Clearing up misconceptions regarding Anwar al-Awlaki

[Octafish]

105. Good point. But we don't know that, do we?

We never got a chance to ask him. Or his teen-age son, who also was a citizen before he got turned into bug splat before questioning or trial. Here's a nice overview:

The Year in Drones

2014 Was a Good Year For Drones, 2015 Might be Even Better

by Charles Pierson
CounterPunch, Jan. 7, 2014

2014 was a good year for US killer drones. In October, the US celebrated (if that is the word) its 400th drone strike on Pakistan. Unable to attend the festivities were the 2,379 Pakistanis killed by US drones since 2004. Of these, only 12% of the victims who have been identified have been linked to militant organizations, this according to an October report from the independent British-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

Drone victims have been largely invisible to Americans. An exception is the family of Rafiq ur Rehman, a Pakistani schoolteacher. On October 24, 2012, a US drone killed Rafiq’s 67-year old mother while she was gathering okra behind the Rehmans’ home in Waziristan in Pakistan’s tribal areas. A year later, on October 29, 2013, Rafiq and his two young children testified before Congress. The Rehmans were brought to Capitol Hill by Representative Alan Grayson (D-FL) and Robert Greenwald, director of Unmanned: America’s Drone Wars. This was the first—and, so far, the only—time drone victims had testified before Congress. The Rehmans might just as well have saved themselves the trip. Only five members of Congress showed up to listen to the Rehmans’ testimony.

SNIP...

No Judge, No Jury, No Trial—No Problem!

US drones are lethal, but they aren’t toxic. Not politically toxic, not yet. Like the neutron bomb which kills people without damaging buildings, drones kill people without harming political careers. Case in point: on May 22 of 2014, the Senate confirmed David Barron’s nomination to a federal judgeship. Barron had worked in the DoJ’s Office of Legal Counsel. While there, Barron had co-authored a memo providing Obama with legal cover for the targeted assassination of an American citizen: Anwar al-Awlaki, a US-born al-Qaeda member. Al-Awlaki was killed by a drone on September 30, 2011 in Yemen. Al-Awlaki’s 16-year old son was killed in a separate drone attack.

Barron’s memo remained classified until a federal appeals court forced the White House to release a redacted version on June 22, 2014…after Barron had been confirmed.

Al-Awlaki is one of four US citizens killed by drones. Shall we try for five? Last February, the Associated Press reported that the Obama Administration was contemplating a drone strike on a fifth US citizen: an al-Qaeda member living in Pakistan and known by the nom de guerre Abdullah al-Shami (Abdullah the Syrian). So far, there have been no reports of al-Shami’s demise. But the lesson to take away is that the Obama Administration still believes it can kill Americans without due process of law.

CONTINUED...

http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/01/07/the-year-in-drones/

I, too, hate traitors. That's why I want to see Bush and Cheney and the rest of them who lied America into war without end in prison for the rest of their natural days. Rather than giving them a last request and a bullet, theirs would make a great example to deter future generations from following in their crooked footsteps.