Human Rights Group Helping Non-Whites Allegedly Put on US "Kill List," Targeted for Drone Strikes Sue US Gov

From [HERE] Human rights group Reprieve has filed a lawsuit [text, PDF] in the US District Court for District of Columbia [official website] against the US government for allegedly placing them on a "kill list" to be targeted for a deadly drone strike. Former Al Jazeera Islamabad [Newsweek report] bureau chief Ahmad Zaidan and freelance journalist Bilal Kareem claimed that they were erroneously added to the said list and stated that it was a violation of the U.S. Constitution and international law because of the lack of due process. The two journalists are seeking for declaratory and injunctive relief to remove their names from the said list.

According to Reprieve's website, "Reprieve is an organisation of courageous and committed human rights defenders. Founded in 1999 by British human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith, we provide free legal and investigative support to some of the world’s most vulnerable people: those facing execution, and those victimised by states’ abusive counter-terror policies – rendition, torture, extrajudicial imprisonment and extrajudicial killing." 

Our lawyers and investigators are supported by a community of people from all around the world, connected by a belief in human rights and justice. Together, we fight for the victims of extreme human rights abuses with a combination of public pressure and legal action. [MORE]

The use of drones [JURIST backgrounder] is controversial in both domestic circles and in the international arena. In April the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit [official website] upheld [JURIST report] a district court's dismissal of an ACLU request for information about drone killings. In January the Second Circuit ruled that the president's National Security Council (NSC) [official website] is not subject [JURIST report] to FOIA. In November of last year the circuit also ruled that the US government may keep secret memoranda [JURIST report] related to the legal justification for the use of drones for targeted killings of those in other countries believed to be involved in terrorism. In June 2015 the families of two Yemeni men killed by US drone strikes filed a lawsuit [JURIST report] against the government, claiming they were wrongfully killed. In December 2010 a judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed a lawsuit [JURIST report] challenging the Obama administration's ability to conduct targeted killings, a challenge spurred because one subject of a targeted killing, al-Awlaki-Khan, was a dual US-Yemeni citizen.