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Title: With presidential drones, who needs judges?
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URL Source: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=203537
Published: Sep 15, 2010
Author: Nat Hentoff
Post Date: 2010-09-16 13:22:53 by AllTheKings'HorsesWontDoIt
Keywords: None
Views: 67
Comments: 3
With presidential drones, who needs judges? Nat Hentoff Posted: September 15, 2010 © 2010 President Barack Obama, CIA Director Leon Panetta and Defense Secretary Robert Gates are now defendants in a historic lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, Washington, by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights. The case is brought on behalf of American citizen Nasser al-Awlaki. The complaint in the case starkly and accurately lays out the constitutional issue at stake: "This case concerns the executive's asserted authority to carry out 'targeted killings' of U.S. citizens suspected of terrorism far from any field of armed conflict." As I and other reporters have confirmed, the complaint continues: "the (U.S.) government maintains lists of suspects – 'kill lists' – against whom lethal force can be used without charge, trial or conviction." That is an utterly clear description of how to deny the Fifth Amendment's command that "no person shall be … deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law." As the lawsuit adds: "Individuals, including U.S. citizens, are added to the ("kill") lists based on executive determinations that secret criteria have been satisfied. Executive officials (Leon Panetta and Robert Gates as well) are invested with sweeping authority to impose extrajudicial death sentences in violation of the Constitution and international law." The first U.S. citizen whom the administration has confirmed as being on this lethal list is Anwar al-Awlaki. He himself did not bring this suit because he has been hiding for his life in Yemen. His father, Nasser al-Awlaki, acting on his son's behalf, retained the ACLU and the CCR to bring his son back into the protection of the Constitution. In this case, our court system, based on our vaunted rule of law, is also asked "to order the government to disclose the standards it uses to place U.S. citizens on government kill lists." Is that too much to ask – not of a government ruthlessly run by Gen. al-Bashir of Sudan or the ultimate executive in the maximum prison called Iran – but of the president of these United States? But I'm not aware of many free Americans being much concerned by this terminal execution of due process. I don't see protesters on the streets or marching on Washington. As a reporter, I am aware of much of the evidence the Obama administration believes it has directly connecting Anwar al-Awlaki to acts of terrorism. But where does it find the assassinating authority to obliterate Mr. al-Awlaki without even bringing a charge against him? In two sentences, the lawsuit gets to the core of this case: "The right to life is the most fundamental of all rights. Outside the context of armed conflict, the intentional use of lethal force without prior judicial process is an abridgement of this right except in the narrowest and most extraordinary circumstances." What are, according to President Obama, the "extraordinary consequences" here? The CIA, whose drone planes are among the most experienced executioners searching for al-Awlaki, won't tell us. The CIA operates in a secret wing of our government, not envisioned by the founders as is shown in James Madison's notes during the Constitutional Convention. But doesn't President Obama owe us, or at least history, an answer to where the justifying "context of armed conflict" is in his hunt to the death of this American citizen? In this legal action, the ACLU and the CCR tell Obama, Panetta and Gates: "The United States is not at war with Yemen, or within it," yet this quarry is being hunted there, so far escaping, says the complaint, "as many as a dozen unsuccessful attempts (according to one media report) on his life." So again, what are "the extraordinary circumstances" authorizing President Obama's relentless pursuit of this citizen, who could be said to be a person without a country? The ACLU and CCR provide the test our government must meet in fulfilling the "extraordinary circumstances" for the summary killing of this citizen: "Outside of armed conflict, both the Constitution and international law prohibit targeted killing except as a last resort to protect against concrete, specific, and imminent threat of serious physical injury. The summary use of force is lawful in these narrow circumstances only because imminence of the threat makes judicial process infeasible." Now dig this, Mr. President: "A targeted killing policy under which individuals are added to kill lists after a bureaucratic process – and remain on these lists for months at a time – plainly goes beyond the use of lethal force as a last resort to address imminent threats, and accordingly goes beyond what the Constitution and international law permit." Also further, and wholly violating the heart of the Constitution, the ACLU and CCR remind all of us it's this administration's absolute refusal to disclose its standards for target killing an American citizen. This startlingly violates U.S. citizens "rights to know what conduct may subject them to execution at the hands of their own government. "Due process requires, at a minimum, that citizens be put on notice of what may cause them to be put to death by the state." Where is an indication that congressional leaders, regardless of party, are seriously concerned about these hidden fatal standards? "The accumulation of all powers," wrote James Madison in Federalist Papers No. 47, "legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands ... may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny." The tea partiers appear to be more conversant with the Constitution than many of us. What do they think of the official, secret, targeted killings of American citizens by the U.S. government? What do you think? Is this still America? Nat Hentoff is a nationally renowned authority on the First Amendment and the Bill of Rights and author of many books, including "The War on the Bill of Rights and the Gathering Resistance." Poster Comment: Is this still America? 