WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The US government yesterday urged a judge to dismiss a lawsuit that seeks to end a programme authorizing the killing of accused militants like American Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and said al-Awlaki should turn himself in.
Testing President Barack Obama’s war powers, the American Civil Liberties Union and Center for Constitutional Rights sued to halt the programme and for the courts to decide under what conditions US citizens who the government claims pose terrorism threats can be killed.
The Obama administration has refused to officially confirm the programme exists, though US officials have said the CIA has been given the green light to capture or kill al-Awlaki, who is a US citizen hiding in Yemen and has been tied to several plots against the United States in the last year.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of al-Awlaki’s father and they argued that the cleric could not exercise his rights under the US Constitution, including to due process, because he was on the purported kill list.
Obama’s Justice Department lawyers disputed that and urged the case be thrown out.
“It is totally within the control of al-Awlaki, whether he is under the threat of force or not, he can avoid that by presenting himself” to authorities, Justice Department lawyer Douglas Letter told US District Judge John Bates.
The cleric, who was born in New Mexico and lived in Virginia until leaving the country shortly after the September 11, 2001, attacks, has said he would not turn himself in. Yemeni authorities have also sought to either capture or kill him.
During a three-hour court hearing, the lawyers for the two sides traded arguments over whether the case could proceed and whether the president could order the assassination of any American who posed a potential threat to the country.
Letter repeatedly refused to confirm or deny that the targeted kill program even exists, but said that the suggestion by the civil liberties groups that the president could order the assassination of any American was “just absurd”.
