Cheney, Harman Say Obama Was Justified in Ordering Drone Strike on Awlaki 
 
 Enlarge image Islamic Cleric Anwar al-Awlaki AFP/Getty Images/Newscom A still image from video released by the SITE Intelligence Group shows radical Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaqi. 
 
 The U.S. was justified in sending a drone aircraft into Yemen to kill U.S.-born Anwar al-Awlaki, an al-Qaeda recruiter and propagandist, former Vice President Dick Cheney and Democratic ex-Representative Jane Harman said. 
 
 “It was a very good strike,” Cheney said today on CNN’s “State of the Union” broadcast. “The president ought to have that kind of authority to order that kind of strike, even when it involves an American citizen, when there is clear evidence that he’s part of al-Qaeda.” 
 
 Harman, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee before she quit in February to join the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, urged the administration to release legal documents she said provided the support for the drone strike against al-Awlaki in Yemen. 
 
 “I believe there is a good case,” Harman, of California, said on the broadcast. Al-Awlaki was an “imminent threat” who was beyond the U.S. ability to capture and “had complicity” with al-Qaeda, Harman said. 
 
 Al-Awlaki was identified by the Office of Foreign Assets Control list of “specially designated nationals” as a 40-year- old native of Las Cruces, New Mexico, with dual U.S. and Yemeni citizenship. Last year, President Barack Obama approved an order making him the first American ever to be placed on the Central Intelligence Agency’s hit list. 
 
 Fort Hood Killings 
 
 Through the website of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, al-Awlaki helped inspire U.S. Army Major Nidal Hasan to kill 13 people and wound 29 at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009, U.S. counter- terrorism officials have said. He encouraged Nigerian-born Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to try to blow up a Northwest Airlines plane on Christmas Day 2009 with explosives hidden in his underwear, they said. 
 
 The administration has the right to target American citizens when they are outside the U.S. when the nation is at war, as it has been since the 2001 attacks in New York and Washington, Cheney said. 
 
 “The Obama administration has clearly reached the point where they’ve agreed they need to be tough and aggressive in defending the nation and using some of the same techniques that the Bush administration did,” Cheney said. 
 
 The American Civil Liberties Union said Sept. 30 that “the targeted killing violates both U.S. and international law.” 
 
 In a statement, ACLU deputy legal director Jameel Jaffer called the campaign “a program under which American citizens far from the battlefield can be executed without judicial process, and on the basis of standards and evidence that are kept secret not just from the public but from the courts.” 
 
 The Justice Department wrote a memorandum authorizing the killing of al-Awlaki, following a review by senior administration lawyers of the legal issues involved, the Washington Post reported yesterday, citing unidentified administration officials. 
 
 The newspaper cited the officials as saying there was no dissent about the legality of killing al-Awlaki. Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler and White House spokesman Tommy Vietor declined to comment on the memorandum. ||||| An unconstitutional killing: Obama's killing of Awlaki violates American principles 
 
 Site Intelligence Group/AP Anwar al-Awlaki was killed by U.S. drone strikes in Yemen last week. 
 
 Take our Poll Justified Do you believe the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki was the right thing to do? Yes, he was a terrorist and a traitor. No, he should have been put on trial like a criminal. Related News Editorial: Dead to rights 
 
 GOP prez hopeful Ron Paul blasts Obama for 'assassinating' al-Awlaki 
 
 Dead to rights 
 
 
 
 As President, I would not hesitate to use decisive force to repel any imminent threat. National defense is a primary function of Congress and the commander-in-chief, and, as chief executive, I would carry out my duties as outlined in the Constitution and in accordance with the rule of law. 
 
 President Obama apparently believes he is not bound by the Constitution or the rule of law. When it was reported that Anwar al-Awlaki was killed by U.S. drone strikes in Yemen last week, certainly no one felt remorse for his fate. Awlaki was a detestable person we believe helped recruit and inspire others to kill Americans through terrorist acts. 
 
 We have to take the fight against terrorism very seriously. In 2001, I supported the authority to capture and kill the thugs responsible for 9/11. In our efforts we must, however, work hard to preserve and respect our great American constitutional principles. 
 
 Awlaki was a U.S. citizen. Under our Constitution, American citizens, even those living abroad, must be charged with a crime before being sentenced. As President, I would have arrested Awlaki, brought him to the U.S., tried him and pushed for the stiffest punishment allowed by law. Treason has historically been judged to be the worst of crimes, deserving of the harshest sentencing. But what I would not do as President is what Obama has done and continues to do in spectacular fashion: circumvent the rule of law. 
 
 On Feb. 3, 2010, Dennis Blair, then the country's director of national intelligence, admitted before the House Intelligence Committee that "Being a U.S. citizen will not spare an American from getting assassinated by military or intelligence operatives." This open admission by an Obama administration official, not even attempting to keep it classified or top secret, sets a dangerous new precedent in our history. 
 
 The precedent set by the killing of Awlaki establishes the frightening legal premise that any suspected enemy of the United States - even if they are a citizen - can be taken out on the President's say-so alone. Part of the very concept of citizenship is the protection of due process and the rule of law. The President wants to spread American values around the world but continues to do great damage to them here at home, appointing himself judge, jury and executioner by presidential decree. 
 
 When Nazi leader and Holocaust mastermind Adolf Eichmann was convicted and executed by the Israeli government in 1962, it was after he was captured, extradited and tried. Respect for the rule of law never has been for the protection of monsters like Eichmann or Awlaki, who should meet their just fate - but for the protection of the vast majority of innocent citizens who should never become subject to mere governmental whim.
– Anwar al-Awlaki was a "detestable person" and no one mourns his killing in Yemen last week. But that doesn't change the fact that his killing was unconstitutional and "sets a dangerous new precedent," writes Ron Paul in an editorial in the New York Daily News. "Under our Constitution, American citizens, even those living abroad, must be charged with a crime before being sentenced," writes Paul. "The precedent set by the killing of Awlaki establishes the frightening legal premise that any suspected enemy of the United States—even if they are a citizen—can be taken out on the president's say-so alone." Other politicians disagree with Paul, however. Former VP Dick Cheney and former Democratic Representative Jane Harman both spoke out in favor of the Awlaki killing, reports Bloomberg. “It was a very good strike,” said Cheney on CNN yesterday. “The president ought to have that kind of authority to order that kind of strike, even when it involves an American citizen, when there is clear evidence that he’s part of al-Qaeda.” Harman agreed, saying there was evidence Awlaki was an "imminent threat" to the US.