[00:00.00]Go to chinavoa.com for more... [00:03.04]From VOA Learning English, [00:06.34]this is IN THE NEWS in Special English. [00:10.36]This week, NBC News reported on a document [00:15.08]written by the Department of Justice [00:17.90]on the policy of targeted killings of American terrorism suspects. [00:23.94]The document is a "white paper" titled [00:27.24]"Lawfulness of a Lethal Operation Directed Against a U.S. Citizen [00:33.58]Who is a Senior Operational Leader of Al Qa'ida or An Associated Force. " [00:40.78]In the memo, the Justice Department says [00:44.47]using deadly force in a foreign country [00:48.19]against a United States citizen [00:50.77]would be lawful if three conditions are met. [00:55.84]The first condition is that an informed, [01:00.04]high-level official of the United States government [01:03.55]has found that the targeted person presents [01:07.85]an "imminent threat of violent attack against the United States." [01:13.54]The second condition is that capturing the targeted person is not possible, [01:21.27]and that the United States continues to monitor the possibility of capture. [01:27.71]The third condition is that the operation would not violate the laws of war. [01:35.09]The paper details the reasons and conditions [01:39.82]that a targeted killing of a United States citizen overseas [01:45.10]would be lawful under American and international law. [01:50.76]The department also provides its reasons why these targeted killings [01:57.54]would not violate the constitutional rights of American citizens. [02:03.42]Some unmanned drone air strikes have targeted American citizens [02:10.37]linked to al-Qaida, including Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan. [02:18.03]They were killed in a drone strike in Yemen in September 2011. [02:24.41]Neither man had been charged with crimes in the United States. [02:29.63]The paper has resulted in criticism from lawmakers and human rights groups. [02:37.30]Critics say it could be used to increase the president's power [02:43.54]to use deadly force against suspected terrorists. [02:48.55]Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon says [02:53.15]he fears President Obama could be acting as judge, jury and executioner. [03:00.72]"It is the idea of giving any president unfettered power [03:04.77]to kill an American without checks and balances that is so troubling. [03:10.55]Every American has the right to know when their government [03:14.51]believes it is allowed to kill them." [03:16.25]On Wednesday the Obama administration told the Justice Department [03:21.23]to share classified documents on the issue [03:25.34]with the intelligence committees in Congress. [03:29.16]A group of senators sent President Obama a request to receive the documents. [03:36.70]The shorter, unclassified white paper [03:40.61]was released just before President Obama's nominee [03:44.91]to lead the Central Intelligence Agency faced a confirmation hearing. [03:50.94]John Brennan is currently the president's counterterrorism adviser. [03:57.30]He has been an active supporter of permitting drone strikes [04:02.59]against American citizens suspected of terrorist activities. [04:08.13]Mr. Brennan defended the policy during his confirmation hearing Thursday [04:13.55]before the Senate Intelligence Committee. [04:16.77]He said the strikes were done only [04:20.07]when no other method could work to protect the safety of Americans. [04:26.47]He also said the government would rather capture terrorists [04:32.19]in order to gather intelligence from them. [04:35.32]"I never believe it is better to kill a terrorist than to detain him. [04:39.03]We want to detain as many terrorists as possible [04:42.11]so we can elicit intelligence from them [04:43.60]in an appropriate manner and disrupt terrorist attacks." [04:50.67]Go to 51voa.com for more...

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