http://www.emptywheel.net/2013/05/22/600-days-after-assassinating-anwar-al-awlaki-administration-admits-doing-so/
600 Days after Assassinating Anwar al-Awlaki, Administration Admits Doing So<http://www.emptywheel.net/2013/05/22/600-days-after-assassinating-anwar-al-awlaki-administration-admits-doing-so/> By: emptywheel <http://www.emptywheel.net/author/emptywheel/> Wednesday May 22, 2013 4:51 pm In this letter<https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/703181/ag-letter-5-22-13.pdf> boasting of unprecedented transparency, Eric Holder officially tells Congress that since 2009 the government has killed 4 Americans: Anwar al-Awlaki was specifically targeted and killed, and Samir Khan, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, and Jude Mohammed were not specifically targeted. One paragraph of the letter details how Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab told US officials of Awlakis involvement in the UndieBomb plot. Too bad that in two of three confessions, Abdulmutallab said someone besides Awlaki did the things Holder lists here. Too bad that Abdulmutallabs lawyer now says<http://www.emptywheel.net/2013/05/22/did-solitary-confinement-make-undiebomber-1-0-incompetent-to-represent-himself/> the solitary confinement associated with the interrogations in which he did implicate Awlaki made him incompetent. ----------------------------------- May 22, 2013 In a First, U.S. Admits Drones Have Killed 4 AmericansBy CHARLIE SAVAGE<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/charlie_savage/index.html> WASHINGTON 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<http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/05/23/us/politics/23holder-drone-lettter.html> 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. Awlakis 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. Awlakis 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. Mohammeds 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. According to former acquaintances of Mr. Mohammed in North Carolina, he appears to have been killed in a November 2011 drone strike in South Waziristan, in Pakistans tribal area. Mr. Mohammeds wife, whom he had met and married in Pakistan, subsequently called his mother in North Carolina to tell her of his death, the friends say. Mr. Holder, in a speech at Northwestern University Law School last year, laid out the administrations basic legal thinking that American citizens who are deemed to be operational terrorists, who pose an imminent threat of violent attack and whose capture is infeasible may be targeted. That abstract legal thinking including an elastic definition of what counts as imminent was further laid out in an unclassified white paper provided to Congress last year, which was leaked earlier this year. But Mr. Holders letter went further in discussing the death of Mr. Awlaki in particular, an operation the administration had previously refused to publicly acknowledge. He said it was not Mr. Awlakis words urging violent attacks against Americans that led the United States to target him, but direct actions in planning attacks. Mr. Holder alleged that Mr. Awlaki not only planned the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner on Dec. 25, 2009, a claim that has been widely discussed in court documents and elsewhere, but also played a key role in an October 2010 plot to bomb cargo planes bound for the United States, including taking part in the development and testing of the bombs. Moreover, information that remains classified to protect sensitive sources and methods evidences Awlakis involvement in the planning of numerous other plots against U.S. and Western interests and makes clear he was continuing to plot attacks when he was killed, Mr. Holder wrote. He added, The decision to target Anwar al-Awlaki was lawful, it was considered, and it was just. Mr. Obama announced the death of Mr. Awlaki on Sept. 30, 2011, and credited United States intelligence agencies, but he did not explicitly acknowledge that Mr. Awlaki had been killed by an American strike. ----------------------------------------------------------- We Have Always Been at War with Eastasia Adherents<http://www.emptywheel.net/2013/05/22/we-have-always-been-at-war-against-eastasia-adherents/> By: emptywheel <http://www.emptywheel.net/author/emptywheel/> Wednesday May 22, 2013 3:38 pm Back on September 18, 2001, heres who we declared war against<http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RS22357.pdf> . the President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, On March 13, 2009, heres how Obama expanded that AUMF<http://www.justice.gov/opa/documents/memo-re-det-auth.pdf> to include associated forces. The President has the authority to detain persons that the President determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, and persons who harbored those responsible for those attacks. The President also has the authority to detain persons who were part of, or substantially supported, Taliban or al-Qaida forces *or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners, including any person who has committed a belligerent act, or has directly supported hostilities, in aid of such enemy armed forces*. [my emphasis] Heres how, on Monday, the White House described the speech Obama will make tomorrow on counterterrorism. On May 23, the President will give a speech at the National Defense University on the Administrations counterterrorism policy. In his speech, the President will discuss our broad counter-terrorism policy, including our military, diplomatic, intelligence and legal efforts. He will review the state of the threats we face, particularly as al Qaeda core has weakened but new dangers have emerged; he will discuss the policy and legal framework under which we take action against terrorist threats, including the use of drones; he will review our detention policy and efforts to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay; and he will frame *the future of our efforts against Al Qaeda, its affiliates and adherents*. [my emphasis] Now, in point of fact, this war against adherents is not new. Denis McDonough invoked<http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/03/06/remarks-denis-mcdonough-deputy-national-security-advisor-president-prepa> it in a speech on March 6, 2011. Preventing radicalization that leads to violence here in America is part of our larger strategy to decisively defeat al Qaeda. Overseas, because of the new focus and resources that the President has devoted to this fight, the al Qaeda leadership in the border regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan is hunkered down and its harder than ever for them to plot and launch attacks against our country. Because were helping other countries build their capacity to defend themselves, were making it harder for al Qaedas adherents to operate around the world. Here at home, weve strengthened our defenses, with improvements to intelligence and aviation screening and enhanced security at our borders, ports and airports. As weve seen in recent attempted attacks, al Qaeda and its adherents are constantly trying to exploit any vulnerability in our open society. But its also clear that our dedicated intelligence, law enforcement and homeland security personnel have disrupted many more plots and saved many American lives. [snip] For all these reasonsour stronger defenses at home; our progress against al Qaeda overseas; the rejection of al Qaeda by so many Muslims around the world; and the powerful image of Muslims thriving in Americaal Qaeda and its adherents have increasingly turned to another troubling tactic: attempting to recruit and radicalize people to terrorism here in the United States. [snip] But with al Qaeda and its adherents constantly evolving and refining their tactics, our understanding of the threat has to evolve as well. Obama invoked adherents, sort of<http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/05/19/remarks-president-middle-east-and-north-africa>, shortly thereafter. Bin Laden and his murderous vision won some adherents. And John Brennan invoked adherents in speeches on June 29, 2011<http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/06/29/remarks-john-o-brennan-assistant-president-homeland-security-and-counter> , September 16, 2011<http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/09/16/remarks-john-o-brennan-strengthening-our-security-adhering-our-values-an> ,April 30, 2012 <http://www.lawfareblog.com/2012/04/brennanspeech/>, and October 26, 2012<http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/texttrans/2012/10/20121026138021.html#axzz2U3F8SPzQ> . So the Administration has been at war against al Qaeda adherents (and affiliates, another new category) for some time. But if Im not mistaken, tomorrow will mark the most detailed discussion in which the President describes this war that no one declared against adherents. And given that Congress has shown newfound interest<http://www.armed-services.senate.gov/hearings/event.cfm?eventid=dff260f50b247719c4fa9f1e3daf7232> in the scope of the AUMF that includes neither adherents nor associated forces, it will be interesting to see how the President describes this expanded war. 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