Appeals court forces government to disclose legal reasoning behind overseas drone strikes

On Monday, the Miami Herald reported that the US Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit has overturned a ruling which allows the Justice Department to withheld the publication of a controversial opinion. The opinion reportedly discusses the US government's legal authority to launch drone strikes against US citizens whom it determined to be plotting terrorist attacks on US targets. The Justice Department initially secured a favorable hearing from a lower court squashing attempts to make the opinion public.

According to the ruling of the appeals court, senior administration officials of the Justice Department like General Eric Holder, CIA Director John Brennan and others had already made public statements that the killings via drone strikes were legal. Moreover, the three-judge panel also said that in November last year, an internal White Paper has been released by the Justice Department detailing the legal basis for killing operations after a journalist had received the document.

Judge Jon Newman wrote, "Whatever protection the legal analysis might once have had has been lost by virtue of public statements of public officials at the highest levels and official disclosure of the DOJ (Department of Justice) White Paper."

The opinion in question was written by the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) of the Justice Department, The Miami Herald had said. The opinion contained the legal justification for a drone strike order on September 2011 in Yemen to kill Al Qaida leader Anwar al Awlaki for the Arabian Peninsula, a US citizen whose group is the affiliate of the terrorist network in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Aside from charging Awlaki as a key recruiter and proselytizer for the terrorist group, Awlaki allegedly planned and ordered attacks against US nationals. Samir Khan, another American was also killed in the same drone strike.

There was no timetable issued for the release of the document to the public, The Miami Herald said. The document will, however, be released prior to the decision of the Justice Department on whether to appeal the ruling to a higher court.

Tags

US Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, US Justice Department, CIA Director John Brennan, Justice Department like General Eric Holder, military drone strikes

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