Nick McCann
The Department of Justice does not have to disclose documents related to a targeted drone strike that killed U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki in 2011, a federal judge ruled.
The First Amendment Coalition sued the Department of Justice under the Freedom of Information Act in 2012.
A drone strike in September 2011 killed U.S.-born Anwar al-Awlaki, a propagandist for al Qaeda, in an attack that President Obama called a “success” that was a “tribute to our intelligence community.”
The San Rafael-based First Amendment Coalition sought a 2010 legal memo from the Office of Legal Counsel that allegedly “provided a legal analysis and justification for the U.S. government’s targeted killing” of U.S. citizens.
The group sought “as much of the OLC memo as can be released without harm to legitimate U.S. national security interests.”
“This would include, at minimum, those portions of the OLC memo discussing and analyzing legal and related issues concerning the selection of U.S. citizens abroad, for targeting with lethal force,” the complaint states.
The public is entitled to know the government’s legal reasons for targeting U.S. citizens abroad, the Coalition said.
“Regardless of one’s views about the Obama administration policy in the counterterrorism area, the assertion of the power to lethally target U.S. citizens, and to do so unilaterally, without judicial oversight of any kind, is an extreme step warranting as much scrutiny and public debate as are possible under the circumstances,” the complaint states.
The Justice Department responded to the Coalition’s request in June 2013, “acknowledging the existence of one responsive OLC opinion … and refusing to confirm or deny the existence of responsive records related to any other agency.”
The American Civil Liberties Union and New York Times sued the Justice Department for access to similar information about drone strikes and other government-authorized killings of suspected al Qaeda affiliates.
In response to those complaints, the Justice Department released unclassified documents and the reasons why they were being withheld, and the CIA produced public speeches by Eric Holder and John Brennan defending the government’s use of drones.
A federal judge in Manhattan found in favor of the Justice Department. The ACLU and the Times appealed.