20 Signs That America Is No Longer The Land Of The Free The United States was able to defeat Nazi Germany and helped bring down the USSR, but is the U.S. government now quickly becoming just like them? Once upon a time, America was the land of the free and the home of the brave, but today the government has become an oppressive monster that is intrusively embedding itself in our lives in thousands of different ways. Today we are all viewed as potential threats to the "system" that the government has imposed, and therefore everything that we do must be watched, tracked, traced, recorded and controlled. Lip service is still given to ideals such as freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion and freedom of movement, but all of those freedoms are rapidly dying a brutal death. To our forefathers, living the American Dream meant living as free men and women, but today it means living under deep socialist tyranny where the government takes care of us from the cradle to the grave and uses an increasingly oppressive Big Brother police state control system to guarantee our safety. The following are 20 signs that America is no longer the land of the free.... 1 - Government trash snooping has now come to America. The city of Cleveland plans to sort through curbside trash to ensure that people are actually recycling their trash. If it is discovered that they are not recycling properly they will be hit with very large fines. 2- It is becoming increasingly difficult to express free speech online. The city of Philadelphia is actually forcing bloggers to pay them $300 for a business license. In this economic climate, who can afford to pay an extra 300 dollars just to have a blog? So much for free speech in Philadelphia. 3 - All of our DNA will soon be in a database. Barack Obama has been pushing a plan to create a national database that will store the DNA of all individuals who have been arrested, even if they end up not being convicted of a crime. 4 - You should consider nothing you do on the Internet to be private. It is being reported that the Obama administration is now demanding access to all Internet records of all Americans without court review. 5 - Just about anything can be used against you in court these days. In one of the very first military commissions held under the Obama administration, a U.S. military judge ruled that confessions obtained by threatening the subject with rape are admissible in court. 6 - But it is not just Islamic terrorists that are going to get this kind of treatment. According to FBI Director Robert Mueller, "homegrown terrorists" represent just as much of a threat to American national security as al-Qaeda does in 2010. 7 - Be very, very careful about what you post on the Internet from now on. One software company is actually developing software which will be able to identify people from photographs posted on the Internet. 8 - The frightening thing is that the Internet may actually be literally inside the heads of many Americans soon. Intel has stated that it wants microchips inside the heads of their customers by the year 2020. 9- As technology develops, it is inevitable that the government will want to utilize it to track us and to control us. A startup company developing "chipless RFID ink" has already tested its product on cattle and laboratory rats. How soon before it starts getting used on humans? 10- "Pre-crime" is not just for science fiction movies any longer. The Florida State Department of Juvenile Justice has announced that it will begin using analysis software to predict crime by young delinquents and will place "potential offenders" in specific prevention and education programs. 11- Are you ready to start carrying a national ID card? This year U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer and Lindsey Graham have been promoting legislation that would institute a biometric national identification card for all Americans. 12 - These days anyone can be labeled a "terrorist" and denied even the most basic of rights. New legislation being pushed by U.S. Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman earlier this year would allow the U.S. military to round up large numbers of Americans and detain them indefinitely without a trial if they are believed to "pose a threat" or if they have "potential intelligence value" or for any other reason that the President of the United States "considers appropriate". 13 - The relationship between the police and the public has fundamentally changed. Once upon a time the police were there to protect and serve. But in 2010 police all too often abuse their positions. Just recently, a 32 year old man was beaten black and blue by two Denver Police officers for no apparent reason at all. 14 - We are now so tightly regulated that we can't even honor good police officers any longer. Memorial crosses erected along Utah public roads to honor fallen state highway troopers have been found unconstitutional by a federal appeals court and must be removed. 15 - In 2010, it seems like the government wants to investigate just about everyone and everything. For example, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently called for opponents of the proposed Ground Zero mosque to be investigated in order to establish who is funding their activities. 16 - The truth is that it is very dangerous to exercise your free speech in America in 2010. For example, Christians are being arrested in various areas across the United States for quietly passing out Christian literature on public sidewalks. 17 - The U.S. government has become so paranoid that now even milk is viewed as a major threat. Organic milk is now considered such a national crisis that the FDA has been conducting military style raids on Amish farmers in the state of Pennsylvania. 18 - We can't even get on an airplane now without first allowing gawking security officials to get a good look at our naked bodies. The new full body security scanners going into airports all across the United States can actually see through clothing and produce very clear and very detailed images of the exposed bodies of everyone who walks through them. 19 - But the government would never save any of those naked images, would they? Well, the U.S. Marshals Service confessed recently that it had indeed saved tens of thousands of images recorded with a millimeter wave system at the security checkpoint of one Florida courthouse. 20 - Things have gotten so bad that we can't even sing the national anthem during a visit to a national monument any longer. A group of high school students made national headlines recently when they revealed that they were ordered by a security guard to stop singing the national anthem during a visit to the Lincoln Memorial. http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/20-signs-that-america-is-no-longer-the-land-of-the-free [Embedded links and comments at the site.]
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#1. To: AllTheKings'HorsesWontDoIt (#0)
"It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brush fires of freedom in the minds of men." -- Samuel Adams (1722-1803)‡
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The relationship between morality and liberty is a directly proportional one.
Is not his incorrect? Didn't the USSR pretty much demolish Hitlers major portion of artillery and infantry in WW11? Not to mention men. "They fertilized the ground". Heres the edit. The USA defeated the Germans, after the USSR mauled them - at great pain to themselves.
"Satan / Cheney in "08"
#2. To: AllTheKings'HorsesWontDoIt (#0)
#3. To: AllTheKings'HorsesWontDoIt (#0)
(Edited)
The United States was able to defeat Nazi Germany
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