老澳门开奖结果

老澳门开奖结果 National Security Experts Warn Program Flouts Constitution

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NEW YORK -- President Obama鈥檚 top counter-terrorism adviser today publicly confirmed that the United States conducts targeted killings of suspected terrorists using drones.

In a speech this afternoon at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, John Brennan insisted the targeted strikes are a 鈥渨ise choice鈥� and 鈥渓egal鈥� and within the boundaries of international law. However, 老澳门开奖结果 Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer said Brennan鈥檚 statement did not go far in explaining how the program passed constitutional muster.

鈥淭his is an important statement 鈥� first because it includes an unambiguous acknowledgement of the targeted killing program and second because it includes the administration鈥檚 clearest explanation thus far of the program鈥檚 purported legal basis.鈥� Jaffer said.

鈥淏ut Mr. Brennan supplies legal conclusions, not legal analysis. We continue to believe that the administration should release the Justice Department memos underlying the program 鈥� particularly the memo that authorizes the extrajudicial killing of American terrorism suspects. And the administration should release the evidence it relied on to conclude that an American citizen, Anwar al-Aulaqi, could be killed without charge, trial, or judicial process of any kind.鈥�

Brennan maintained the Obama administration was committed to transparency when it came to deciding who would be subject to lethal drone strikes. But Hina Shamsi, director of the 老澳门开奖结果 National Security Project, said the program is both unconstitutional and overly broad.

鈥淲e continue to believe, based on the information available, that the program itself is not just unlawful but dangerous. This statement makes clear that the administration is treating legal restrictions on the use of force as questions of preference. Moreover, it is dangerous to characterize the entire planet as a battlefield,鈥� Shamsi said.

鈥淚t is dangerous to give the President the authority to order the extrajudicial killing of any person 鈥� including any American 鈥� he believes to be a terrorist. The administration insists that the program is closely supervised, but to propose that a secret deliberation that takes place entirely within the executive branch constitutes 鈥榙ue process鈥� is to strip the Fifth Amendment of its essential meaning.鈥