An illegal bulls-eye?

Even if the allegations against U.S.-born Muslim cleric Anwar Awlaki are true, it's still controversial whether the U.S. can legally assassinate a suspected terrorist away from a battlefield.


May the U.S. government kill one of its own citizens without first convicting him of a crime? A court may have the opportunity to answer that important question. After being sued by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Treasury Department has issued a license allowing the civil liberties groups to provide legal services to the father of Anwar Awlaki, an American-born Muslim cleric who is reportedly on a list of individuals targeted for assassination by the military or the CIA. Awlaki's father insists that his son is not a terrorist.

Initially, the government was not going to allow the groups to weigh in. That would have been a travesty. But the Treasury Department provided a license after the groups challenged a requirement that anyone providing legal services on behalf of a "designated global terrorist" obtain permission from the department. Now they will be permitted to file suit to contest the notion that the United States may engage in "targeted killings" of individuals far from a battlefield.

Awlaki, who is believed to live in Yemen, allegedly has encouraged a series of terrorist attacks, including the attempted Christmas Day bombing of an airliner arriving in Detroit. He was also in communication with Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army major accused of killing 13 people at Ft. Hood, Texas.





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