Washington, Feb. 18 (ANI): Top Senate Republicans have disagreed over who should authorize drone strikes on Americans suspected of involvement in terrorist activities.
Senator Rand Paul, Republican-Kentucky, affirmed his position that a federal court, not President Barack Obama, should make the decision, while Senator Lindsey Graham told ‘Fox News Sunday’ that having a court decide would be ‘the worst thing in the world’.
The issue of using the unmanned aircraft has been a controversial issue since Americans learned last year that Obama was secretly and personally ordering drone strikes, Fox News reports.
The issue returned to the forefront last week when Obama agreed to give House and Senate intelligence committees access to a classified legal opinion on using drones to kill U.S. terror suspects on foreign soil.
Paul, also on ‘Fox News Sunday’, attempted to clarify his position. He said he was ‘primarily’ focused on Americans on U.S. soil, but also concerned about Americans abroad.
He said Americans suspected of terrorism should have their day in court before a ‘hell fire’ missile comes at them.
According to the report, Obama last week also said that there has never been a drone strike on a U.S. citizen on American soil and that he will work with Congress on a way to be more open with the public about the U.S. drone program.
However, Paul said he was concerned about Obama saying only that he does not ‘intend’ to use domestic drone strikes.
Questions about the drone-strike programme were raised back in 2011 when a missile fatally struck U.S.-born Anwar al-Awlaki, whom U.S. intelligence officials said was a leader of Al Qaeda in Yemen.
Al-Awlaki’s teenage son, also a U.S. citizen, was killed in a separate drone strike in Yemen that year.
Paul and Graham also were also split over the potential impact of upcoming federal cuts on the Defense Department.
Graham told Fox that the 85 billion dollars in spending cuts, known as sequester, set to kick in March 1 would be a major blow to the military.
Paul, who is a less-government, Tea Party conservative, said the reductions, about one trillion dollars over the next 10 years, are not really cuts because the federal budget will increase by trillions over that period, the report added. (ANI)