A memo obtained by NBC News explains the legal rationale for the drone strike that killed an American citizen. But one critic says this memo, by expanding the definition of what constitutes an imminent threat to U.S. national security, this memo is distinctly different from the legal justification for torture.
News traveled fast on Monday when word first broke that U.S. intelligence officials had seized a bomb meant to take down a U.S.-bound jetliner. Now, attention is shifting to the man believed to be behind the bomb, the same man believed to be behind the attempting bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight in 2009.
In a major policy speech at the Northwestern University Law School, attorney general Eric Holder explained, for the first time, the U.S. justification for putting Americans on a list of those who can be killed if their capture is not possible.
Ray Kelly, pictured, announced that Jose Pimentel, 27, was arrested Saturday and charged with conspiring to build a bomb and detonate it in the New York area. The arrest came together quickly after it became clear Pimentel was hours away from having an operational bomb.