WASHINGTON (CN) - A bureau chief at Al Jazeera and an American freelancer claim in a federal complaint that they are being targeted for death because a flawed algorithm put their names on the U.S. government’s kill list.
Filing suit Thursday in Washington, Bilal Abdul Kareem and Ahmad Muaffaq Zaidan say that the kill list, also known as the disposition matrix, is what the United States uses to target individuals for lethal drone strikes, among other weapons.
Kareem, a U.S. citizen, notes that he is one of the only Western journalists to have covered the Syrian civil war from rebel-held territory by forces opposed to the rule of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Already the subject of intense criticism for his coverage of al-Qaida affiliated groups, Kareem has survived five airstrikes while reporting in Syria.
He says he believes he was the specific target of each of the strikes because of his inclusion on the U.S. kill list.
The freelancer’s co-plaintiff is citizen of Syria and Pakistan who learned from media reports that he is on the kill list.
Jeffrey Robinson, an attorney for the journalists with Washington-based Lewis Bach, noted in an interview that Zaidan saw a document, as reported by The Intercept in 2015, that shows the U.S. designated him as a member of al-Qaida and the Muslim Brotherhood, and subsequently placed him on a terror watch list.
The document was part of a National Security Agency Power Point presentation leaked by Edward Snowden.
While Zaidan has not dodged drone strikes like Kareem, he fled his longtime post in Islamabad, Pakistan, for Al Jazeera’s headquarters in Qatar.
Zaidan “can leave Qatar to continue his work as a journalist only at his peril,” according to the complaint.
Along with Kareem, Zaidan staunchly denies any involvement with terror groups or planning of terror attacks.
"Plaintiffs’ inclusion on the Kill List is the result of arbitrary and capricious agency action, accomplished without due process, and in violation of the United States Constitution and U.S. and international law," the complaint states.
Named as defendants are President Donald Trump, CIA Director Michael Pompeo, Defense Secretary James Mattis, Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and National Security Adviser Raymond McMaster, along with their respective agencies. None offered any comment on the lawsuit despite several inquiries.
Zaidan is credited as one of only two journalists to have interviewed Osama bin Laden prior to 9/11. He says his decades-long career has led him to travel "extensively in countries and regions in which terrorists are active.”