The Awlaki drone memo doesn't apply to America's new war in Iraq

The memo specifically dealt with the legal rationale for striking Anwar al-Awlaki, whom the Obama administration said was an operational leader of al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen. (He was killed a year later by a U.S. drone strike.) The 2010 memo says the president’s authority to kill al-Awlaki—despite laws prohibiting the U.S. government from murdering one of its citizens—stems from the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF), the declaration of war passed by Congress against al Qaeda and its allied forces.

That law would likely apply to Abdullah al-Shami, the alias of a senior al Qaeda operational planner that the New York Times reported in February was also born in the United States. The Times reported that al-Shami was the first U.S. citizen since al-Awlaki the Obama administration had considered killing. Earlier that month, the Associated Press first reported that the Justice Department was preparing a legal case against an American al Qaeda operative who officials said was planning attacks to kill U.S. citizens with improvised explosive devices.

ISIS, however, is a different story. Last year the group officially broke ties with al Qaeda and has launched attacks on al Qaeda’s formal affiliate in Syria.