Posted on 10/03/2011 10:32:55 AM PDT by Captain Kirk
The killing on Friday of Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen described as a powerful al-Qaeda terrorist, has stirred considerable debate about whether it's appropriate for a president to order an American assassinated.
Evidently, Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain shares those concerns.
The above video was recorded just after the first nationally televised GOP presidential debate of the 2012 campaign cycle, held in Greenville South Carolina on May 5 of this year, according to its YouTube page.
"He should be charged. And since he's an American citizen, he should be tried in our courts," Cain said of al-Awlaki. When asked if he considered it legal for President Obama to order al-Awlaki killed, Cain said, "In his case, no, because he's an American citizen."
It has been known since early 2010 that the CIA and the U.S. military's special-operations division maintain kill lists with three to four Americans on them. Al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born cleric, was on the list. He was reportedly killed in Yemen on Friday in a U.S. drone and jet strike. A classified Department of Justice memo authorized the killing, The Washington Post reported.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
He should stick at running a Pizza company. Running for Presidency is way over his head. Are we seriously going to consider voting for someone to be President, the most powerful job in the world, when he has never ran for an elected office before? Wake up people.
Well, as one of the frontrunners (for the moment) Cain’s record and statements are going to be thoroughly examined, and a lot of this kind of stuff is going to come out.
If any of the other candidates consider him an actual threat, they are going to rip him apart over it because Cain is clearly wrong here. You know if someone is in agreement with Ron Paul and Gary Johnson on an issue of national security, that person is almost certainly 100% wrong.
I’m in the Cain camp but he’s wrong on this one.
I think it was the dumbest thing we could have done. We should have taken him alive, let him have a few weeks of meaningful interrogation (REAL interrogation, not just what’s your name, please sir) and then turned him over to sleep with the fishes. This guy was a goldmine. Killing him from the air was stupid.
I agree with Cain on this. Regardless of how you feel, however, it will be very interesting to see if he tries to back off from this or spins like crazy.
I differ with Cain on this one. ‘Course, I’m a big fan of 007’s “license to kill”.
Our whole concept of law and order is nice and works very well, but there is stuff that is played out outside that particular playing field all the time. If you get rounded up for robbing banks that the cops are “SURE” that you robbed, you still get your day in court. In the real world of “known terrorism” or other similarly wrongheaded activity, that sort of treatment of “rights of the accused” is way too complicated, messy and, too darned ineffective. You may want to be on the lookout for the presence of very expensive and very accurate missiles overhead.
And that is as it should be.
The common sense solution is to kill a terrorist enemy combatant no matter what the citizenship. American safety first. Herb’s been drifting a little.
Oh...he ran...He didn’t get past the primary.
He be dead , and I be glad.
No telling how many American lives will be saved with the death of this POS.
Nice try, Atlantic.
Cain would have to be dead for decades before his IQ would descend to that of the Cretin-in-Chief..
Add another millenia of so for his IQ to descend to that the writers and editors of your wimpy mag.
JFTR, Cain did run for Senate in 2004 but lost the primary to some RINO. Agree that he’s wilting under the spotlight, no suprise there.
Sorry to say Freepers but every American citizen, no matter how horrible they are, has the right to due process. No one person should have the right to summarily assasinate a US citizen. It’s a slippery slope, you give Obama a pass on this, then what else will he get free passes on. THis guy should have been captured and then afforded his day in court as is his right as an American.
Nice try? Er....um.....do you believe that the Atlantic lied about Cain’s views and/or doctored a youtube?
If an American fought along side the Japanese or Germans in WWII would they get shot?.....I hope so
Was taking him alive an option? If so, then I agree. If not, well, I shed no tears for that POS.
There is a reasonable argument to have on this issue, and targeting US citizens is a tough issue. If there ever is an exception, this is clearly it. He was a militant traitor.
This is not a clearly black and white issue, and is worthy of an adult discussion.
Joining with the terrorists was no different. The worthless bastard got his just deserts.
Not once he becomes an enemy combatant.
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