This guy isn't being targeted as a criminal, he's being targeted as a military enemy of the United States.
Plenty of other non-citizens who engage in the same kinds of activities have been previously targeted for assassination on the same grounds and I'm sure you have no dispute there.
Is the fact that he, like they, are members of a hostile military force which explicitly aims to attack the United States really altered by the fact he happens to possess U.S. citizenship?
Would you suggest that these other non-citizen Al Qaida operatives also require trial before they can be fired upon by U.S. forces?
If they or Al-Awlaki were subject to U.S. legal jurisdiction and could be arrested, then certainly that is what should happen. But they're not; like Al-Awlaki, are not subject to U.S. jurisdiction, instead they are part of a hostile military force which is operating in foreign territory.
Re: Excellent train of logic
Plenty of other non-citizens who engage in the same kinds of activities have been previously targeted for assassination on the same grounds and I'm sure you have no dispute there.
Is the fact that he, like they, are members of a hostile military force which explicitly aims to attack the United States really altered by the fact he happens to possess U.S. citizenship?
Would you suggest that these other non-citizen Al Qaida operatives also require trial before they can be fired upon by U.S. forces?
If they or Al-Awlaki were subject to U.S. legal jurisdiction and could be arrested, then certainly that is what should happen. But they're not; like Al-Awlaki, are not subject to U.S. jurisdiction, instead they are part of a hostile military force which is operating in foreign territory.