Posted on 04/07/2010 7:24:39 AM PDT by 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?
(Excerpt) Read more at Salon.com
It would not be the first time that US troops have fired on, and killed, American citizens peacefully protesting.
Really?
Can’t trust Salon. How about the New York Times or Washington Post?
But you have to be engaged in the insurrection, not simply plotting one.
We don't even assassinate foreign dictators and now we're advocating assassinating American citizens, no due process, no trial?
These are dark times indeed.
Is the SA being purged? The night of long knives is upon us.
FR cares a lot of whits about Bummer on PA Ave.
I knew it wouldn't take long before someone piped up thinking its just dandy for the government to target some Americans for murder.
Remind me again which President it was that ordered the assassination of those men.
Clintoon did send a missile after Osama bin Ladin. It missed him, but again bin Ladin was not in the USA at the time either.
One thing about the Radicals, they have screamed about “Government oppression” when it came to their activities.
Now that these same anarchist are in control. The rules of engagement have changed for them. The American people were aslways their enemy and NOW they intend to make us pay (blood & money) for having “oppressed” them all these years.
This is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.
The ELECTIONS coming up soon are EXTREMELY important to stop and eradicate these demogogues and their fellow travelers.
I bid 12,300 Whits.
OK. Lets do it!
Try him “in absentia”. You’ve convinced me.
What form should the trial take?
Jury? 3 judge panel? Military tribunal?
Should he be tried in federal court, by his home state, or the state of one of his supposed victims?
Does he have a lawyer appointed for him or can he hire one and just wire him the fee?
I truly am interested. I don’t know how a US trial “in absentia” works.
If you can find him, David Koresh can tell you all about it...
In my view, when a person comes on the tv and advocates and encourages the destruction of America, and the murder of American Fathers, Mothers and their children, he has admitted guilt...He is not just a suspect...Unlike David Koresh, He is recruiting people directly or indirectly to kill American civilian citizens...
Pervert. lol
I’m not sure how to feel about myself now.
And if his name was barack hussein obama? Think about it.
S. 3081 Enemy Belligerent Interrogation – A Sick Merry-Go-Round
This is NOT good!
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