Holder clarifies president's drone authority

Holder's clarifying comment came in a short letter to Senator Rand Paul, who mounted a 13-hour, nonstop filibuster in the Senate demanding answers from the administration on the scope of drone policy.

“It has come to my attention that you have now asked an additional question: 'Does the president have the authority to use a weaponized drone to kill an American not engaged in combat on American soil?'” Holder wrote Paul.

“The answer to that question is no.”

Paul had demanded a clarification from the administration to ensure “they are not going to kill noncombatants in America” bringing a new U.S. perspective to a row raging over the use of U.S. drones against terror suspects abroad.

On Tuesday, Holder had said that, while Obama had “no intention” of ordering drone strikes on U.S. soil, the scenario could be possible if there was an “extraordinary circumstance” such as an attack similar to 9/11.

Paul said after he received the letter that it showed his battle was worthwhile.

“The reason this is important is often drones are used overseas (against) people who are not actively engaged in combat,” he told reporters.

“I'm not saying they're not bad people or they might have previously been in combat, but the thing is, we have to have a higher standard in our country.”

Paul acknowledged that U.S. drone strikes have proven effective in places like Pakistan and Yemen, including a deadly strike on U.S.-born radical preacher Anwar al-Awlaki, whom Paul branded a traitor.

But he added during his filibuster: “If you're going to kill noncombatants, people eating dinner, in America, there have to be some rules.”

Paul's action won praise from some Republicans and those conservatives who see him as the heir to his father Ron Paul's quirky coalition in presidential campaigns.

But critics questioned whether he was truly engaging on a point of principle and worried that he was scaremongering, since no U.S. official had seriously mooted the use of drones against U.S. citizens on home soil.

“The president has not and would not use drone strikes against American citizens on American soil,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

“Those legal authorities that exist to use lethal force are bound by and constrained by the law and the Constitution.

“The issue here isn't the technology. The method does not change the law. The president's sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution, and he is bound by the law.

“Whether the lethal force in question is a drone strike or a gunshot, the law and the Constitution apply in the same way.”

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