Leaked Justice Department Memo Details 'Legality' Of Drone Strikes On Americans

[xchrom]

http://www.businessinsider.com/leaked-white-paper-details-legality-of-drone-strikes-on-americans-2013-2

?maxX=400

A 16-page document recently leaked to NBC details the 'legality' of drone strikes on American citizens.

Investigative journalist Michael Isikoff obtained the ground-breaking document through an anonymous source who had access. The administration supplied the memo to members of the Senate Intelligence and Judiciary Committees on the condition that it would be kept confidential.

From Isikoff's piece:

The confidential memo lays out a three-part test that would make targeted killings of American lawful: In addition to the suspect being an imminent threat, capture of the target must be “infeasible, and the strike must be conducted according to “law of war principles.” But the memo elaborates on some of these factors in ways that go beyond what the attorney general said publicly. For example, it states that U.S. officials may consider whether an attempted capture of a suspect would pose an “undue risk” to U.S. personnel involved in such an operation. If so, U.S. officials could determine that the capture operation of the targeted American would not be feasible, making it lawful for the U.S. government to order a killing instead, the memo concludes.The memo does not define “recently” or “activities.”

Though Isikoff notes that the memo is not meant to be a binding legal document, rather a "legal framework," nonetheless there's a glaring lack of legal definition for key words that act as steps in determining a citizen's guilt and following death penalty.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/leaked-white-paper-details-legality-of-drone-strikes-on-americans-2013-2#ixzz2K1UrVcK8

[2on2u]

1. "capture of the target must be “infeasible" Finding Bin Laden and getting to a point where

he could have been captured if someone ordered it..... must have been pretty infeasible.