A leaked secret Justice Department “white paper” detailing the Obama
administration’s legal justification for the targeted drone
assassinations of Americans living abroad made its way onto the
Internet late Monday evening.
The 16-page white paper — said to be a summary of a longer 50-page document on the highly controversial policy
— is seeing the light of day ahead of the Senate confirmation hearing
of John Brennan, President Barack Obama’s top pick for CIA chief.
The longer document was written in 2010 to justify the addition of
al-Qaida member Anwar al-Aulaqi, a U.S. citizen, to Obama’s secretive
“kill list.”