Here Is The Previously Secret Memo Justifying The Drone Killing Of Anwar Al-Awlaki

A federal appeals court in New York released a 2010 Justice Department memo on the targeted killing of Anwar al-Awlaki following a lawsuit brought by The New York Times and the American Civil Liberties Union. Portions of the memo are redacted.

Awlaki, an American-born cleric and al-Qaeda leader, was killed in September 2011. The 2010 memo provides legal justification for the U.S. to kill American citizens away from the battlefield without a trial.

Jameel Jaffer, an ACLU attorney who argued the case before the 2nd Circuit, told the Associated Press that the memo's release "represents an overdue but nonetheless crucial step towards transparency. There are few questions more important than the question of when the government has the authority to kill its own citizens."

from BuzzFeed - Breaking http://ift.tt/1nx1Emv