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sad sally

(2,627 posts)
1. With a US policy that says there's "nothing in international law" that prohibits attacking
Tue May 1, 2012, 12:52 PM
May 2012

"enemies" who are anyplace in the world, the US shouldn't be at all surprised when drone attacks are launched by other countries against the US. Maybe China, if the US gives safe haven to their dissidents?

Since the US has decided it can launch drone attacks any place on planet Earth, regardless if we're at war with the selected target, the gloves are off. The administration has opened a new door with unchartered legal justification.

from Common Dreams:
White House Admission of Drone Strikes Does Nothing to Justify Program’s Legality, ACLU Says
ACLU National Security Experts Warn Program is Unlawful and Dangerous
.........
“But Mr. Brennan supplies legal conclusions, not legal analysis. We continue to believe that the administration should release the Justice Department memos underlying the program – particularly the memo that authorizes the extrajudicial killing of American terrorism suspects. And the administration should release the evidence it relied on to conclude that an American citizen, Anwar al-Aulaqi, could be killed without charge, trial, or judicial process of any kind.”

Brennan maintained the Obama administration was committed to transparency when it came to deciding who would be subject to lethal drone strikes. But Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU National Security Project, said the program is both unconstitutional and overly broad.

“We continue to believe, based on the information available, that the program itself is not just unlawful but dangerous. This statement makes clear that the administration is treating legal restrictions on the use of force as questions of preference. Moreover, it is dangerous to characterize the entire planet as a battlefield,” Shamsi said.

“It is dangerous to give the President the authority to order the extrajudicial killing of any person – including any American – he believes to be a terrorist. The administration insists that the program is closely supervised, but to propose that a secret deliberation that takes place entirely within the executive branch constitutes ‘due process’ is to strip the Fifth Amendment of its essential meaning.”

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2012/04/30-4

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