District Court Judge Dismisses Suit Over Drone Strike Deaths

by Michael Yoakum
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON, D.C., United States – A federal judge dismissed an action against top Obama administration officials Friday brought by family members of three American citizens killed in a drone strike in Yemen, including Anwar al-Awlaki.  While D.C. district court Judge Rosemary Collyer said the case “raises fundamental issues regarding constitutional principles,” she announced that she will grant the government’s motion to dismiss.

al-Alwaki, a radical Muslim cleric and US citizen, was killed by a drone strike in Yemen in 2011. (photo courtesy of The Guardian).

The ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights represented the families of the three men killed in the drone strikes: al-Awlaki, his son Abdulrahman, and Samir Khan, a naturalized citizen who moved to Yemen in 2009 to work for an English language magazine.  The suit named former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, CIA Director David Patraeus, and two commanders in the military’s Special Operations Command.

Judge Collyer, in her 41 page opinion, ruled that courts should hesitate to hold government officials personally liable for violating citizens’ constitutional rights during wartime.

“The persons holding the jobs of the named defendants must be trusted and expected to act in accordance with the U.S. Constitution when they intentionally target a U.S. citizen abroad at the direction of the president and with the concurrence of Congress,” Collyer wrote, adding “They cannot be held personally responsible in monetary damages for conducting war.”

The ruling, if it stands, suggests that the Judiciary has no role in evaluating the legality of the Executive’s decision to kill American citizens in overseas operations when officials have deemed those citizens to be terrorists.

Brian Fallen, a Department of Justice spokesman, stated that the district court reached the correct decision.  Lawyers from the Center for Constitutional Rights say they have not decided whether they will appeal the decision.

Lawyers from the ACLU were vocal about their distaste for the court’s ruling. “This is a deeply troubling decision that treats the government’s allegations as proof while refusing to allow those allegations to be tested in court,” ACLU lawyer Hina Shamsi said.

The Obama administration is separately fighting Freedom of Information Act requests brought by the New York Times and ACLU seeking disclosure of a memo authored by the Department of Justice laying out the legal justification for the strikes.  Presently a summary of that legal reasoning has been unclassified and made available to the public.

For more information, please see:

Associated Press – Judge dismisses lawsuit over drone strikes – 4 April 2014

The Guardian – Drone killings case thrown out in US – 4 April 2014

The New York Times – Judge Dismisses Suit Against Administration Officials Over Drone Strikes – 4 April 2014

Reuters – Lawsuit over American drone strikes dismissed by U.S. judge – 4 April 2014

The Washington Post – Judge dismisses lawsuit over drone strikes in Yemen that killed American Anwar al-Awlaki – 4 April 2014

US Senate Report Identifies CIA Torture

By: Brandon R. Cottrell 
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON, D.C., United States – A recent US Senate report states that the CIA used secret “black sites” during the presidency of George W. Bush to interrogate prisoners—interrogation techniques included dunking the suspects in cold water, and smashing their heads against walls, both of which were not on the Justice Department’s approved list of techniques.

The US Senate’s report issued findings that the CIA, under Former President George W. Bush, used “black sites” to torture suspects using illegal techniques (Photo Courtesy BBC).

The report is broken down into three parts; “one that traces the chronology of interrogation operations, another that assesses intelligence officials’ claims and a third that contains case studies on virtually every prisoner held in CIA custody since the program began in 2001.”

Those familiar with the “black sites” report that the interrogations provided little useful intelligence information and that much of the intelligence that was claimed to result from the interrogations were exaggerated in an attempt to justify the program.  For example, one official said that they water-boarded one suspect over eighty times and that the only valuable information that came from that suspect was revealed prior to the water boarding.

One U.S. Official stated that “The CIA described [its program] repeatedly both to the Department of Justice and eventually to Congress as getting unique, otherwise unobtainable intelligence that helped disrupt terrorist plots and save thousands of lives [but] was that actually true?  The answer is no.”

Kevin Drum, a political blogger, echoed those feelings when he said that “the torture was even worse than we thought; it produced very little in the way of actionable intelligence; and the CIA lied about this in order to preserve their ability to torture prisoners.  Anybody who isn’t sickened by this needs to take very long, very deep look into their souls.”

The CIA has not yet formally commented on the report, as it as yet to see the final version of the report.  However, those who have seen the report suggest that it contained factual errors and misguided conclusions.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney continues to defend the program, saying, “If I would have to do it all over again, I would. The results speak for themselves.”

The Senate Intelligence Committee that has been investigating the CIA since 2009 will decide this week whether to send a summarized version of the report, which is over six thousand pages long, to President Obama who could then decide to release the report to the public.

 

For more information, please see the following:

BBC News – Secret US Senate Report Details CIA Abuse – 1-04-2014

Business Insider – CIA Torture: It Was Worse Than Anyone Knew – 01-04-2014

MSNBC – Report: CIA Deceived On Torture – 01-04-2014

Washington Post – CIA Misled On Interrogation Program, Senate Report Says – 31-03-2014