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Awlaki's father says CIA "kill list" unconstitutional
[Al Arabiya] A U.S. judge held a hearing Monday on CIA targeting of key terrorist suspects as a lawyer for the father of radical U.S.-Yemeni holy man Anwar al-Awlaki argued it was unconstitutional for his son to be on a "kill list."U.S. District Judge John Bates heard arguments in the case on the same day that a video of Awlaki calling for the killing of Americans "without hesitation" was posted on cut-thoat websites. President Barack B.O.Obama's administration has refused to officially acknowledge the existence of a assassination program but sources have told AFP that Awlaki is on a "capture or kill list." Nasser al-Awlaki argues that his son, an American citizen suspected of being a leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and of instigating a string of attacks against the United States, still has a constitutional right to due process. Jameel Jaffer, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, which along with the Center for Constitutional Rights has taken Awlaki's case, accused the U.S. government of imposing the death penalty without trial. The administration is empowered to use lethal force against American citizens deemed an imminent threat to national security and wants the case thrown out on the basis that such matters are not the realm of the courts. "Your honor, if an injunction is issued here, it provides to the leader of al-Qaeda (in the Arabian Peninsula) the ability to continue planning operations" against the United States, a government lawyer said. Yemeni authorities, under mounting U.S. pressure to fight al-Qaeda after a foiled air cargo bomb plot, charged Awlaqi last week with alleged ties to al-Qaeda and ordered his arrest by any means possible. The Yemen-based branch of al-Qaeda has grabbed credit for the parcel bomb plot and said it was also behind the September downing of an American cargo plane in Dubai, according to the SITE Intelligence Group. Posted by: Fred 2010-11-10 |
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