Eric Holder Northwestern University Speech To Address Targeted American Killings Overseas, Sources Say

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric Holder is expected to outline the legal framework for the use of lethal force in targeted killings of Americans overseas in a major speech at Northwestern University law school, an Obama administration official said Sunday night.

Holder's speech Monday comes five months after the killing of U.S.-born al-Qaida cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen in a drone attack.

The official said the attorney general plans to say that lethal force is legal under a Sept. 18, 2001, joint congressional resolution. The Authorization for Use of Military Force enacted a week after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks authorizes the use of all necessary force in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States.

The official said Holder also will address how the Obama administration reformed military commissions and how both the Obama and the George W. Bush administrations have successfully used civilian courts to convict and sentence terrorists. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the contents of the speech haven't been released.

In recent months, the Obama administration has engaged in an internal debate about how much to reveal about the legal justification for the al-Awlaki killing.

At least three recently filed lawsuits have sought to force the Obama administration to publicly release its legal justification for the drone strike that killed al-Awlaki. The justification is contained in a secret Justice Department memo.

The administration has provided some details about what al-Awlaki was doing that made him so dangerous to the United States. In that vein, the Justice Department disclosed that a Nigerian man who tried to blow up an international flight on Christmas 2009 told FBI agents that his mission was approved after a three-day visit with al-Awlaki.

The man, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was sentenced last month to life in prison after admitting he attempted to blow up the plane with a bomb in his underwear as the plane approached Detroit.

Comments

[swimmer249]

01:08 AM on 04/03/2012

I've never heard about this. Our government, without sufficient evidence or due process, can take you out using a drone? Seems like murder to me. The federal government has reached a new low.

I

[Cacey]

07:31 PM on 03/06/2012

Anyone who can prove that the USA did not kill American citizens who had gone to Germany and Japan during WWII and become traitors simply has no idea of history...or reality.

[AlfredE69]

04:56 PM on 03/06/2012

Eric, try some of my Freedom Fries, they go well with my cannabis cookies!

[AlfredE69]

04:51 PM on 03/06/2012

Your totalitarianism is profoundly Un-American.

[marignymitch]

02:49 PM on 03/06/2012

Are we loving totalitarianism yet?

[Aroon]

02:44 PM on 03/06/2012

Do the nations in which "targeted assassinations" take place have any say in the matter?

[sageres]

01:25 PM on 03/06/2012

Targeted killings is a GREAT alternative to a full-out-military-campaign that might kill hundreds if not thousands of the local populations.

[AlfredE69]

04:54 PM on 03/06/2012

Operation Treadstone II:The Sequel: My Freedom Fries are Tasty!

[Cacey]

07:31 PM on 03/06/2012

Or one American soldier.

[Vera Gottlieb]

12:44 PM on 03/06/2012

A nation of warriors and a nation of murderers. But then make up for it by telling the entire world how much 'human rights' should be protected. The hypocrisy is enough to make one puke!

[Lfwngcons]

07:47 PM on 03/06/2012

I assume you are not an american and are just spouting anti-american hate...let me inform you of something you may have missed....MANY MANY of us americans are very much against this policy and many of the other policies that the our government chooses to use in the world.

Before you respond with "you elected those people" I will give you another piece of info on our country. We essentially choose between two parties because our media does not publish info about the extra parties. NOW we are stuck with essentially two people, both of whom carry a similar foreign policy. so no matter what we do we are stuck with war tyrants.

[john456]

09:46 AM on 03/06/2012

Most times in this world "might makes right" is all that is necessary. The US can continue its policy until it infringes on the world economy enough to cause a coalition to form against it or until it is too broke to continue. The fact that Holder and Obama are trying to make this legal is a travesty for the constitution and the nation. Since recorded history from Rome to Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia, and Mao's China they have all cloaked their use of force with legality. This is but another reason, regardless of anything else, that we need to support Ron Paul. Paul has said that the "Patriot Act" should have been called "Cancellation of the 4th Amendment" Act.

[Lfwngcons]

07:48 PM on 03/06/2012

Completely agree

[jsujet]

09:38 AM on 03/06/2012

Wow, so the President investigates the CIA for waterboarding and then justifies the assasination of US citizens. How hypocritical.

[AlfredE69]

04:54 PM on 03/06/2012

that's ObamaBush!

[whydothat]

07:12 PM on 03/06/2012

The difference was use of torture on people that often had done nothing wrong and were in many cases released after figuring out they dot the wrong guy versus folks that we have clear intelligence on or have FREELY made confessions as to their actions such as the on line rants and claims of responsibility. I realized you have an agenda that disregards facts. We should behave like Nazis

[jsujet]

09:23 PM on 03/06/2012

So it's ok to assassinate American citizens that have not gone through the legal process determining that they are guilty? You sound like the Nazi!

[Gui Montag]

09:36 AM on 03/06/2012

Um, what was the death of Osama if not a targeted killing?

[William J Unverferth Sr]

09:59 AM on 03/06/2012

Read the article. It's always been legal to kill a foreigner. A targeted killing of an american citizen has been a legally gray area. Pres. Obama is painting it white.

[Danish5666]

10:29 AM on 03/06/2012

"It's always been legal to kill a foreigner. " talk about knowing nothing. I guess then it legal to kill Americans for every other nation.

[winfl55]

10:23 AM on 03/06/2012

The question is al Awalki was an American citizen and does this provide him with the rights and protections of being an American citizen. "Attorney General Eric Holder is expected to outline the legal framework for the use of lethal force in targeted killings of Americans overseas.." You did read the first sentecnce didn't you?

[anoxic]

12:21 AM on 03/17/2012

yes, after the fact.

[Tom Brandt]

09:31 AM on 03/06/2012

When you block me, you loose me, bye bye. Off to the NY Times...

[Tom Brandt]

09:26 AM on 03/06/2012

Why are you blocking my comments? Come on, the last one was funny and creative...

[marignymitch]

02:51 PM on 03/06/2012

AOL censors do not have sense of humor. It's a rule apparently.

[Tom Brandt]

09:19 AM on 03/06/2012

Slippery slope boys but we do know that that Constitution thing and its Bill of Rights was really just a term paper by a bunch of drunken forefathers...rightttt

[Tom Brandt]

09:11 AM on 03/06/2012

Finally, an effective policy Republicans can use against Dems should they regain power. And, there's none of that messy guilty or not guilty stuff that wastes so much time...