Um

Secret panel can put Americans on "kill list":

American militants like Anwar al-Awlaki are placed on a kill or capture list by a secretive panel of senior government officials, which then informs the president of its decisions, according to officials.

There is no public record of the operations or decisions of the panel, which is a subset of the White House's National Security Council, several current and former officials said. Neither is there any law establishing its existence or setting out the rules by which it is supposed to operate.

Emphasis mine. I don't even know where to begin addressing how comprehensively fucked-up this policy is, nor how absolutely disgusted I am by it. It is deeply illiberal, profoundly unjust, and fundamentally anti-democratic policy.

The role of the president in ordering or ratifying a decision to target a citizen is fuzzy. White House spokesman Tommy Vietor declined to discuss anything about the process.

Whooooooooooooops! So much for ushering in a new era of transparency in Washington.

In an ironic turn, Obama, who ran for president denouncing predecessor George W. Bush's expansive use of executive power in his "war on terrorism," is being attacked in some quarters for using similar tactics. They include secret legal justifications and undisclosed intelligence assessments.

Yeah. Ironic. That's one word for it.