The Director of National Intelligence has come out and said(1) that U.S. agencies may take action against U.S. citizens abroad who are a threat to Americans. According to the report, Blair is quoted as saying -
He was speaking publicly about the issue to reassure Americans that intelligence agencies and the Department of Defense “follow a set of defined policy and legal procedures that are very carefully observed” in the use of lethal force against U.S. citizens.
“I just don’t want Americans who are watching this to think that we are careless about endangering — in fact, we’re not careless about endangering American lives as we try to carry out the policies to protect most of the country,” Blair said.
This is a departure from previous policy that did not specifically target U.S. citizens but instead listed them as collateral damage if they were killed while taking out a non citizen target.
PDF of ABC News article here.
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