US rights group calls on Justice Department to release all drone programme facts

Washington, May 1(ANI): The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has demanded that the U.S. Justice Department release all documents pertaining to the drone programme.

ACLU Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer said it was 'an unambiguous acknowledgement' and the 'clearest explanation' thus far of the programme's purported legal basis; however he was not convinced beyond that.

"Brennan supplies legal conclusions, not legal analysis. We continue to believe that the administration should release the Justice Department memos underlying the programme - particularly the memo that authorises the extrajudicial killing of American terrorism suspects. And the administration should release the evidence it relied on to conclude that an American citizen, Anwar al-Aulaqi, could be killed without charge, trial, or judicial process of any kind," Jaffer said.

His comments came after U.S. President Barack Obama's assistant on counter terrorism and homeland security, John Brennan said the drone strikes are carried out "in full accordance with the law".

"There is nothing in international law that bans the use of remotely piloted aircraft for this purpose or that prohibits us from using lethal force against our enemies outside of an active battlefield, at least when the country involved consents or is unable or unwilling to take action against the threat," The Express Tribune quoted Brennan, as saying.

Brennan had described drone strikes as wise as they reduced danger to innocent civilians. He said the U.S. only authorises strikes of which they have a "high degree of confidence that innocent civilians will not be injured or killed, except in the rarest of circumstances."(ANI)