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Judge rejects suit for Al-Awlaki legal memos

A federal judge has rejected a lawsuit seeking to force disclosure of Justice Department memoranda detailing the legal basis for the U.S. government's killing of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula leader Anwar Al-Awlaki in a 2011 drone strike in Yemen.

U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken issued an opinion Friday throwing out the Freedom of Information Act suit brought by a California-based press group, the First Amendment Coalition.

Wilken ruled that one legal memo the government acknowledged, an opinion issued to the Defense Department, was properly classified on national security grounds. She also found that the government's refusal to say what other documents existed was proper, even though President Barack Obama acknowledged last year that the U.S. had killed Al-Awlaki and three other Americans in drone strikes.

The judge said that while Obama revealed the U.S. role, he did not say which agency launched the strike, so that detail remained sensitive and unconfirmed.

"Plaintiff is seeking information specifically related to the killing of al-Awlaki. The finding that the CIA has made public statements sufficient to disclose a general 'intelligence interest in drone strikes' is far from an official disclosure that the CIA received OLC advice regarding the decision to target al-Awlaki," the Oakland, Calif.-based Wilken wrote in an opinion posted here.

Wilken referred to White House Press Secretary Jay Carney's discussion of President Barack Obama releasing to Congress classified Office of Legal Counsel advice similar to a leaked "white paper" on the legal basis for drone strikes. However, the judge said Carney's comment was not specific enough to justify forcing disclosure of the legal advice.

"Stating that the President has provided Congress with OLC advice 'related to the subject of' the White Paper is far from an express adoption of the analysis in the DOD memorandum," the judge wrote.