Open thread for night owls: White House still holding back targeted killing memos from Senate

Marcy Wheeler writes in The Targeted Killing Memos Shared with NYT, But Not Senate Intelligence Committee:

The Senate Intelligence Committee can't learn the details of what the government is up to, the Administration says, because even sharing information (much less publicizing details) about our agreements with governments like Algeria would be embarrassing for all parties involved. So who are the former and current government officials and senior administration officials leaking information to the NYT about new efforts ' including the use of unarmed drones ' to target the Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar in Algeria and Mali? The NYT reports that earlier concerns about conducting operations not covered by the 2001 [authorization to use military force] have recently been allayed. The idea of taking stronger action in the region has been supported in recent months by Michael Sheehan, the senior counterterrorism official at the Pentagon, and Daniel Benjamin, who until December was the senior State Department counterterrorism official. In the past, State Department lawyers have questioned whether the military action approved by Congress against Al Qaeda after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks authorized efforts to target extremists who were not clearly linked to the group. But according to some officials, those legal arguments  have recently been overcome. 'Those legal arguments have recently been overcome.' By the adoption of new [Office of the Legal Counsel] advice the Administration won't share with Congress?

High Impact Posts. Top Comments.