Justice denied: Obama must defend killing citizens without a trial [View all]

[The Northerner]

The position of the Obama administration, as articulated by Attorney General Eric Holder, on killing Americans who may be a threat to the country without trial or any other semblance of due process is astonishing.

Mr. Holder, in a speech on Monday at Northwestern University, said government has the authority to kill a "U.S. citizen terrorist who presents an imminent threat of violent attack" and cannot be captured. The added fact that the administration has yet to make public its legal argument to justify this position adds insult to injury in terms of accountability to Americans.

The argument that the 9/11 attack justified a partial dismantling of the system of justice because the nation was plunged into an undefinable war on terrorism may have held water in the early, angry days after the 2001 deaths. But now, more than a decade later, the United States is governed by President Barack Obama, who taught courses in constitutional law and should know better.

Instead, his administration executed two U.S. citizens, Anwar al-Awlaki and his son, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, 16, in Yemen with drones last fall and without benefit of charges, a trial, defense counsel, a guilty verdict and appropriate sentence. There is certainly an argument that the Awlakis were evildoers and represented a threat to the safety and well-being of Americans. For that reason, the Post-Gazette was sympathetic to the administration's aggressive actions last year.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/opinion/editorials/justice-denied-obama-must-defend-killing-citizens-without-a-trial-317970/