Washington, February 02: A leading American rights group has sued the US government, saying the Justice Department should release legal justification for targeted assassination program that killed US citizens abroad.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Wednesday filed a lawsuit in a New York court, demanding the disclosure of documents authorizing targeted assassination drone strikes.
Citing last year’s killing of US born Anwar al-Awlaqi in a drone attack in Yemen, ACLU called for “basic — and accurate — information about the government’s targeted killing program.”
The Obama administration’s “deliberate and premeditated killing of American terrorism suspects raises profound questions that ought to be the subject of public debate,” the ACLU said in a statement.
Last October, the New York Times reported that the Obama administration has crafted a secret legal document allowing the killing of US citizens without any trials.
The UK based rights group, Amnesty International, also condemned Washington over its drone attacks in Pakistan.
In a statement on Tuesday, the group asked Washington to disclose details of the legal and factual basis for the use of drones in Pakistan.
Amnesty International also called on the US to monitor civilian casualties inflicted by drone attacks in Pakistan.
The statement came after US President Barack Obama defended the use of unmanned aircraft in a rare public acknowledgment on Monday.
Obama said that the strikes targeted “al-Qaeda suspects who are up in very tough terrain along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.”
US drone attacks in Pakistan, which are carried out by the CIA, have doubled during the Obama administration.
Washington claims that the unmanned aircraft target militants and their strongholds, but victims of such attacks have been predominantly civilians.
The UN and the Pakistani government have condemned the US use of combat drones as a blatant violation of international law.
——Agencies