Justifying Assassination

"A federal judge in New York ruled this week that the Obama administration may withhold from the public a document providing the legal rationale for the targeted killing in Yemen of Anwar Awlaki, an Al Qaeda operative who was also a U.S. citizen. But even as she did so, U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon eloquently expressed her concerns about the existence of a secretive government program that not only assassinates those deemed to be enemies of the United States, but does so without judicial oversight."