United States forces and agencies may kill American citizens abroad if they are found to be involved in terrorist activities overseas, a top US official has said.
"We take direct action against terrorists in the intelligence community. If that direct action ... will involve killing an American, we get specific permission to do that," Dennis C Blair, director of National Intelligence said in his testimony before the House Intelligence Committee.
"We don't target people for free speech. We target them for taking action that threatens Americans," he said in response to a question from members.
Blair told the committee that he was speaking publicly about the issue to reassure Americans that intelligence agencies and the department of defence 'follow a set of defined policy and legal procedures that are very carefully observed' in the use of lethal force against US citizens.
His unusually frank remarks comes as instances are growing of American nationals taking part in terrorist activities overseas, which subsequently threatens US security itself.
In the hearing, Congressmen, including Peter Hoekstra asked what the US agencies would do when it came to Americans who joined the enemy. The lawmakers cited instances like that of US-born radical cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi who lives in Yemen and has recruited terrorists across the globe.
The lawmakers also cited the case of the Northern Virginia Five -- the people who are now under arrest in Pakistan for, again, supposed terrorist connections.
Blair said Al Qaeda's radical ideology seems to appeal strongly to a group of disaffected young Muslims and this is a pool of potential suicide bombers and this pool unfortunately includes Americans.
"Although we don't have the high-level homegrown threat facing Europeans, we have to worry about the appeal that Anwar al-Awlaki exert on young American Muslims. And however much we improve, we cannot count on intelligence to catch and identify every threat," he noted.
"We're not careless about endangering lives at all, but we especially are not careless about endangering American lives as we try to carry out the policies to protect most of the country. And I think we ought to go into details in closed session," Blair said.
