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Marc Thiessen Asks. I Answer
Over at the AEIdeas blog, Marc Thiessen asks derisively: “Why is the ACLU suiting Panetta, Petraus over Awlaki Killing—But Not President Obama?”
He writes:
if it’s accountability they want, then why isn’t President Obama a defendant in the suit?
Published by The Lawfare Institute
in Cooperation With
Over at the AEIdeas blog, Marc Thiessen asks derisively: “Why is the ACLU suiting Panetta, Petraus over Awlaki Killing—But Not President Obama?”
He writes:
if it’s accountability they want, then why isn’t President Obama a defendant in the suit? After all, a recent New York Times story which reported leaked classified details of the drone program revealed that Obama personally selects “every new name on an expanding ‘kill list’” of terrorists to be vaporized — including that of Awlaki. White House officials bragged to the Times how Obama “approves lethal action without handwringing,” and how he had told aides that the decision to kill Awlaki with a drone was an “easy one.” So why, pray tell, are the ACLU and CCR suing Panetta, Petraeus, McRaven, and Votel — but not the president of the United States? After all, Obama boasted that he personally gave the kill order. Just askin’.Just answerin’—and in only two words: Presidential Immunity (see Nixon v. Fitzgerald (1982)).
Benjamin Wittes is editor in chief of Lawfare and a Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution. He is the author of several books.
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