was killed -- abdulrahman al-awlaki was killed, president obama became furious. ennan believed or suspected that it was an intentional hit against al-awlaki's son, this 16-year-old kid. and he ordered a review. and i ask this senior official what happened to the review and he said he did not know. i got in touch with the white house recently exchanged a series of e-mails with the national security council spokesperson and she said she would not discuss any of this is a bit about this and that they would not talk about operational details or any of the reviews. and then pasted a boilerplate response about drawn strikes into the e-mail. -- drone strikes into the mail. and i ask this official that if the narrative was that it was a mistake, what did you say that? what did you say -- why didn't you say that the 16-year-old u.s. citizen was killed as collateral damage or that we were intending to get someone else and did not do it? and he said, look, we had just killed three u.s. citizens in a two-week time frame, three of whom were not even targeted. it is not look go

. >> how about abdulrahman al awlaki. killed by you. is that the way we treat a 16-year-old? can you tell us why abdulrahman al awlaki was killed? can you tell the muslim people their lives are as precious as our lives? can you take the drones out of the hands of the cia? can you stop the signature strikes that are killing people on the basis of suspicious activities? >> we're addressing that, ma'am. >> will you apologize to the thousands of muslims you have killed? will you compensate the innocent family victims? that will make us safer here at home. i love my country. i love the rule of law. the drones are making us less safe and keeping people in indefinite detention in guantanamo is making us less safe. abide by the rules of law. you're a constitutional lawyer. >> all that while, this was the look on the president's face. listening. standing there listening at what is supposed to be his own speech. but the look of a maybe flustered president being heckled at extraordinary lengths -- >> we're addressing that, ma'am. >> -- eventually seemed way to give way to something else.

perhaps the most disturbing killed is the killing of anwar al awlaki's 16-year-old son, abdulrahman,who was killed two weeks after his father while he was having dinner with his teenage cousin. in the letter, eric holder says besides anwar awlaki, the other three americans were not specifically targeted. what does that mean that >> it is almost like an orwellian statement, not specifically targeted. it could mean there were killed and the signature strikes, which is a fort -- sort of pre-crime. any military aged male and a targeted area are considered terrorists and their deaths will be listed as death of a militant. it is possible the other americans killed were killed and the so-called signature strike. in the case of the 16-year-old boy, it is almost impossible to believe it was it when since two weeks after his father is killed he happens to be killed in u.s. drone strike. there were leaks from u.s. officials telling journalists he was 21 years old, at an al qaeda meeting. they have never been able to identify who they killed in that strike. the obama administration has never pub

and the journalists talk about a drone strike that killed a 16-year-old boy by the name of abdulrahman al-awlaki, who is the son of the terrorist or the individual who as allegedly connected to al qaeda, anwar al-awlaki. i thought that was unfortunate. he said the son was 16 years old, and the drone strike killed him and two cousins, who were also teenagers. so i think that many americans should be alarmed and even upset and frustrated about the drone program. i would like to make one more comment about the drone program and what the president said about the citizenship. i personally believe that american citizens should first be read their miranda rights, etc., before some mechanical machine is sent out to execute him. host: john, i'm going to stop you there. let's go back to the issue of the drones. the front page of the "washington post," there is one quote i want to share with you that says -- the president delivered his speech, even though to agree that it may prove more difficult for the president to dismantle the cia's drone program -- that it is to shut down the guantanamo bay program in

countries that are not war zones: radical muslim cleric anwar al- awlaki, who was directly targeted in yemen, as well as his teenage son abdulrahmanong with samir khan and jude kenan mohammed. today, the president defended the use of drones, but he acknowledged they are no cure- all and often kill the innocent. >> it is a hard fact that u.s. strikes have resulted in civilian casualties, a risk that exists every war. for the families of those civilians, no words or legal construct can justify their loss. for me, and those in my chain of command, these deaths will haunt us as long as we live. >> woodruff: ahead of the speech, the president signed new guidelines that his aides said will curtail the use of drones. he also outlined new plans to close the prison facility at the guantanamo naval base. he initially made that pledge in 2009, but he's encountered strong resistance from congress, and other countries. >> i know the politics are hard. but history will cast a harsh judgment on this aspect of our fight against terrorism, and those of us who fail to end it. >> woodruff: illustrating the emotions on that issue, a protester repeate