In comments made through the media today, a number of top Obama Administration officials, including White House spokesman Tommy Vietor, confirmed that there is a “secret panel” which exists now that can order American citizens assassinated with no judicial oversight.

Vietor declined to give any information related to the process of how the panel decides who lives and who dies, but officials say as far as they know cleric Anwar Awlaki was the only American they have ordered executed yet.

The only thing officials would say about the assassination process was that the president’s death panel was a “subset” of the National Security Council and that there is no existing legislation governing its operation.

The notion of a supreme panel of life and death which operates outside of the law is making a number of Americans uneasy, and has raised concerns that the president could move beyond religious leaders to target members of the media critical of his policies. As with the many other policies of the Obama Administration it does not appear likely to change anything.