Confirmed: Obama Authorizes Assassination of U.S. Citizen

Salon ^ | Wednesday, April 7, 2010 | Glenn Greenwald

[kristinn]

In late January, I wrote about the Obama administration's "presidential assassination program," whereby American citizens are targeted for killings far away from any battlefield, based exclusively on unchecked accusations by the Executive Branch that they're involved in Terrorism. At the time, The Washington Post's Dana Priest had noted deep in a long article that Obama had continued Bush's policy (which Bush never actually implemented) of having the Joint Chiefs of Staff compile "hit lists" of Americans, and Priest suggested that the American-born Islamic cleric Anwar al-Awlaki was on that list. The following week, Obama's Director of National Intelligence, Adm. Dennis Blair, acknowledged in Congressional testimony that the administration reserves the "right" to carry out such assassinations.

Today, both The New York Times and The Washington Post confirm that the Obama White House has now expressly authorized the CIA to kill al-Alwaki no matter where he is found, no matter his distance from a battlefield. I wrote at length about the extreme dangers and lawlessness of allowing the Executive Branch the power to murder U.S. citizens far away from a battlefield (i.e., while they're sleeping, at home, with their children, etc.) and with no due process of any kind. I won't repeat those arguments -- they're here and here -- but I do want to highlight how unbelievably Orwellian and tyrannical this is in light of these new articles today.

Just consider how the NYT reports on Obama's assassination order and how it is justified:

The Obama administration has taken the extraordinary step of authorizing the targeted killing of an American citizen, the radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who is believed to have shifted from encouraging attacks on the United States to directly participating in them, intelligence and counterterrorism officials said Tuesday. . . .

American counterterrorism officials say Mr. Awlaki is an operative of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the affiliate of the terror network in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. They say they believe that he has become a recruiter for the terrorist network, feeding prospects into plots aimed at the United States and at Americans abroad, the officials said.

It is extremely rare, if not unprecedented, for an American to be approved for targeted killing, officials said. A former senior legal official in the administration of George W. Bush said he did not know of any American who was approved for targeted killing under the former president. . . .

"The danger Awlaki poses to this country is no longer confined to words," said an American official, who like other current and former officials interviewed for this article spoke of the classified counterterrorism measures on the condition of anonymity. "He’s gotten involved in plots."

No due process is accorded. No charges or trials are necessary. No evidence is offered, nor any opportunity for him to deny these accusations (which he has done vehemently through his family). None of that.

Instead, in Barack Obama's America, the way guilt is determined for American citizens -- and a death penalty imposed -- is that the President, like the King he thinks he is, secretly decrees someone's guilt as a Terrorist. He then dispatches his aides to run to America's newspapers -- cowardly hiding behind the shield of anonymity which they're granted -- to proclaim that the Guilty One shall be killed on sight because the Leader has decreed him to be a Terrorist. It is simply asserted that Awlaki has converted from a cleric who expresses anti-American views and advocates attacks on American military targets (advocacy which happens to be Constitutionally protected) to Actual Terrorist "involved in plots." These newspapers then print this Executive Verdict with no questioning, no opposition, no investigation, no refutation as to its truth. And the punishment is thus decreed: this American citizen will now be murdered by the CIA because Barack Obama has ordered that it be done. What kind of person could possibly justify this or think that this is a legitimate government power?

[McBuff]

Keep in mind that Bush never authorized wiretaps of American citizens specifically. He authorized wiretaps of phone calls entering the US from from nations with known terrorist. Whoever received those calls within the United States could have been citizen or non-citizen. The Bush Administration was using the wiretaps to locate terrorist cells operating within the US. This was not a unprecedented practice. However the ordered assassination of a US citizen because he is "believed" to be a direct threat IS UNPRECEDENTED!

Compare this to Obama's policy with regard to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the CONFESSED mastermind of 9-11! Though a non-citizen. . .he gets mirandized and a full show trial in Manhattan. Obama is nuts, out of control or both.

[HiTech RedNeck]

There’d still be a big debate. One of the things that were constantly on many Freepers’ minds was: what if the next Democrat president (or Congress) does what we are liking their Republican counterpart to do now?

[HiTech RedNeck]

Mecca isn’t in Texas.

[Smokin' Joe]

Instead, in Barack Obama's America, the way guilt is determined for American citizens -- and a death penalty imposed -- is that the President, like the King he thinks he is, secretly decrees someone's guilt as a Terrorist. He then dispatches his aides to run to America's newspapers -- cowardly hiding behind the shield of anonymity which they're granted -- to proclaim that the Guilty One shall be killed on sight because the Leader has decreed him to be a Terrorist.

