EXCLUSIVE: Justice Department memo reveals legal case for drone strikes on Americans

EXCLUSIVE: Justice Department memo reveals legal case for drone strikes on Americans
By Michael Isikoff
National Investigative Correspondent, NBC News

A confidential Justice Department memo concludes that the U.S.
government can order the killing of American citizens if they are
believed to be “senior operational leaders” of al-Qaida or “an
associated force” -- even if there is no intelligence indicating they
are engaged in an active plot to attack the U.S.

The 16-page memo, a copy of which was obtained by NBC News, provides new
details about the legal reasoning behind one of the Obama
administration’s most secretive and controversial polices: its
dramatically increased use of drone strikes against al-Qaida suspects,
including those aimed at American citizens, such as the September 2011
strike in Yemen that killed alleged al-Qaida operatives Anwar al-Awlaki
and Samir Khan. Both were U.S. citizens who had never been indicted by
the U.S. government nor charged with any crimes.
....
“The condition that an operational leader present an ‘imminent’ threat
of violent attack against the United States does not require the United
States to have clear evidence that a specific attack on U.S. persons and
interests will take place in the immediate future,” the memo states.
....
Instead, it says, an “informed, high-level” official of the U.S.
government may determine that the targeted American has been “recently”
involved in “activities” posing a threat of a violent attack and “there
is no evidence suggesting that he has renounced or abandoned such
activities.” The memo does not define “recently” or “activities.”
....
“This is a chilling document,” said Jameel Jaffer, deputy legal director
of the ACLU, which has sued unsuccessfully in court to obtain
administration memos about the targeted killing of Americans.
“Basically, it argues that the government has the right to carry out the
extrajudicial killing of an American citizen. … It recognizes some
limits on the authority it sets out, but the limits are elastic and
vaguely defined, and it’s easy to see how they could be manipulated.”

In particular, Jaffer said, the memo “redefines the word imminence in a way that deprives the word of its ordinary meaning.”

http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/04/16843014-exclusive-justice-department-memo-reveals-legal-case-for-drone-strikes-on-americans?lite

that's just a go ahead to target anyone he wants!

Exactly, DelfI. You can bet that the GPS coordinates for your place and my place have probably already been programmed into some hellfire missile targeting program.