The Hill News

There’s been quite a bit of chatter in the media this week about the use of drones in the surveillance of American cities, with conservative commentators like Charles Krauthammer lining up to say they should be banned.

But where is the conversation about the legality of their use outside the United States? What about the border areas of Pakistan and other places such as Yemen, Somalia and Libya? There was only a blip of public awareness after the targeted killing of al Qaeda operative Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen last September, but only because he was American-born. The attorney general, Eric Holder, took five months to justify Awlaki’s killing on foreign soil. He eventually said there was a three-point test under which the government must determine that an American citizen poses an imminent threat of violent attack against the United States, that capture is not feasible, and that the killing would be consistent with laws of war.

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