Wyden demands targeted killing legal opinions from CIA nominee
SALEM, Ore. – After a KATU.com interview with U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden regarding the Obama administration's refusal to release secret legal opinions that reportedly justify the killing of Americans suspected of terrorism, Oregon's senior senator renewed his call for more transparency in a letter to the president's nominee for CIA director, John Brennan.
"For the executive branch to claim that intelligence agencies have the authority to knowingly kill American citizens but refuse to provide Congress with any and all legal opinions that explain the executive branch’s understanding of this authority represents an alarming and indefensible assertion of executive prerogative," he wrote Brennan, who is now the assistant to the president for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism.
Wyden is on the Senate's Select Committee on Intelligence and is able to review classified documents and receive briefings on classified subjects; however, on the legal right for the Obama administration to knowingly target Americans suspected of being involved in terrorism, he's received very little.
And as to why the administration is virtually silent on the issue and won't give a senator authorized to see secret documents those that justify targeted killings, puzzles Wyden.
"You'll have to ask them that question (as to why)," he told KATU.com during an interview after his town hall in Portland on Sunday.
The controversy comes after several Americans were killed allegedly by U.S. drone strikes in the Middle East. The most well-known is the killing of American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen on Sept. 30, 2011. The Obama administration put him on a "kill list" after it alleged he plotted to harm and kill Americans or inspired others to do so.
And without capture, charge or trial it was reported the Obama administration, and perhaps the president himself, approved the killing of al-Awlaki.
The letter to Brennan is the latest in a long line of attempts by Wyden to get the administration to release the secret legal opinions at least to Congress. Of note, Wyden wrote a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder on Feb. 12, 2012 demanding them.
Almost a year later, Wyden told KATU.com he still had not received an official response.
In his letter to Brennan, Wyden said that he's not giving up the fight.
"I have an obligation from my oath of office to review any classified legal opinions that lay out the federal government's official views on this issue, and I will not be satisfied until I have received them," he wrote.
Wyden also said he expects that the secret legal opinions be given to him and other members of the intelligence committee before Brennan’s confirmation hearing.
"These failures to respond start to form a pattern in which the executive branch is evading congressional oversight by simply not responding to congressional requests for information," Wyden wrote.
So your just now figuring out Obama thinks he is above our laws and Constitution Mr Wyden REALLY? Some of us not blinded by liberal love figured that out 5 years ago...
 @FreedomRocks something is awry with this buncha bullstuff.
Senator Wyden - one question, please sir - did you vote for Obama in the past November election, sir? And if so - why. Knowing all you do - and knowing all we don't know that you are privy to by virtue of your privileged position in the U.S. Senate - how can any of us trust this leader of ours. Lame duck emboleldened as he is - our prez - even before he is sworn in a second time around to have a secret KILL LIST of his own. My oh my - our prez - our peace prize prez has that?Â
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Ah, Senator Wyden, sir - did YOU vote for Obama last November? And if so - why? How could you, Ron Wyden. Vote for Obama in 2008 or 2012. As a matter of fact.Â
 @englishdaisy Such silly questions. You know he voted with his party.
Good for him. Some one in the Democratic party has to stand up for what is right. They can't all have their heads in the sand.
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If it's legal for the Exec Branch to kill Americans. Then why don't they use it to empty out Death Rowe????
Something stinks, and it isn't Wyden.
 @JTesla Yep we elected a man who thinks he is above our laws and regularly shows us that is the case.
 @JTesla By we I mean the 51% of those who voted and voted for him I certainly was not in the Obama love fest grouping...
He's right. He should hold up Brennan's nomination if he doesn't get what he's asking for.
What a strange headline.
Jesus, anything to make press and keep his mug in the press - sad. A guy that could care less about the struggling folks in Oregon, but has plenty of time to pay attention on an issue that has to do with world security. OK, a terrorist gets killed that renounced his American citizenship after defecting to Islam - please give us a break while you kneel to the East on blanket, OK??
 @boned You can't see the bigger picture, can you?
@boned Im very sorry my firend but this is an issue apparently larger than you can conceive. Think larger and more encompassing and you may begin to see what he is protecting.
@OliverNicholas ...gosh you're so much smarter then everyone else!
@boned "For the executive branch to claim that intelligence agencies have the authority to knowingly kill American citizens but refuse to provide Congress with any and all legal opinions that explain the executive branchâs understanding of this authority represents an alarming and indefensible assertion of executive prerogative,"Â What part of the government exceeding its authority do you not understand?
Thank you, Senator Wyden! Â The people are counting on you not to give up on this issue. Â Â
You go, Wyden!
To all of you who call people that question government's intent "conspiracy nuts". keep thinking this wont effect you. keep thinking people with money have no interest in silencing and controlling you by any means. this is only a small portion of the NDAA.
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 @Danny Stephen No they will keep their head in the sand right up until the time someone cuts it off for them...
@Danny Stephan....And if people need more proof of who our government considers a real threat ,they can read Janet Napolitano's ,9 page,2009 "Report on Right Wing Extremism."
 @angry1  @Danny Yep pretty sad what she considers right wing extremism most of us would consider upholding the Constitution and the founding principles of our country.
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Sadly I think I have passed on a liberal cesspool of a country to my children instead of the better place I remember growing up in.