Anwar al-Awlaki was born in New Mexico. He was also an operative for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula who fomented jihad in Yemen. His terror portfolio reached the U.S. homeland: he facilitated the botched attack by the Christmas Day underwear bomber in 2009, and he may have prompted Nidal Hasan to massacre soldiers at Ft. Hood, TX. The successful U.S. drone strike against him terminated his career as a jihadist. Yet the strike has provoked consternation by some on both the right and the left because al-Awlaki was an American citizen by birth. To these critics, the strike represents an "assassination" undertaken in violation of the Constitution's guarantee that no person be deprived of life without due process of law. Even al-Qaeda has weighed in to express its concern that the successful targeting of al-Alwaki may have violated U.S. law. If the kinetic targeting of al-Awlaki is allowed to stand, the argument goes, a dangerous precedent will be established whereby an American president can, by fiat, order the killing of....
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