Human rights groups criticize Burr after report he called for assassinating American from Texas

U.S. Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) (C), flanked by Senator John McCain (R-AZ) (L) and Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) (R). [Reuters]

The American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch on Monday condemned reports that U.S. Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) called in 2013 for the CIA to locate and kill a U.S. citizen who’d become a top al Qaida operative, instead of capturing him and putting him on trial.

The senator reportedly made the kill command over the case of Muhanad Mahmoud Al Farekh, who was eventually captured. The reports show that “Congress, including Burr, had failed in its oversight role by promoting the killing of a human being instead of demanding a court hearing or public explanation,” writes Franco Ordoñez at McClatchy:

A New York Times report earlier this month described the Justice Department and members of Congress fighting over what to do about Farekh.

The Times then reported Sunday that Burr and Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., had argued behind closed doors that the CIA was being too timid and that Farekh ought to be found and killed. Farekh, a native of Texas, was thought at the time to be a top member of al Qaida in Pakistan.

Burr, who became chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee in January, wasn’t available to comment on the article, according to his office.

“It’s very disturbing . . . ,” said Jameel Jaffer, the deputy legal director of the ACLU. “One of the things that will happen now because Al Farekh was captured is that the government will be compelled to make its case in public to explain why this guy is dangerous.”

“Rights groups criticize Burr after report he’d called for killing U.S. citizen” [McClatchy]