Obama Secret Memo Allows Killing Of Americans

Discussion in 'Politics' started by pspr, Oct 3, 2011.

  1. pspr

    pspr

    IMO Obama needs to release this memo and allow debate on the reasoning behind being able to kill an American citizen not on the battlefield.

    Isn't that interesting? Months ago, the Obama Administration revealed that it would target al-Awlaki. It even managed to wriggle out of a lawsuit filed by his father to prevent the assassination. But the actual legal reasoning the Department of Justice used to authorize the strike? It's secret. Classified. Information that the public isn't permitted to read, mull over, or challenge.

    Why? What justification can there be for President Obama and his lawyers to keep secret what they're asserting is a matter of sound law? This isn't a military secret. It isn't an instance of protecting CIA field assets, or shielding a domestic vulnerability to terrorism from public view. This is an analysis of the power that the Constitution and Congress' post September 11 authorization of military force gives the executive branch. This is a president exploiting official secrecy so that he can claim legal justification for his actions without having to expose his specific reasoning to scrutiny. As the Post put it, "The administration officials refused to disclose the exact legal analysis used to authorize targeting Aulaqi, or how they considered any Fifth Amendment right to due process."

    Obama hasn't just set a new precedent about killing Americans without due process. He has done so in a way that deliberately shields from public view the precise nature of the important precedent he has set.


    http://www.theatlantic.com/politics...explains-why-obama-can-kill-americans/246004/
     
  2. The president of the United States of America can now kill a US citizen without trial or even charge. He can deny that citizen the right to defend themselves against being the target for extra judicial killing. If this does not concern you as a citizen of the United States, then you are not paying attention. This is not about Anwar Awlaki, it is about how this new precedent will be used by this and future presidents going forward.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6bgwZGZiIo&feature=youtu.be
     
  3. How exactly is this different from the "Dirty Wars" fought against terrorists in such countries as Colombia, Chile and Argentina? Liberals not only denounced those actions but demanded prosecution of the responsible officials, and in fact many were prosecuted.

    You have to savor the irony and the raw hypocrisy of liberals in this country. They wanted Bush and Ccheney in prison for authorizing a few terrorists to be slapped around, but now they are OK with assassination of American citizens.

    No doubt this guy was a dirtbag, but you don't have to be a constitutional scholar to see the slippery slope.
     
  4. Obama is a disgrace to the USA and an anti-semite.

    He should be impeached and deported back to his African village.

    God bless Israel.