2 Sue Trump and U.S. Officials, Claiming They Are on ‘Kill List’
In their federal lawsuit, filed on Thursday in Washington, they provide little evidence
that they are on the United States kill list, which is classified, and current and former American counterterrorism officials expressed skepticism that their activities would get them marked for death by a program meant to eliminate terrorists actively plotting violence against America.
Hina Shamsi said that Under three presidents now the U.S. government has had a policy of putting people, including U.S. citizens, on kill lists based on secret evidence
and still largely secret criteria without meaningful oversight even after the fact,
The men’s lawyers and Reprieve, a human rights group in Britain
that filed the lawsuit, hope that it will force the government to not only to clarify the men’s status, but to divulge information about a highly secretive program that has killed many militants, including Anwar al-Awlaki, an American cleric who died in a drone strike in Yemen in 2011.
Mr. Awlaki’s father, Nasser al-Awlaki, went to court twice to challenge the government’s actions in the case of his son: first, to demand
that he be removed from the kill list, and second, after his death, to demand that the government release more of the evidence against him.
But by itself, it would not come close to meeting the standard necessary to put him on a kill list, according to government officials
and outside experts, who requested anonymity to discuss a secret operation.
Although they have worked in war zones and had contact with many members of Al Qaeda
and other extremist groups, the men, Bilal Abdul Kareem and Ahmad Muaffaq Zaidan, deny that they are members of militant organizations.