Point of View  A peek but still no clear policy on using force
against U.S. citizens  February 6, 2013   A memo that became
public Monday purportedly lays out the Obama administration’s
legal justification for using force against certain U.S.
citizens involved with al-Qaida.  The unsigned and undated
Justice Department document offers important insight into the
legal architecture of the overall U.S. effort against terrorists
but hardly answers all the questions. In a way, the memo
addresses only the easy case, that is, an American serving as a
senior al-Qaida leader actively involved in plotting terrorism
against the U.S.  The memo sticks mainly to well-accepted
concepts of self-defense, such as the requirement of an
“imminent” threat. Furthermore, it says the U.S. must show
capture to be “infeasible,” something which is more of a law
enforcement concept than something adversaries in the midst of
war necessarily have a legal right to expect.  In fact, the memo
seems to be more oriented toward a human rights l