Reading Room Document
Lethal Operation Against Shaykh Anwar Aulaqi
This redacted opinion concludes that the proposed use of lethal force against Shaykh Anwar Aulaqi, a U.S. citizen who the CIA believed was a senior leader of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, does not violate the assassination ban in Executive Order 12333 or any applicable constitutional limitation due to Aulaqi’s U.S. citizenship. The OLC does not provide release dates for its opinions, so the release date listed is the date on which the opinion was authored. The original opinion is available at https://justice.gov/sites/default/files/olc/pages/attachments/2015/04/02/2010-02-19_-_olc_aaga_barron_-_al-aulaqi.pdf.
The OLC's Opinions
Opinions published by the OLC, including those released in response to our FOIA lawsuit