AG Eric Holder's letter regarding killing of US citizens in drone strikes

[tsai3904]

One day before President Obama is due to deliver a major speech on national security, his administration on Wednesday formally acknowledged that the United States had killed four American citizens in drone strikes in Yemen and Pakistan.

In a letter to Congressional leaders obtained by The New York Times, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. disclosed that the administration had deliberately killed Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical Muslim cleric who was killed in a drone strike in September 2011 in Yemen.

The American responsibility for Mr. Awlaki’s death has been widely reported, but the administration had until now refused to confirm or deny it.

The letter also said that the United States had killed three other Americans: Samir Khan, who was killed in the same strike; Mr. Awlaki’s son Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, who was also killed in Yemen; and Jude Mohammed, who was killed in a strike in Pakistan.

“These individuals were not specifically targeted by the United States,” Mr. Holder wrote.

While rumors of Mr. Mohammed’s death had appeared in local news reports in Raleigh, N.C., where he lived, his death had not been confirmed by the United States government until Wednesday.

More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/23/us/us-acknowledges-killing-4-americans-in-drone-strikes.html

Full letter:
http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/703181-ag-letter-5-22-13.html

[jllundqu]

Notice how he just glasses over the other 3 US citizens killed by the US??

[Warlord]

I correctly posted it with a picture of a Nazi.

[sailingaway]

Attorney General Eric Holder informed Congress on Wednesday that the U.S. has killed four Americans in drone strikes since 2009: radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and three others who were “not specifically targeted.”

Holder’s disclosure, first reported by the New York Times, came a day before President Barack Obama was to defend his counterterrorism strategy in an afternoon speech at National Defense University. Obama was slated to focus on drone strikes—which have sparked anger across the Muslim world and increasingly tough questions in Congress—and on his broken promise to close the Guantanamo Bay prison for suspected extremists.

Separately, the Wall Street Journal reported that Obama planned to lift a ban on sending prisoners from Guantanamo to Yemen. The administration prohibited transfers to Yemen out of concern that, once there, they might carry out attacks or radicalize other Yemenis.

The administration will also resume transferring detainees to their home countries that the Pentagon has cleared for release, the paper reported.

It's about time on that last. The whole purpose of having Gitmo in Cuba was so US law could be avoided, and the one times it means we can set people who have been cleared free rather than hold them we absolutely should use that loophole, given we dove through it when it wasn't to their benefit.

More here: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/holder-four-americans-killed-overseas-drone-strikes-since-204200672.html

[RickyJ]

I don't get these drone strike killings. How dangerous can a single person being alive be? Not very dangerous at all IMO. And if one innocent person is killed in a drone strike does it make it justifiable if we also get the one we targeted? I don't think so. Rather than drone strikes these people could be taken alive, given trials, and then if found guilty given appropriate punishment as all Americans should expect under the Constitution. Calling individuals "enemy combatants" is making it seem as if they have an army, when all they really have is a crime syndicate, if they even have that. This isn't a matter for the military, this is a matter for the FBI. Our military should defend us, not try to take the place of law enforcement agencies.

[sailingaway]

the guy they killed on purpose never killed anyone but made propoganda film. His son was only 16 and never killed anyone either, so far as we know.

[sailingaway]

You posted it first but I'm going to use my title and your post.

[enhanced_deficit]

Was "American-Al Qaeda leader" Adam Gadhan or these guys on Obama list?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwQkmEQCYw0

There has been no news about them for a while. If CNN can find them, Obama team should be able to also.

[Anti Federalist]

Just getting warmed up.

[WhistlinDave]

I don't get these drone strike killings. How dangerous can a single person being alive be? Not very dangerous at all IMO. And if one innocent person is killed in a drone strike does it make it justifiable if we also get the one we targeted? I don't think so. Rather than drone strikes these people could be taken alive, given trials, and then if found guilty given appropriate punishment as all Americans should expect under the Constitution. Calling individuals "enemy combatants" is making it seem as if they have an army, when all they really have is a crime syndicate, if they even have that. This isn't a matter for the military, this is a matter for the FBI. Our military should defend us, not try to take the place of law enforcement agencies.

Yea, and it would be a lot less innocent deaths if it was only one or two other people taken out for every target. By most estimates, we murder about 49 or 50 other people for every "militant" target killed in a drone strike. Including women and children.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/outrage-at-cias-deadly-double-tap-drone-attacks-8174771.html

[WhistlinDave]

the guy they killed on purpose never killed anyone but made propoganda film. His son was only 16 and never killed anyone either, so far as we know.

I might be next; I've been thinking about making propaganda films too. Probably not quite as radical as his were, but still not exactly friendly to our government, either... If you guys ever hear of an errant hellfire missile "accidentally" slamming into a residential neighborhood in So Cal you'll know what happened.

[sailingaway]

bump