February, 10 2014, 11:24am EDT
US Considering Targeted Killing of American
NEW YORK
The U.S. government is considering whether to kill an American abroad suspected of planning terrorist attacks, according to an article published today by The Associated Press. A separate story by The Intercept reported that the U.S. government is using primarily NSA surveillance to target people for drone strikes overseas.
Hina Shamsi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's National Security Project, had this reaction:
"The government's killing program has gone far beyond what the law permits, and it is based on secret evidence and legal interpretations. The targeted killing of an American being considered right now shows the inherent danger of a killing program based on vague and shifting legal standards, which has made it disturbingly easy for the government to operate outside the law. The fact that the government is relying so heavily on limited and apparently unreliable intelligence only heightens our concerns about a disastrous program in which people have been wrongly killed and injured. Today's revelations come as the administration continues to fight against even basic transparency about the thousands of people who have died in this lethal program, let alone accountability for the wrongful killings of U.S. citizens."
More information on targeted killing is at:
aclu.org/national-security/targeted-killings
The American Civil Liberties Union was founded in 1920 and is our nation's guardian of liberty. The ACLU works in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.
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