By Dan De Luce — THE US government has asked a federal court to reject lawsuits demanding the release of documents on CIA drone strikes targeting suspected targets abroad, saying the entire subject is “classified.” Shortly before a midnight deadline last Wednesday, US government lawyers filed a brief to a district court in New York insisting on keeping a veil of secrecy around the drone campaign, which has killed numerous Al Qaeda figures and associates in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.
“Whether or not the CIA has the authority to be, or is in fact, directly involved in targeted lethal operations remains classified,” the government brief stated. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and The New York Times had filed lawsuits after having requested papers on the drone bombing campaign under the Freedom of Information Act. The organisations had requested documents explaining the legal basis for the raids and the killing of terror suspects who are US citizens, such as Anwar al Awlaqi who was taken out last year in a drone strike.
But the government asked the court for a summary judgment to dismiss the lawsuits. Government lawyers not only ruled out releasing documents related to the drone strikes, but argued that merely referring to the number or categories of documents posed a threat to national security. “Even to describe the numbers and details of most of these documents would reveal information that could damage the government’s counterterrorism efforts,” it said. The ACLU called the government’s argument “absurd,” saying the drone war was an open secret that government officials have boasted about to reporters.
“Senior officials have discussed it, both on the record and off. They have taken credit for its putative successes, professed it to be legal and dismissed concerns about civilian casualties,” ACLU deputy legal director Jameel Jaffer said in a statement. “The public is entitled to know more about the legal authority the administration is claiming and the way that it is using it.”
