On Sept. 30, American-born Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki was killed by U.S. forces during an airstrike in Yemen. The U.S government considered al-Awlaki a senior al Qaida leader.
Charlie DunlapVisiting professor of law at Duke University Law School and director of Duke's Center on Law, Ethics and National Security.http://www.law.duke.edu/fac/dunlap
Specializes in warfare policy and strategy, cyber-warfare, military commissions, counterinsurgency, nuclear issues and air power; former deputy judge advocate general of the U.S. Air Force; retired from military in June 2010 as a major general.
Quote:"Some have raised the issue of al-Awlaki's U.S. citizenship, claiming he was entitled to being treated as legally different from other belligerents. In the still-applicable 1942 Nazi saboteur case of Ex Parte Quirin the Supreme Court concluded otherwise, finding that U.S. citizenship of 'an enemy belligerent does not relieve him from the consequences of a belligerency.' In this instance, that 'consequence' is being targeted like any other enemy.
"The court explicitly found that 'there are circumstances in which the executive's unilateral decision to kill a U.S. citizen overseas is constitutionally committed to the political branches and judicially unreviewable.'
"In short, if a U.S. citizen overseas presents an imminent threat, or is a participant in an organized armed group engaged in armed conflict against the U.S., as the administration seems to be alleging is the case with al-Awlaki, the mere fact that he may also be accused of criminal offenses does not necessarily give him sanctuary from being lawfully attacked overseas as any other enemy belligerent might be."