Senators given access to doc authorizing drone killing of American — RT USA

Senators given access to doc authorizing drone killing of American — RT USA:

The White House announced Tuesday that US senators will be allowed to review the legal justification for the 2011 drone strike that killed an American in Yemen, an apparent effort to ease a nomination process for the previously-secret document's author.

The Obama administration has nominated David Barron, a Harvard law professor, for a seat on the 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals. He previously worked as an acting assistant attorney general of the US Justice Department when the administration authorized the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born Al-Qaeda leader.

Human rights activists, legal scholars, and some US lawmakers have condemned the drone strike as an extrajudicial assassination of an American without a court trial. Civil liberties groups including the American Civil Liberties Union have lobbied senators to block Barron’s judicial confirmation until all officials are able to carefully examine his memo, which has been cited by US President Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder, and others who have deemed the Awlaki killing justified.

 

Reuters / Lucas Jackson