soldiers.
With more American citizens standing upon the Obama administration's kill list, this is an issue that is unlikely to fade quietly into the night.
Thoughts? Please, I'm all ears.