You're reading: US rejects requests for ‘targeted killing’ papers

WASHINGTON — 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.

The program has become one of the most questioned under the Obama administration.

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.”

The administration
acknowledged public concern about U.S. use of targeted killings and said
it has tried to “set forth for the American people the legal analysis
and process involved in the determination whether to use lethal force.”
Those efforts have included speeches by a number of U.S. officials,
including Attorney General Eric Holder.

But it maintained that the
requested records would reveal “whether or not the U.S. government
possesses specific intelligence information about particular
individuals. Yet, Congress has made the judgment in the CIA Act and the
National Security Act that information concerning such intelligence
sources and methods should be exempt from public disclosure.”

The
ACLU’s Jaffer said, “The public is entitled to know more about the legal
authority the administration is claiming and the way that the
administration is using it.”