Anwar al-Awlaki & Samir Khan

[Undertoad]

Find the nearest carrier at sea and bring al-Awlaki back to the US
so he can face trial as an American citizen;
and if convicted, and whatever penalty is ascribed by US laws.

So far:

- You've violated the sovereignty of Yemen. Pakistan was more annoyed by the bin Laden infiltration than drone strikes. This in turn endangers the Yemeni government's interest in cooperating, which in turn makes it more difficult to track AQAP, one of the more serious al Queda organizations.

- You've killed a valuable Navy Seal highly trained service member, as well as a Yemeni resident of unknown origin. I know you didn't intend to do that, but this was a particularly difficult mission and armed resistance was expected. (The decision to use paratroopers was criticized by all media, as Alwaki was in the hills, and extraction could not happen via Saudi Arabia.)

Now the legal problems mount:

- Most of the evidence will be the responsibility of military and intelligence personnel and systems. Most of it will be unavailable to the court. Much of it will be inadmissible in a standard court of law.

- Security surrounding the housing and trial is $200 million to start. This may not even be possible, as NYC felt was the case in the attempt to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The city simply could not afford to have the trial there.

- There is a possibility that the legal system that prosecuted O.J. Simpson will let an extremely dangerous Islamist terrorist free inside the borders of the USA.