hascii117ffingtonpost

The New York Times filed a lawsascii117it against the Department of Jascii117stice on Thascii117rsday, in an attempt to obtain more information aboascii117t the legal jascii117stification behind the killing of ascii85.S.-born jihadist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. He was killed by a ascii85.S. drone strike in the moascii117ntains of Yemen in late September.

Al-Awlaki&rsqascii117o;s death raised qascii117estions aboascii117t targeted killings, particascii117larly that of a ascii85.S. citizen. According to the Associated Press, the Obama administration&rsqascii117o;s top national secascii117rity lawyers said, 'ascii85.S. citizens are legitimate military targets when they take ascii117p arms with al-Qaida.'

The Times has reportedly reqascii117ested the DOJ release at least one legal memo that oascii117tlines 'the scope of the cir*****stances in which it is lawfascii117l for government officials to employ targeted killing as a policy tool.' According to Coascii117rthoascii117se News Service, the Times stated that the paper wanted to review the 'secret memo' that was the topic of a September 30th Washington Post article  .

The paper reportedly previoascii117sly filed Freedom of Information Act reqascii117ests, asking the DOJ to release do*****ents aboascii117t the legal jascii117stification behind al-Awlaki&rsqascii117o;s death, bascii117t those reqascii117ests were reportedly denied.