Pat Dollard

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The Washington Times:

The father of Anwar al-Awlaki, the U.S.-Yemeni citizen who has been dubbed as al Qaeda’s top English-language Internet recruiter, will sue the Obama administration in an effort to stop U.S. drones from trying to kill his son.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights announced on Tuesday that they are representing Nasser Awlaki in his efforts to remove his son from a list of people that may be killed or captured by the CIA or U.S. military.

Jameel Jaffer, a litigator and director of the ACLU’s National Security Project, traveled with a colleague to Yemen earlier this year to meet with Nasser Awlaki and other Yemeni human rights groups, the attorney said in a conference call on Tuesday.

The U.S. Treasury Department had said that providing legal counsel on behalf of Anwar Awlaki required a special exemption from the Office of Foreign Asset Control because he is a designated foreign terrorist.

The ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights now are filing a case to challenge the precedent, claiming that the government cannot stop lawyers from representing American citizens.

The ACLU also has applied for a permit to represent Nasser Awlaki in court.

Dennis Blair, President Obama’s first director of national intelligence, told Congress on Feb. 3 that there is a list of Americans who had joined al Qaeda who could be targeted for killing.

In the case of Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical Islamic cleric, his English-language sermons are said to have been instrumental in inspiring a number of attacks inside this country, including the fatal shooting of 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, in November. Army Maj. Nidal Hassan has been accused of that attack.

More recently, Anwar al-Awlaki is said to have inspired the May 1 attempted car bombing in New York City. Pakistani-American Faisal Shahzad has pleaded guilty to all charges against him in that case.

Mr. Jaffer, the lead ACLU attorney on the case, said Tuesday that a court of law should determine whether Anwar al-Awlaki’s recruitment activities qualify as an immediate or imminent threat that obliges the government to act as judge, jury and executioner.

“Whether or not it is an imminent threat, whether those sermons qualify or whether or not there is an immediacy to what he is saying is precisely what should be argued in a court of law,” said Anthony Romero, executive director of the ACLU.