Hit List

On September 30, 2011, an assassination was carried out in Yemen using two hellfire missiles fired from an unmanned drone. The target was “one of the alleged leaders of al-Qaida,” Anwar al-Evlaki. Anwar al-Evlaki was a Yemen-born American citizen. Another Yemen-born American citizen who also lost his life in this assassination was Samir Khan. In the Oct. 14, 2011 assassination of one of the Egyptian al-Qaida leaders, Ibrahim al-Bana, a hellfire missile caused the death of seven people. One of these seven was the 16-year-old son of Anwar al-Evlaki, an American citizen himself.

This decision is related to the American Constitution, written in 1791, which states that no American citizen can be executed without a trial.

This assassination presents American society with two realities:

1. The American president has in his hands the power to target anyone for assassination who may appear to be threatening U.S. national interests, regardless of where they are in the world.

2. President Obama does not hesitate to use this power against American citizens.

A Father’s Futile Effort

In fact, everything started in 2010, when it emerged that the United States administration had a list of targets for assassination and that Anwar al-Evlaki’s name appeared on the list. (Does this description remind you of something from the ‘90s in Turkey?) Anwar al-Evlaki’s father, Nasir, with the help of the American Committee for the Protection of Constitutional Rights and the American Civil Liberties Union, made attempts on his son’s behalf to have his name removed from the list. The reasoning was that Anwar was an American citizen. However, he was unsuccessful.

The Attorney General’s Description of the Scandal

This policy that authorizes the American administration to carry out extrajudicial killings was never discussed in the American media! U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who is an African-American like Obama, praised the military tribunals being held at Guantanamo Bay during a speech at the Northwestern School of Law in Chicago. He said: “Military commissions are also appropriate in proper circumstances, and we can use them as well to convict terrorists and disrupt their plots. This administration’s approach has been to ensure that the military commissions system is as effective as possible, in part by strengthening the procedural protections on which the commissions are based.”

He went on to support the use of lethal force. He remarked: “We must also recognize that there are instances where our government has the clear authority — and, I would argue, the responsibility — to defend the United States through the appropriate and lawful use of lethal force… Some have argued that the President is required to get permission from a federal court before taking action against a United States citizen who is a senior operational leader of al-Qaida or associated forces. This is simply not accurate. “Due process” and “judicial process” are not one and the same, particularly when it comes to national security. The Constitution guarantees due process, not judicial process.”

His speech is important because it shows that the American administration is decisive about its ability to carry out extrajudicial killings against its own citizens, if necessary.