>snip<

What kind of person could possibly justify this or think that this is a legitimate government power?

The crux of the matter is that no matter how unpopular this man may be, for whatever reason, as an American Citizen he should be accorded his Constitutional Rights to a trial.

If Obama is willing to import non-citizen detainees to give them trials, surely the declaration of a Citizen as a target for extermination, no matter how much we may revile his alleged actions of beliefs, is beyond presidential powers and the most dangerous usurpation yet.

How long before Obama declares any of those of us on the Right "terrorists"?

Oh, wait. He already has.

[Hoosier-Daddy]

...and why announce your intent to assassinate other than to send him a message to clam up and go deep. Your post makes a lot of sense. Obama and Hassan must be closer than reported.

[NeoCaveman]

Greenwald notes further in the article that this is one power President George W. Bush never claimed.

This is the most dangerous regime ever.

[Salvation]

**hit lists” of Americans**

Tell me this is not true!

[Jeff Head]

If we suspect, at the highest levels of government, that this guy hiding in Yemen (who is an American citizen) is guilty of treason...and he may be...then we should try and apprehend him and bring him to trial and justice As the Constitution directs. Just like we have issued an arrest warrant and held a grand-jury for the American acting as Al Quida's internet press spokesmen who is also an American.

If in the process of attempting to make that arrest they fight and he is killed, so be it.

But the Constitution calls for a grand jury, a fair trial by jury of his peers, etc. NOT an execution order.

I believe we should do all in our power to catch and bring this guy to justice based on the charges against him.

I DO NOT believe the President, attorney general, vice-president, etc., etc. has the power to circumvent the constitution and issue death warrants for American citizens with no trial, no jury, nno evidence, no chance to refute the charges. To agree to such is to invite total tyranny and allow a tyrant to supress any dissent at the point of the sword.

THE MAN WHO DESPISES AMERICA

[stephenjohnbanker]

Obama is an enemy of the United States. Everything he does is done to hurt us. No exceptions!

[Ditter]

I’ll bet the liberals are screaming their lungs out over this...... ?.......? I don’t hear anything......

Oh yeah, It’s not George Bush doing it, that is the difference!

[Lazamataz]

[DaveTesla]

Well put.

Just dont give them a fat lip during the capture. /s

[HiTech RedNeck]

Unless Bummer is just woofin’ and the real idea is to send him a message to zip his tale telling lips.

[LonePalm]

So why don't they just revoke his citizenship first

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican) ?

[OldNavyVet]

Ours is not a perfect world and relying on bringing justice home has its limits.

Think about how a 19th century ship’s captain would handle this “citizen.”

[crazydad]

Yes murdering a woman, not very nice.. I wonder if he is living large on his pension...

[Lazamataz]

All the people here who normally want to nuke Mecca (even if some Americans are among the casualties) seem to be suddenly getting religion about due process.

Nuke Mecca after a fair trial.

I mean, how hard was that?

[SaraJohnson]

Good to know dear reader has named Christians, gun owners, vets and pro-life people domestic “terrorists.” Now he can proceed to have America’s terrorist “enemies” murdered...

mmmm mmmm mmm Barack Hussein Obama mmm mmm mmm.

He’s a Muslim and a Marxist. Murdering enemies that threaten your power is not as foreign to him as embodying and obeying the American constitution.

In the meantime he has cleaned the words “radical Islam” from homeland security which I find an honest move. All of Islam is radical; it is not a “religion of peace.” Some Muslims take it seriously and some don’t; but any who do take it seriously, are dangerous to any notion of Western freedom. That would be Obama.

[divine_moment_of_facts]

Castro keeps coming to mind.

[Lazamataz]

If we suspect, at the highest levels of government, that this guy hiding in Yemen (who is an American citizen) is guilty of treason...and he may be...then we should try and apprehend him and bring him to trial and justice As the Constitution directs. Just like we have issued an arrest warrant and held a grand-jury for the American acting as Al Quida's internet press spokesmen who is also an American.

If in the process of attempting to make that arrest they fight and he is killed, so be it.

But the Constitution calls for a grand jury, a fair trial by jury of his peers, etc. NOT an execution order.

THIS is why we need you alive. I get angry at people who back this sort of stuff, and my emotion clouds my thought.

You are succinct and well-reasoned.

So, any update?