Obama orders release of drone details The Obama administration on Wednesday moved to avoid a clash with Congress over its controversial drone programme by ordering that some members be allowed to read the legal opinion that justifies the killing of American suspected terrorists. The White House decided that members of the House and Senate intelligence committees should be allowed to see the memo just hours before John Brennan, nominee to be the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, was due to appear before a Senate confirmation hearing. Mr Brennan's hearing on Thursday has threatened to become a rare moment of public scrutiny for the programme of targeted killings of alleged terrorists which he masterminded as the White House's counter-terrorism adviser and which has expanded dramatically during the Obama administration. The memo is a 2010 opinion written by the justice department which provides the legal basis for the US government to order the killing of American citizens believed to be senior al-Qaeda figures. It was used to justify the 2011 drone strike in Yemen which killed Anwar al-Awlaki, who was believed to be a leader of an al-Qaeda affiliate. The targeted killing of suspected terrorists, most of which are conducted using armed drones, has long been criticised by civil liberties groups, however the policy is also starting to come under increasing pressure from parts of the political mainstream. The secret justice department memo has become one of the main bones of contention. Earlier this week, a bipartisan group of 11 senators called to be allowed to read it. Speaking on Wednesday before the White House reversed its position, Ron Wyden, a Democratic senator from Oregon, said he would "pull out all the stops to get the actual legal analysis, because without it, in effect, the administration is, in effect, practising secret law." A document that appears to be a summary of the justice department memo was leaked earlier this week and published by NBC. It said that targeted killings should only be authorised when an attack on US interests was "imminent," but then went on to outline a broad set of circumstances that might qualify as imminent. The Obama administration suggested that the decision was part of a broader White House push to involve Congress in establishing a legal framework for the use of drones. In an interview last year on The Daily Show, Mr Obama said: "One of the things that we've got to do is put a legal architecture in place and we need congressional help to do that to make sure that not only am I reined in, but any president is reined in, in terms of some of the decisions that we're making." Mr Brennan is likely to face other questions about the drone programme, including the continued involvement of the CIA on conducting targeted killings. He will also likely be asked about the torture and extraordinary rendition programmes operated by the CIA during the George W. Bush administration, when he was a senior official at the agency.