Obama asked to give 'legal justification' for drone strikes

Islamabad, June 1 (ANI): Several White House members and US Congressman Dennis Kucinich have reportedly asked President Barack Obama to provide the targeting criteria for drone strikes and the legal justification for them.

Kucinich, Democratic House of Representatives member, expressed concern at the use of signature strikes against suspected militants by the CIA and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC).

"These drone strikes are being conducted in the name of our national security and yet Congress and the American people have not been provided with the legal justification for such strikes," he said.

According to The Express Tribune, Kucinich stressed that the use of drones must be subject to the same legal constrains and oversight as any other weapon.

"These attacks undermine the morals, values and the strategic goals of the United States. The fact that they are conducted with complete impunity and with no accountability threatens to set a dangerous precedent that could unravel the very laws and international standards the US helped to create," he said.

According to the report, the letter asks Obama to provide the "targeting criteria for "signature" strikes, mechanisms used by the CIA and JSOC to ensure that such killings are legal, the nature of the follow-up that is conducted when civilians are killed or injured, and the mechanisms that ensure civilian casualty numbers are collected, tracked and analyzed."

The move came after an article was published in The New York Times earlier this week that stated that Obama not just signed off on drone strikes, but also had a kill list. (ANI)