Obama Crosses the Rubicon: The Killing of Anwar al-Awlaki

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Obama Crosses the Rubicon: The Killing of Anwar al-Awlaki

Harvey Silverglate, Contributor
10/06/2011 @ 10:14AM

Obama Crosses the Rubicon: The Killing of Anwar al-Awlaki

If sunlight truly is the best disinfectant, how diseased must our national security state have become? Nearly ten years after the rushed and largely unread Patriot Act was made law, the United States has entered into a new realm of secrecy, as a constitutional law professor turned President has brought the state’s secrets provisions to their logical conclusion: he has targeted and killed American citizens based entirely upon information he refuses to make public or submit to a duly established body or tribunal. The President’s move was as unprecedented as it was unnecessary, and rightfully makes many wonder not if we are at the precipice of a slippery slope, but rather how far down that dune we have fallen, and whether we will ever be able to scramble back up.
....

But when the United States’ predator drone, having lifted off from a secret base in the Yemen, took out its target last Friday, America entered into uncharted and dangerous territory in its fight against terror and traitors. Al-Awlaki and Khan were American citizens; while perhaps deserving of their fate—we do not know, for there has been no public fact-finding—they faced no court, no indictment, no duly constituted body of either house of Congress, and no normal prosecutorial oversight. The executive branch did not consult members of Congress, nor did it reach out to a judicial body. Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com decried the lack of “due process,” but he makes a mistake in his characterization: the problem is not a lack of due process, but rather a lack of any process at all.
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Jake Tapper: Do you plan on bringing before the public any proof of these charges?
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Jake Tapper: Is there going to be any evidence presented?

Jay Carney: Uh, you know, I don’t have anything for you on that.
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Jake Tapper: Do you not see at all, does the administration not see at all, that the President asserting that he has the right to kill an American citizen without due process, and that he’s not going to even explain why he thinks he has that right, is troublesome to some people?

[Kurovski]

1. K&R

But R=0 these days.

[ProSense]

2. Actually,

Supporters of the administration’s position may argue that Awlaki was an enemy combatant, and that his citizenship became irrelevant as soon as he stepped on the battlefield. Those who make that claim miss the point; in the asymmetrical, indefinable war on terror, we often do not know who the combatants are, and where the battlefield on any given day will be. We need evidence to prove that somebody is a dangerous terrorist, rather than a radical cleric and hateful citizen practicing his first amendment rights but on foreign soil. Traitors who joined the Nazi SS wore uniforms and fought on front lines; such cannot be said for al-Awlaki and his companion Samir Khan. As the Washington Post reported, it was only after we blew up al-Awlaki’s motorcade that the Obama Administration publicly claimed that al-Awlaki was the “external operations chief for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.”

...we do: Americans are not equivalent to terrorists

People need to stop pretending that there was some precendent set in pursuing a terrorist. Waco was nothing like pursuing a terrorist in Yemen, and it's possible to capture terrorists in this country.

Seven Face Terrorism Charges in N.C.

Too bad for al-Awlaki or bin Laden they weren't found hiding in someone's house inside the U.S.

[frylock]

3. r2z