ACLU: The Government’s Pseudo-Secrecy Snow Job on Targeted Killing

[The Northerner]

Just before a midnight deadline on Wednesday, the government filed its legal brief responding to the ACLU’s Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking information about the legal and factual basis for the deaths of three U.S. citizens in targeted killing drone strikes last fall.

Our initial reaction to the brief is here, but the government’s position is so remarkable that it warrants further comment.

* We filed this lawsuit on February 1, 2012, after the government responded to our Freedom of Information Act request by refusing to confirm or deny whether it had records about the legal authority or factual basis for the targeted killing of U.S. citizens. The brief the government submitted on Wednesday (literally at the 11th hour and 57th minute) was originally due on April 13, but the government sought a series of extensions of that deadline, twice telling the court that delay was required because “the Government’s position is being deliberated at the highest level of the Executive Branch.” And what did two and a half months of deliberation produce? Virtually nothing. Not disclosure of the Office of Legal Counsel memorandum that provided purported legal justifications for killing U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki. Not information about the process by which U.S. citizens are added to “kill lists.” Not the evidence the government relied on to justify the targeting of al-Awlaki. Not information about how and why it killed two other American citizens, including a 16-year-old boy, in drone strikes last fall. Not even an acknowledgment that the CIA conducts targeted killings at all, or that the military took part in the targeting and killing of the three U.S. citizens last year.

Here’s the change in position that officials at the “highest level” decided on: They pointlessly acknowledged that the CIA has in its files copies of recent public speeches by Attorney General Eric Holder and the President’s chief counterterrorism advisor, John Brennan. And they acknowledged that they have identified other documents relevant to our request, but refuse to discuss what those documents are about or even how many there are. The government’s brief amounts to a total secrecy snow job. In every relevant respect, the government’s stonewalling continues. Although in public speeches and in the press government officials have repeatedly acknowledged the CIA and military targeted killing programs and discussed the U.S. responsibility for killing al-Awlaki, in court the government continues to cling to a patently implausible invocation of official secrecy.

The government’s position is strikingly broad. The government’s brief says that “whether or not the United States government conducted the particular operations that led to the deaths of Anwar al-Aulaki and other individuals named in the FOIA requests remains classified.” But if U.S. responsibility for killing al-Awlaki is classified, someone forgot to tell the Department of Defense. Within hours of al-Awlaki’s death, DOD published a news article stating that “[a] U.S. airstrike . . . killed Yemeni-based terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki early this morning.” President Obama and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta have both acknowledged that the U.S. killed al-Awlaki. At this point, refusing to say whether the U.S. was responsible for killing al-Awlaki at all, not even whether the CIA or the military was responsible, is absurd.

Read more: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/06/26-4

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

1. Donchya just love all the transparency Obama brought to our government? Oh, wait...

But, it made a helluva good campaign slogan.

[malthaussen]

2. Let the Greek Chorus begin:

"Why do you hate Obama?"
"Do you want Romney to win?"
"They were legitimate war targets!"
"I trust our President."

etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

The ACLU needs to understand that when it comes to the War on Terror, that legal stuff is for pansies.

-- Mal

[clang1]

3. More tyranny

And what did two and a half months of deliberation produce? Virtually nothing. Not disclosure of the Office of Legal Counsel memorandum that provided purported legal justifications for killing U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki. Not information about the process by which U.S. citizens are added to “kill lists.”

Coming for YOU next. Maybe not next year...maybe not in a few years...but eventually...The way this stuff works IMO. History seems to back that up pretty good as well.

Heh heh, the drones are already here....One just crashed recently. Next they will arm them... Heh, We'll see. First it starts with surveillance, then... Heh, just seems logical to me.

[SidDithers]

4. 245...nt

Sid