Posted on 09/30/2011 6:48:51 PM PDT by chuckee
Sources to NBC News are reporting Samir Khan, editor of Inspire Magazine, is another American citizen that was killed in the air strike in Yemen, along with Anwar al-Awlaki. NBC's Bob Windrem reports.
By Pete Williams, NBC News justice correspondent
Is it legal for the federal government to kill a U.S. citizen overseas, someone who has never been charged or convicted of a crime? Civil liberties groups are condemning the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, but many legal scholars say it is justified.
No U.S. court has ever weighed in on the question, because judges consider these sorts of issues exclusively matters for the president.
Anwar al-Awlaki's father, Nasser, with the help of the ACLU, sued President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and CIA Director Leon Panetta a year ago, when it became clear that the U.S. was targeting the younger al-Awlaki. But U.S. District Judge John Bates threw the case out, ruling that federal courts were in no position to evaluate whether someone was a terrorist whose activities threatened national security and against whom the use of deadly force could be justified...
(Excerpt) Read more at openchannel.msnbc.msn.com ...
There’s some stupid note in some old document I read about a right to due process of law. It either applies to ALL Americans or it applies to none.
I would be very careful going down this road. We currently have a government who violates the Constitution on a daily basis, but they’re not yet literally killing us. When the current government has expressed the belief that conservatives are terrorists, where does that leave you? At what point can you be painted as an Awlaki and they start coming after you?
Unless you have firsthand information on Awlaki’s activities, what you know about him is what you’ve heard in the media - and we all know how trustworthy they are.
I understand he was big in social media, so there may be stuff out there that he wrote that confirms everything the media is saying. I don’t know - I don’t move around Facebook much.
Treason is the levying of war against the US and the penalty for it can be death - AFTER due process.
I’m sure the guy needed killing and I’m not sorry he’s room temp (or a little hotter now), but when the government starts openly killing American citizens (and while we may want to “assume” he renounced his citizenship, the fact that he did would be brought out during the due process process) I think we ALL need to worry.
We have a bunch of people in charge right now who hate this country. They are trying to destroy it as fast as they can. To believe that if they get desperate they won’t take unprecedented action against American Citizens on American soil, is being a little naive.
If taking a formal public stand against the United States of America is all it takes to get that kind of legal status, then there are probably tens of thousands of people right here in the U.S. who would fit the same description.
This may not be a popular position here, but I fail to see how Anwar al-Awlaki is an "enemy combatant" while Jane Fonda is free to go about her business as she pleases.
So, the Union Army should have served papers on Lee’s army at Gettysburg? ...or vice versa...
al-Awaki declared war on his supposed country. He was a traitor to the US and was engaged in illegal warfare. Did his protege follow legal procedures at Fort Hood?
The federal government killed scores of people in 1993 at Waco, TX. None of them had a trial or conviction. Just one example.
cit·i·zen
“A person owing loyalty to and entitled by birth or naturalization to the protection of a state or nation.”
I think its the “Owing loyalty” part of this definition that this POS was missing - making him not a citizen.
This debate about the raghead insults the intelligence of anybody who has some.
And lets be clear.
It's not the muslim in chief who gets credit for this.
Our intelligence services are identifying and locating the targets , and he acts only when he needs a political boost.
He'd take out domestic political enemies too if he thought he could get away with it.
“To: Greysard
We may not be in a state of war with any country but if, for example, North Korea invades South Korea we will destroy them utterly.
The issue here is that whether we are at war or not, the other guys are at war with us. They want to kill you. I am sorry they did not get around to try it so you could be personally convinced of that, but that’s what they do.”
Seriously, muawiyah? Are you really sorry that Greysard hasn’t yet been killed? C’mon, man. This is no way to talk to your fellow American, regardless of whether you agree with him or not. I don’t pray nearly as much as I should, but I’m certainly going to pray for you tonight.
Absolutely agree but who decides?
This guy was a big mouth who openly declared his hatred of America but what about a person who is less open? If an American goes to Pakistan to visit relatives or as a tourist and someone in the CIA believes that he is going to join AQ is it OK to kill him?
Like I said, who decides?
The dude needed killing. But the case illustrates how the POTUS can decide capriciously who deserves a killing and who deserved a trial like the Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, no U.S. citizen he, and how these two decisions have been made by the Obamunists arbitrarily and for purely political reasons. That’s what’s troubling. Other than that, applaud as much as you want the Kenyan, it’ll help him win in 2012.
We could have made it official by actually confirming this fact.
Along with 100k of others that try to do the same while hiding behind their citizenship.
Yeah, they could also have killed any of his pets (dogs) too with total impunity.
Is it legal for the President to be invading a country without seeking approval from Congress, telling the public, or having a legitimate reason not to?
You pro AlQaida people are always so easily misled.
We obviously can kill American citizens without trial. The question is should we and when.
This guy definitely made himself a target by joining an organization at war with the U.S. I’d say he renounced his citizenship at that point, no differently than any German or Jap that did the same in WWII. And despite whatever the North wanted to believe, the Confederacy was by all practical reality a separate country for several years, and their citizen soldiers should have been treated just like any other foreign nation’s soldier we are at war with.
But like you guys said it makes me real nervous. We also executed citizens and Waco and Ruby Ridge under very questionable circumstances. And the Stalinists in this country would, as you and I well know, love to take power, machine gun all of us conservatives without trial, and throw us into mass graves.
There is a line and it’s not well defined. It will be abused at some point under the guise of legality, and though I think justified in this instance, I like many have stated am real uneasy for the future.
“The Union and Confederate Lawyers Duke It Out in Court”
Good point.
“READ WHAT I WROTE VERY CAREFULLY.
You pro AlQaida people are always so easily misled.”
“They want to kill you. I am sorry they did not get around to try it so you could be personally convinced of that, but
that’s what they do.””
I read what you wrote very carefully and it appears you wish that Al Qaida had gotten around to killing Greysard. Deny that if you want, but it’s a pretty sorry thing to say.
As for me being “pro A1Qaida” (sic) I was in Al Khobar when Khobar Towers was blown up in 96. I got to see up close and personal the devastation and personal tragedies that went along with it. My wife worked at the PX and knew every single one of the 19 servicemen that were killed. My son is currently stationed in Kuwait in the MN National Guard.
I understand the danger and the thought process of islamic terrorists very well. What I don’t understand is you - an American (?) who would wish terror on a fellow American to make a political point. Not sure who’s sicker.
“TRY” not “KILL” ~ you don’t know how to read English very well do you.
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