Yemen and the Continued use of the AUMF

It has been in the news recently that the Director of the U.S. CIA, David Petraeus, has asked President Obama to expand the use of armed drones over the Arabian skies of turmoil-ridden Yemen.  Critics, including Yale Law School professor Bruce Ackerman in an article published in the Washington Post on April 20th (http://www.law.yale.edu/news/15401.htm), have said that Obama's executive authorization of the expanded (or continued) use of drones in Yemen would be illegal without the statutory consent of the U.S. Congress.  Ackerman finds that the Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) passed by congress in 2001, authorizing the president to militarily engage any and all of those persons and organizations whom operationally supported or were directly responsible for the attacks of 9/11, does not apply to Yemen and presumably the terrorist group al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).  I, however, tend to disagree with Ackerman's conclusion.

First, nowhere in the AUMF does it specify that military engagement of those responsible for the 9/11 attacks is limited to Afghanistan. Nor does it specify that military engagement is limited to al Qaeda. However unfortunate some may find the wording, the AUMF allows for military engagement against any organization or support-network which the U.S. finds was responsible for 9/11 wherever they may be on Earth. Clearly, this vague terminology played a role in creating a political firestorm regarding the status of terrorists caught within the U.S., but that's an issue for another day.

Secondly, there is the quite obvious fact that AQAP carries the al Qaeda name and banner.  This isn't just a convenient branding, AQAP's leaders have ascribed to al Qaeda proper's agenda and have pledged loyalty to its leader - initially Osama bin Laden and now Ayman al-Zawahiri.  While other jihadist groups have a primarily regional or nationalist terror agenda, AQAP's main focus is the continued use of Yemen as a sanctuary to make certain that the U.S. experiences more and even deadlier 9/11s.  Neither Al-Shabaab, nor Boko Haram, nor even the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban have such a clear and concise anti-American agenda.  To be sure, there is no difference between al Qaeda's agenda prior to 9/11 and AQAP's current agenda.

Lastly, while the AQAP name was not official when 9/11 occurred, there is the history of operational linkages between al Qaeda and Yemen.  Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, the al Qaeda operative responsible for the deadly 1998 bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, was known to be the link between Al-Shabaab and AQAP before his death in 2011.  In fact, phone records identified a location in Yemen as a key al Qaeda planning and support hub in the successful carrying-out of those bombings.  Furthermore, al Qaeda planned and executed the 2000 suicide-bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen, and both suicide-bombers, as well as many of their convicted accomplices, were Yemeni nationals.  It is no wonder that on September 11, 2001, Ali Soufan and other special agents of one of the FBI's top counterterrorism squads at the time, I-49, watched the 9/11 attacks unfold from a television in the U.S. Embassy in Sana'a.

At first glance it may appear to some that AQAP is wholly apart from al Qaeda - or at the most a loosely affiliated iteration - but upon closer inspection one can see that AQAP is al Qaeda and always has been.

Citizenship Revoked: The Assassination of Anwar al-Awlaki

This morning it was reported that the United States government had killed two al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) members, Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan, editor of the English-language jihadi magazine Inspire.  The two men were apparently killed by a U.S. airstrike in the volatile mountain region of Yemen, where they had been living for years.  However, this wasn't just another successful targeted killing of al Qaeda terrorists whom plot death and destruction against the West, this was the planned and targeted assassination of two U.S. citizens by their own government.

There is little doubt about the devious intentions and actions of these two individuals.  While both held U.S. citizenship, they railed against the U.S. government and called on Muslims around the world to kill innocent Americans with the same viciousness as the late Osama bin Laden, Awlaki through his sermons and Khan through his magazine.  But it's still unclear whether the two men ever actually took part in the direct operational planning of any terrorist attack.  This, combined with the fact of their U.S. citizenship, has already begun to spark debate in the U.S. and other civilized countries about the legality of these assassinations, if not their necessity.  Keep in mind there should be, and has been, a clear line between inspiring violent action and carrying out violent action.

The outright condemnation of these assassinations is difficult given that media reports have indirectly linked Awlaki to at least two terrorist operations; the Christmas-day underwear bomber and the attempted mailing of explosives to the U.S. through freight  airlines - however there's less evidence for Khan.  Additionally, without access to classified materials on the two men the case for reproach is made even more challenging.  All of that being said, Awlaki nor Khan were ever charged with a crime by any U.S. court prior to their assassinations.  So make no mistake, this was indeed an extrajudicial killing of two American citizens presumably by the U.S. government.

However, terror, murder, assassinations, and extrajudicial killings have been a part of war for some time and will likely continue.  Therefore the question arises, as a nation that values the rule of law and the order that comes with it, where will the U.S. draw the line for future operations, if at all?