16-Page Memo Reveals Obama Adopted Tony Blair Argument to Justify Drone Assassination Policy

February 11, 2013 • 10:53AM

According to an article in the Daily Telegraph on Feb. 5 entitled "US uses Tony Blair defense to justify drone killings," author Jon Swaine points out that the argument used in 2004 by Lord Goldsmith, then Tony Blair's attorney-general, on why Britain's right to defend itself should include the ability to take pre-emptive military action, is cited in the 16-page memo given to the Senate Intelligence and Judiciary committees last summer, and published by NBC News.

"It must be right that states are able to act in self- defence in circumstances where there is evidence of further imminent attacks by terrorist groups, even if there is no specific evidence of where such an attack will take place or of the precise nature of the attack," Lord Goldsmith said at the time, pointing to "new circumstances and new threats" since September 11.

According to Swaine, Goldsmith's comments to Parliament in April 2004 are used by Obama's justice department to build an argument that the US is entitled to assassinate Americans who are "senior operational leaders" of al-Qaeda or "an associated force", even when there is no evidence they are actively plotting to attack.

The DOJ memo, as did Attorney General Eric Holder in a speech at Northwestern University Law School, sets out a three-part test for strikes against US citizens. This dictates that a suspect must pose an "imminent" threat, that his capture must be "in-feasible," and that the strike conform to "law of war principles."

In the passage of the DOJ memo which redefines "imminent" in such a way as no longer to require "imminence," it cites Lord Goldsmith's 2004 comments.

The DOJ memo states: "The condition that an operational leader present an 'imminent' threat of violent attack against the United States does not require the United States to have clear evidence that a specific attack on US persons and interests will take place in the immediate future."