SOME HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE:
* The Killing of Confederate Soldiers during the Civil War. Were they considered American Citizens then, or fighters from another country?
* There were a few instances in World War II where German American citizens, fighting for the Nazis were killed by American troops. Nobody was concerned then about whether the enemy’s constitutional rights had been respected.
Is there EVER a good reason?
Sure -
On the battlefield fighting against the US
When in the midst of any crime from treason to threatening the life of another.
Never for any political or ideological reason. Treason ONLY when it is in the act of being carried out and lethal force must be used.
I do not worry about Americans being killed on the present context. If they are targeted, they are allied with our enemies, who have such low morals that they make nazis look good.
What I worry about is the Obamadork’s group of felon/cretins making plans to do anything of this sort here in the mainland.
Sure there is! Enemies of the US don’t need any due process of law. Nazi, Soviet and Japanese soldiers during WWII, Al Qaeda fighters today. President Obama.
Killing someone on the battlefield is one thing. Killing them because you suspect they may be plotting something is a whole other ball game.
After all, we’re now one step away from doing this here in America. Think about it. The Hutaree were accused of plotting against America and all were acquitted.
A drone strike could have saved government of all the embarrassment of getting caught setting up American militia members.
Only if they are trying to kill you.
Not American citizens. But the threat of drones to motivate illegal immigrants to hustle home is worth considering.. ;-)
I don’t see why Americans truly fighting against us cannot be tried in abstentia for treason when we know who they are.
I see the need for a quick trial, but I do not see the need to eliminate trial by one’s peers.
Of course, this only applies to targeted killings. Americans that are in effect embedded with foriegn enemies are running the chance of being killed in a general fashion.
For instance, had we mounted a specifc raid to kill Tokyo Rose during WWII (like Reinhard Heydrich and Admiral Yamamoto were specifically targeted), and we knew that she was a U.S. citizen, we should have tried her in abstentia first to establish that she was guilty of treason. However, if the mission were simply to destroy the Japanese radio stations and she were killed in the process, then it would not have been a targeted killing.
Interesting that overseas telephonic surveillance of a US citizen requires a hearing and order from a FISA judge, but not killing them.
I doubt many of us grieve the loss of terrorists, but a lack of due process opens the Pandora’s Box of who determines the terrorist status. This slippery slope almost surely will end in abuse of power.
Well, if they’d had drones up, Waco and Ruby Ridge could have been written off as “gas explosions”. Anyone who said any different would have been written off as “conspiracy theorists” or had their own isolated incident which never made the newspapers outside their county.
From the US Code,18 USC § 2381 - Treason
Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.
From Art. 3, section 3 of the US Constitution:
"No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court."
The dead "American" terrorists most certainly have levied war against the US and adhered to our enemies, and are according to the US Code "guilty of treason and shall suffer death".
They probably couldn't meet the two-witness standard put forth in the Constitution, but IMHO, that doesn't change the fact that they were actively engaged in treasonous activity, and it doesn't require that they be brought to trial. They are enemy combatants.
It really sticks in my craw to hear these maggots described as "Americans", because as far as I'm concerned that's an honor they forfeited when they signed up for Al Qaeda. They should have been brought to justice, whether that's a military trial or a smoking hole in the desert. Kill them all. Death to traitors.
US uses Tony Blair defence to justify drone killings
A defence of Britain’s role in the war on terrorism given by Tony Blair’s government after the invasion of Iraq is secretly being used by the Obama administration to help justify its drone campaign against al-Qaeda, it has emerged.
I am afraid I bought into the scare tactics of the GOP during the last 12 years or so that compared what we are facing then and NOW with Hitler and Tojo. There is NO comparison. Yet we are willing to give the govt MORE power in some regards than it had then? This is just natural extension of what the govt has been doing for a while.
This is an after-the-fact consequence of not answering the question, “Should we be examining access to citizenship more closely?”
Obamas’ drone strikes are illegal, using drones to kill American citizens even more so.
Apparently if they’re in the womb it’s okay... or so says the government.
If someone is plotting to hurt my family let me push that drone button.
sooo.. this is like a Civil War Deux,, the gubamint against anybody who they think may be linked to terrorism indirectly or otherwise? and anyone can play.. without knowing a thing even.. and I wanted to be a lawyer when I was young, but hey, who needs laws much less morals these days.
this is an administration well on its way to having crossed one too many lines, again, so what else is new?
But the criminals that occupy our government want to have the executive power to kill Americans in secret and without oversight. Why? Its obvious to any thinking adult that has the slightest grasp of history. The Patriot Act, the NDAA, the DHS, the TSA was always meant, since the day they were created by the arch globalist George Bush, to go after the American people.