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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsKill or capture: Obama's troubling targeted-killing policy
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2012/08/kill-or-capture.htmlOn September 30, 2011, in a northern province of Yemen, Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen and a senior figure in Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, finished his breakfast and walked with several companions to vehicles parked nearby. Before he could drive away, a missile fired from a drone operated by the Central Intelligence Agency struck the group and killed Awlaki, as well as a second American citizen, of Pakistani origin, whom the drone operators did not realize was present.
President Barack Obama had personally authorized the killing. I want Awlaki, he is said to have told his advisers at one point. Dont let up on him. The Presidents bracing words about a fellow American are reported in Kill or Capture, a recent and important book on the Obama Administrations detention and targeted-killing programs, by Daniel Klaidman, a former deputy editor of Newsweek.
With those words attributed to Obama, Klaidman has reported what would appear to be the first instance in American history of a sitting President speaking of his intent to kill a particular U.S. citizen without that citizen having been charged formally with a crime or convicted at trial.
The due-process clause of the Fifth Amendment prohibits any person from being deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. Obama authorized the termination of Awlakis life after he concluded that the boastful, mass-murder-plotting cleric had, in effect, forfeited constitutional protection by waging war against the United States and actively planning to kill Americans. Obama also believed that the Administrations secret process establishing Awlakis guilt provided adequate safeguards against mistake or abuseall in all, enough due process of law to take his life.
More at the link
Attorney General Eric Holder, attempting to form the legal basis for assassinating American citizens, said in part:
Some have called such operations assassinations. They are not, and the use of that loaded term is misplaced. Assassinations are unlawful killings. Here, for the reasons I have given, the U.S. governments use of lethal force in self defense against a leader of al Qaeda or an associated force who presents an imminent threat of violent attack would not be unlawful and therefore would not violate the Executive Order banning assassination or criminal statutes.
Now, it is an unfortunate but undeniable fact that some of the threats we face come from a small number of United States citizens who have decided to commit violent attacks against their own country from abroad. Based on generations-old legal principles and Supreme Court decisions handed down during World War II, as well as during this current conflict, its clear that United States citizenship alone does not make such individuals immune from being targeted. But it does mean that the government must take into account all relevant constitutional considerations with respect to United States citizenseven those who are leading efforts to kill innocent Americans .
An individuals interest in making sure that the government does not target him erroneously could not be more significant. Yet it is imperative for the government to counter threats posed by senior operational leaders of al Qaeda, and to protect the innocent people whose lives could be lost in their attacks .
Let me be clear: an operation using lethal force in a foreign country, targeted against a U.S. citizen who is a senior operational leader of al Qaeda or associated forces, and who is actively engaged in planning to kill Americans, would be lawful at least in the following circumstances: First, the U.S. government has determined, after a thorough and careful review, that the individual poses an imminent threat of violent attack against the United States; second, capture is not feasible; and third, the operation would be conducted in a manner consistent with applicable law of war principles.
Holder makes John Yoo look like a rank amateur. Yoo justified torture; Holder justified murder.
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Kill or capture: Obama's troubling targeted-killing policy (Original Post)
Neue Regel
Aug 2012
OP
xchrom
(108,903 posts)1. I hate that we do this. Nt