White House to Release Legal Rationale for Drone Killings
President Barack Obama has bowed to demands to release classified documents outlining the legal justification for drone strikes which kill US citizens abroad who are conspiring with al-Qaeda.
Drone
Obama aides insist killing Al-Qaeda suspects, some of them US citizens complies with US law Photo: Reuters
11:23AM GMT 07 Feb 2013
The backdown comes on the eve of a Senate hearing on Mr Obama’s nomination of his senior White House anti-terror adviser John Brennan to lead the Central Intelligence Agency in his second term.
Some senators had warned Mr Brennan’s confirmation could be in doubt if the administration did not share more information on the legal and constitutional grounds for the US government killing its own citizens. The 50-page document will be handed to the Senate intelligence committee.
The disclosure also comes after NBC News published an unclassified Justice Department white paper covering similar ground, reigniting the debate about the killing of estranged Americans who switched sides in the “War on Terror.”
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