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"Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this Presidency" |
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration has rejected requests from The New York Times and the American Civil Liberties Union seeking information about its "targeted killing" program against suspected terrorists, saying the release of the requested documents would harm national security.
Under
the Freedom of Information Act, the Times and the ACLU sought records
regarding the legal justifications for the alleged U.S. government
killing of U.S. citizens and others associated with al-Qaida and other
terrorist groups.
In a court document filed
late Wednesday in New York in response to an ACLU lawsuit, the Justice
Department said that "even to describe the numbers and details of most
of these documents would reveal information that could damage the
government's counterterrorism efforts."
The
administration said the information requested is "highly classified,"
even though details of such operations have been leaked to the media.
"For
example, whether or not the United States government conducted the
particular operations that led to the deaths of Anwar al-Awlaki and the
other individuals named in the FOIA requests remains classified," the
government wrote. The U.S.-born al-Awlaki, an al-Qaida leader, was
killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen in September.
"Likewise,
whether or not the CIA has the authority to be, or is in fact, directly
involved in targeted lethal operations remains classified," the
government wrote.
In response to the
government filing, ACLU Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer said
Thursday: "The notion that the CIA's targeted killing program is still a
secret is beyond absurd. Senior officials have discussed it, both on
the record and off."
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