President Barack Obama is the first American president known to have authorized the assassination of a US citizen . On September 30 , 2011 , Anwar al-Awlaki , a U.S. citizen by virtue of his birth in New Mexico in 1971 , was killed by an American drone in Yemen along with another U.S. citizen , Samir Khan , who grew up in New York City and Charlotte , North Carolina . Al-Awlaki had played an operational role in al Qaeda 's affiliate in Yemen , al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula -- for instance , tasking the `` underwear bomber , '' Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab , to bring down an American airliner over the United States . AbdulMutallab attempted to bring down Northwest Flight 253 over Detroit on Christmas Day 2009 , but luckily his underwear bomb did n't detonate correctly . Khan had played more of a supporting role for AQAP as the editor of the group 's online magazine , Inspire , which has inspired a number of terrorists , including the two brothers suspected of bombing the Boston Marathon last year . The killings of two American citizens by a U.S. drone without a judicial process caused considerable outrage on both the left and the right . Since then there has been far more public discussion of the secretive drone program , both by U.S. government officials , including President Obama , and at public hearings about drones in Congress . But will al-Awlaki and Khan be the last Americans to die in a U.S. drone strike ? U.S. officials are now debating whether to kill with a drone another American citizen who is part of al Qaeda and believed to be plotting attacks against the United States , a senior U.S. official tells CNN . The Associated Press first reported this development but is withholding the name of the targeted individual . There has been speculation but no confirmation about who the individual might be . At least a couple of other American citizens or permanent residents are known to play important roles in al Qaeda today . One name that has been mentioned in media reports is that of California-born Adam Gadahn , who for the past decade has operated as a leading al Qaeda propagandist . In 2006 Gadahn was the first American charged with treason in more than half a century . However , there is , at least so far , no public information that Gadahn has played an operational role in al Qaeda 's terrorist plots , and therefore it is unlikely that he would be placed on a `` kill list , '' unless his role in al Qaeda has changed of late from propagandist to operational planner . According to a senior U.S. administration official , Gadahn is not the subject of the ongoing high-level discussions about whether a new name should be added to the kill list . In a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee in May 2013 , U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder laid out the legal rationale the government uses to determine if an American citizen can be killed in a drone strike . In the letter , Holder said that based on Supreme Court decisions during World War II , merely being an American citizen does not make one `` immune from being targeted . '' Holder also asserted that an American who poses an `` imminent threat of violent attack against the United States '' and is in a location where capture `` is not feasible '' could be killed . Holder explained that al-Awlaki `` plainly satisfied all these conditions '' as he had recruited the underwear bomber and instructed him to blow up an U.S. airliner `` when it was over American soil . '' Al-Awlaki was also killed in a remote part of Yemen where a U.S. ground operation to capture him was deemed unfeasible by the Obama administration . There is a certain irony in Holder 's legal reasoning . The FBI was monitoring al-Awlaki 's e-mail account for years before he was killed . To monitor his e-mail , the FBI had to get a court order . Yet the decision to target al-Awlaki for death was made without any kind of judicial proceeding . As Vicki Divoll , a former assistant general counsel for the CIA , nicely put it a year before al-Awlaki was killed in the drone strike , `` Awlaki 's right to privacy exceeds his right to life . '' Khan was killed in the same drone strike that killed al-Awlaki , but according to a senior U.S. official , that was unintentional and was merely a byproduct of Khan traveling in the same car as al-Awlaki when the drone strike occurred . In sum , Khan 's role as the editor of Inspire magazine was not enough to put him on a kill list . When it comes to targeting a U.S. citizen for death , American officials , by their own account , will make particular efforts to determine how dangerous an al Qaeda operative that person really is . In the eyes of many Americans , however , a decision to kill one of their own should also be subject to judicial review .
Peter Bergen : U.S. officials reported to be considering targeting an American citizen . He says Obama ordered killing of Anwar al - Awlaki by U.S. drone in Yemen . Attorney general says American citizens are n't immune to attack , put forth reasons for these cases . Bergen : Many Americans would say such a decision requires review by Congress .