1.Congress finds the following:
(1)On January 27,
2010, The Washington Post revealed that United States citizens have been
included on lists maintained by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the
Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) to be assassinated.
(2)The January 27
Washington Post article reported that the JSOC and CIA maintain lists of
individuals deemed High Value Targets
and High Value
Individuals
, whom they seek to kill or capture, that the lists
currently include United States citizens, and that the President has authorized
military operations with the express understanding that a United States citizen
may be killed.
(3)Admiral Dennis C. Blair, then the Director
of National Intelligence, in testimony before the House Select Committee on
Intelligence on February 3, 2010, confirmed the policy of including United
States citizens on such lists, stating that a decision to use lethal
force against a U.S. citizen must get special permission
before the
targeting of a United States citizen can be granted and that being a
U.S. citizen will not spare an American from getting assassinated by military
or intelligence operatives overseas if the individual is working with
terrorists and planning to attack fellow Americans.
(4)The Obama administration has publicly
authorized the extrajudicial killing of Anwar Al-Awlaki, a United States
citizen born in New Mexico who is accused of involvement in terrorist
organizations abroad, the first confirmed United States citizen to be added to
a CIA list of targets for capture or killing.
(5)According to an
article published in The Nation in November 2009, the private security
contractor Blackwater Worldwide, now Xe Services, is intimately involved with
the targeted assassination programs run by the CIA and JSOC in Pakistan.
(6)Department of Defense Instruction 1100.22,
issued on April 12, 2010, states that “security is inherently governmental” and
that the “U.S. Government has exclusive responsibility for discretionary
decisions concerning the appropriate, measured use of combat power, including
the offensive use of destructive or deadly force on behalf of the United
States”, particularly in operations that have virtually no transparency,
accountability, or oversight.
(7)United States
Attorney General Eric J. Holder recognized that the Department of Justice has
successfully prosecuted many terrorism defendants in Federal courts, stating on
Friday, November 13, 2009, that for over two hundred years, our nation
has relied on a faithful adherence to the rule of law to bring criminals to
justice . . . Once again we will ask our legal system to rise to that
challenge, and I am confident it will answer the call with fairness and
justice
.
(8)Executive Order
12333 (46 Fed. Reg. 59941; relating to United States intelligence activities),
issued by President Ronald Reagan in 1981, stated, No person employed by
or acting on behalf of the United States Government shall engage in, or
conspire to engage in, assassination
.
(9)Executive Order 11905 (41 Fed. Reg. 7703;
relating to United States foreign intelligence activities), issued by President
Gerald Ford in 1976, stated, No employee of the United States Government
shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, political assassination
.
2.It is the sense of
Congress that—
(1)due process of law is a fundamental
principle in the United States Constitution, the United States has a commitment
to the principles included in the Bill of Rights, and no United States citizen,
regardless of location, can be deprived of life, liberty, property,
without due process of law
, as stated in Article XIV of the
Constitution;
(2)the participation
in, or planning of activities, by the United States Government that result in
the extrajudicial killing of a United States citizen undermines the rule of law
and the moral standing of the United States in the world;
(3)the United States
and other responsible nations have a vital interest in upholding the rule of
law;
(4)the authority
granted to the President in the Authorization for Use of Military Force (50
U.S.C. 1541 note), following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, is
not limitless;
(5)this authority has
been used by the Executive Branch to circumvent the role of Congress as a
co-equal branch of Government, to justify holding prisoners indefinitely at
Guantanamo Bay, for mass domestic spying on United States citizens in violation
of their most basic constitutional rights, and to use lethal force against
United States citizens abroad who are believed to participate in terrorist
activities absent judicial review;
(6)the notion that
the constitutional rights of one citizen can be revoked to protect the
constitutional rights of other citizens should be rejected;
(7)the use of
extrajudicial force against a citizen of the United States that is outside of
the internationally recognized battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan constitutes
a violation of the law of armed conflict; and
(8)it is in the best
interest of the United States to respect the rule of law and set the example
for upholding the principles of international and domestic law.
3.Prohibition on
the extrajudicial killing of United States citizens
(a)No one, including the President, may
instruct a person acting within the scope of employment with the United States
Government or an agent acting on behalf of the United States Government to
engage in, or conspire to engage in, the extrajudicial killing of a United
States citizen.
(b)Report on United
States citizens on targeted assassination listsNot later than 7
days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the President shall submit to
the congressional intelligence committees a report on the identity of each
United States citizen that is on the list of the Joint Special Operations
Command or the Central Intelligence Agency as high value
individuals
or high value targets
.
(c)Not later than 7
days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the President shall submit to
the congressional intelligence committees a written assurance that no United
States citizens are being added to the list of the Joint Special Operations
Command or the Central Intelligence Agency as high value
individuals
or high value targets
.
(d)In
this section:
(1)Congressional
intelligence committeesThe term congressional intelligence
committees means—
(A)the Permanent
Select Committee on Intelligence of the House of Representatives; and
(B)the Select
Committee on Intelligence of the Senate.
(2)The term
extrajudicial killing—
(A)means a
premeditated and intentional use of lethal force against a United States
citizen; and
(B)does not
include—
(i)the
use of lethal force against a United States citizen after a trial and finding
of guilt for such citizen by an appropriate tribunal consistent with due
process of law;
(ii)the use of lethal force against a United
States citizen who is directly participating in hostilities in a zone of active
armed conflict and the United States is a party to such conflict; and
(iii)the use of lethal force against a United
States citizen that is authorized for law enforcement personnel under certain
circumstances, including self-defense, defense of others, and enabling the
release of hostages.