Bergen explains its relevance: “I want to go back to the Anwar al-Awlaki decision on President Obama. Anwar al-Awlaki was an American citizen in Yemen who was a leader of Al-Qaeda initially he was sort of a cleric but over time, people realized he was actually running the show in Al-Qaeda.”
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He continues: “There was a decision that President Obama made around this question of imminence. The imminence was not that this guy necessarily had a plan or was ready to go tomorrow. It was that this guy was constantly planning against the United States, and Marty Lederman and another lawyer in the White House wrote in a now declassified memo basically making this argument, imminence.”
Co-host Raheem Kassam elaborates on Twitter:
Democrats questioning the "imminent threat" posed by Soleimani should be referred back to this letter.
Democrat Senators, vis the drone strike against U.S. citizen and terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki, explained why Obama and the executive had this right:https://t.co/HZZeUwgZhp pic.twitter.com/c4D4t2hiPQ
— Raheem Kassam (@RaheemKassam) January 9, 2020
Bannon expands: “They had a tightly argued letter that laid out what the threat was exactly like Peter says. It gives you the whole list of what the threat was.”
He notes how the Trump administration could have benefitted from a similar justification: “This is the point. Why is the Secretary of State, why is the administration not going back to Peter’s exact argument? And by the way, he was an American citizen and he had a 16 year old son they vaporized also.”
Bergen & Bannon: Briefing yesterday should have started with Obama DOJ letter justifying killing of al-Qaeda leader Anwar Awlaki
👉https://t.co/mJBryufLnQ pic.twitter.com/c6348HrYcW
— The War Room (@WarRoom2020) January 9, 2020
