[ConorMacNessa]

He was an enemy combatant regardless of his putative citizenship, ergo, fair game. Are we going to have to make our soldiers ask for judicial authorization before dispatching an enemy combatant?

Lamh Foistenach Abu!

[americanophile]

Unfortunately ‘enemy combatant’ is something of an (inexact) invention, and surely doesn’t trump the Constitution.

[CynicalBear]

>>Are we going to have to make our soldiers ask for judicial authorization before dispatching an enemy combatant?<<

First of all you didn’t state whether that “enemy combatant” was an American Citizen with constitutional rights. What if that “enemy combatant” was a Christian who the government said was trying to overturn government?

[EBH]

Adam Gadahn

[MarkL]

He was an enemy combatant regardless of his putative citizenship, ergo, fair game. Are we going to have to make our soldiers ask for judicial authorization before dispatching an enemy combatant?

Was he actually a combatant? I am not aware of him actually picking up a weapon and stepping onto a battlefield. If anything, I think he'd be more akin to a "Tokyo Rose" who exhorted others to treasonous acts. Or if you like, more like a Charles Manson, who didn't actually commit any of the murders for which he received a death sentence. But he was tried in front of a jury. I believe that Tokyo Rose was condemned to death after WWII, however there has been no declaration of war by congress.

It's complicated.

Mark