From VOA Learning English,this is IN THE NEWS in Special English.This week, NBC News reported on a documentwritten by the Department of Justiceon the policy of targeted killings of American terrorism suspects.The document is a "white paper" titled"Lawfulness of a Lethal Operation Directed Against a U.S. CitizenWho is a Senior Operational Leader of Al Qa'ida or An Associated Force. "In the memo, the Justice Department saysusing deadly force in a foreign countryagainst a United States citizenwould be lawful if three conditions are met.The first condition is that an informed,high-level official of the United States governmenthas found that the targeted person presentsan "imminent threat of violent attack against the United States."The second condition is that capturing the targeted person is not possible,and that the United States continues to monitor the possibility of capture.The third condition is that the operation would not violate the laws of war.The paper details the reasons and conditionsthat a targeted killing of a United States citizen overseaswould be lawful under American and international law.The department also provides its reasons why these targeted killingswould not violate the constitutional rights of American citizens.Some unmanned drone air strikes have targeted American citizenslinked to al-Qaida, including Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan.They were killed in a drone strike in Yemen in September 2011.Neither man had been charged with crimes in the United States.The paper has resulted in criticism from lawmakers and human rights groups.Critics say it could be used to increase the president's powerto use deadly force against suspected terrorists.Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon sayshe fears President Obama could be acting as judge, jury and executioner."It is the idea of giving any president unfettered powerto kill an American without checks and balances that is so troubling.Every American has the right to know when their governmentbelieves it is allowed to kill them."On Wednesday the Obama administration told the Justice Departmentto share classified documents on the issuewith the intelligence committees in Congress.A group of senators sent President Obama a request to receive the documents.The shorter, unclassified white paperwas released just before President Obama's nomineeto lead the Central Intelligence Agency faced a confirmation hearing.John Brennan is currently the president's counterterrorism adviser.He has been an active supporter of permitting drone strikesagainst American citizens suspected of terrorist activities.Mr. Brennan defended the policy during his confirmation hearing Thursdaybefore the Senate Intelligence Committee.He said the strikes were done onlywhen no other method could work to protect the safety of Americans.He also said the government would rather capture terroristsin order to gather intelligence from them."I never believe it is better to kill a terrorist than to detain him.We want to detain as many terrorists as possibleso we can elicit intelligence from themin an appropriate manner and disrupt terrorist attacks."Go to 51voa.com for more...