Federal appeals court judges expressed doubt Thursday at the CIA's efforts to block the release of information about its use of unmanned drones to kill terror suspects around the world. A lower court ruled in favour of the Central Intelligence Agency last year, tossing out a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union rights group asking the government to reveal the legal basis of its use of predator drones to conduct so-called "targeted killings" abroad.
The CIA has denied the ACLU's Freedom of Information Act request by refusing to either confirm or deny the existence of the spy agency's drone program. During an appeals hearing, the group stressed that several top government officials, including President Barack Obama and Defence Secretary Leon Panetta, a former CIA director, have acknowledged in public the existence of the CIA's use of drone strikes.
The ACLU was making its case before a three-judge panel of the US court of appeals for the District of Columbia circuit in the US capital. Citing the public statements, Judge Merrick Garland asked government lawyers: "Isn't that an official acknowledgement that the CIA is involved with the drone program?" Acting Assistant Attorney General Stuart Delery demurred, repeating the government's line that "there was no official acknowledgement that the CIA is involved" in the public statements, a claimed denied by the ACLU.
Government lawyers have defended the veil of secrecy around the drone campaign - which has killed numerous al Qaeda figures and associates in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia - saying the entire subject is "classified." They say that any release of further data about the program would harm national security. ACLU Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer, who argued the group's case, said statements by Panetta and other public officials "made clear that the CIA was involved."
In a release on the group's website, he dismissed as "nothing short of absurd" the notion that the CIA's drone program is a secret. Anthony Romero, the ACLU's executive director, said it was "disgraceful" that the Obama administration, which has vowed greater government transparency, was making many of the same arguments once put forth by the previous government of George W. Bush.
"It shows a profound disrespect of the rule of the court... and for our democracy," he told AFP. US officials say the strikes by armed, unmanned aircraft have decimated al Qaeda's core leadership and saved US lives, but the raids have caused an unknown number of civilian casualties and sparked outrage in Pakistan.
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