Who says you can kill Americans, Mr. President?
The three Americans known to have been killed, in two drone strikes in Yemen in the fall of 2011, are Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical Muslim cleric who was born in New Mexico; Samir Khan, a naturalized American citizen who had lived in New York and North Carolina, and was killed alongside Mr. Awlaki; and, in a strike two weeks later, Mr. Awlaki’s 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, who was born in Colorado.
Most of us think these people were probably terrorists anyway. So the president’s reassurances have been enough to keep criticism at an acceptable level for the White House. Democrats in Congress and in the press have only gingerly questioned the claims by a Democratic president that he is right about the law and careful when he orders drone attacks on our citizens. And Republicans, who favor aggressive national security powers for the executive branch, look forward to the day when one of their own can wield them again. …
So, even though Congress has the absolute power under the Constitution to receive these documents, the Democratic-controlled Senate has not fought this president to get them. If the senators did, and the president held fast to his refusal, they could go to court and demand them, and I believe they would win. Perhaps even better, they could skip getting the legal memos and go right to the meat of the matter — using oversight and perhaps legislating to control the president’s killing powers. That isn’t happening either.
Blowback
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I’m the King ….and I have no opposition .
Lucano on January 17, 2013 at 2:03 PM
He says. So shut up.
UltimateBob on January 17, 2013 at 2:05 PM
It ain’t murder… it’s a tax.
—– Just-Us Benedict “Okay, boss” Roberts
viking01 on January 17, 2013 at 2:09 PM
Who said you can hit the first responders and funerals?
Ben Hur on January 17, 2013 at 2:10 PM
Before: republican president listening to our phone called – Bushitler!
Now: democrat president killing Americans without warrant – three cheers for the godking!
Rebar on January 17, 2013 at 2:15 PM
No kidding. Waterboarding KSM apparently elicited a much bigger reaction from the left than actually murdering al-Awlaki and his teenage son. And the latter two are freaking American citizens!
Doughboy on January 17, 2013 at 2:28 PM
I’d say the his right as Commander in Chief, and the general ability to levy war…is what gives him the power. I wouldn’t question Bush’s ability, I don’t question Obama’s right…but I’m a war-mongering, neo-con statist.
JFKY on January 17, 2013 at 2:30 PM
Go figure that liberals shriek to heaven when *gasp* we put the screws to some two-legged roach, but a man and kid blown up? Nothing.
MelonCollie on January 17, 2013 at 2:36 PM
I see KSM human cockroach, but a guy preaching Jihad and waging war on the US is a “man.”
I think the difference is many liked Bush and many don’t like Obama.
Say, could we have targeted Tokyo Rose? Had he been American, Lord Haw-Haw?
JFKY on January 17, 2013 at 2:40 PM
Why you did when you covered up his other BS, beatified him and then dragged him over the finish line this go around.
kim roy on January 17, 2013 at 2:43 PM
According to the replies I got here on Hot Air, conservatives imagine that the president can kill anyone he so chooses. The only requirement is that there are charges, they do not even have to be very well thought out ones, that he is the enemy.
Hot Airians say the president can kill American Citizens.
Reading the posts today though, you would never imagine that just a few short months back what they were saying.
astonerii on January 17, 2013 at 2:54 PM
You can kill them, with due process first.
Schadenfreude on January 17, 2013 at 3:00 PM
You mean he CAN’T? Please explain why he can’t?
JFKY on January 17, 2013 at 3:01 PM
Imagine a white Republican President killing black American citizens overseas….
How soon would the media and Democrats be having impeachment hearings?
albill on January 17, 2013 at 3:02 PM
Per the GC, it’s a war crime for enemy combatants to hide among civilians. If civilians are killed during an attack, the enemy combatant is the one guilty of a war crime — not us. Being an American has noting to do with it.
Blake on January 17, 2013 at 3:06 PM
I was here posting that it was an illegal use of presidential power to kill awlaki back in the day. There was not one single person, outside of maybe Dante, that agreed with what I said.
As an American citizen, he is owed due process. While those who were given citizenship through INS can have their citizenship revoked, someone BORN American can only have it taken by voluntary action which is SPECIFIC.
While I think he should have eventually been executed, he was not. There was no trial, there were no legislative actions taken, nothing, just Obama building his war mongering credentials.
Dante is an anarchist, can he be stripped of his rights because he argues against America? How about me when I argue against the president? If another citizen can have it taken without due process, why not you, me anyone?
You do realize that the government has been given the power to take American citizens into custody with out ever having to inform anyone they did, where they went or what ever happened to them?
Good times, good times.
astonerii on January 17, 2013 at 3:08 PM
So you’re saying that IF Awlaki enlisted in the Wehrmacht, we couldn’t have killed him? Because he was an American citizen?
JFKY on January 17, 2013 at 3:23 PM
He wasn’t killed accidentally or as part of normal warfare JFKY, he was assassinated by the POTUS under direct orders. Big difference.
SuperBunny on January 17, 2013 at 3:30 PM
Wow….You really need to be a left-wing pinko to give a rats’s ass over the killing of American traitors who take up arms against the U.S.
Killing them is Obama’s duty.
NeoKong on January 17, 2013 at 3:48 PM
The point is, there was no due process. That means YOU do not deserve any due process.
astonerii on January 17, 2013 at 3:53 PM
No, you have to be a retard to not understand the PRECEDENT that this set that is contrary to the Constitution of the United States of America and must be an America hating ignorant moron to think that first, he was a significant threat to our nation, and second that there were not other ways to apprehend and try him in a military court.
astonerii on January 17, 2013 at 3:55 PM
Point out the legal/ethical/constitutional “big difference” please.
Again, would it have been legal to kill Tokyo Rose, prior to
Aug. 1945?
JFKY on January 17, 2013 at 3:57 PM
Lord Haw-Haw nor Tokyo Rose were “significant” threats either…really what did they do but broadcast propaganda? So too this guy. He only broadcasted propaganda calling for Jihad.
And sure we COULD have apprehended him, but why did we need to? Please point out to me in the US Constitution where it says American citizens are sacrosanct and inviolable…arrest and trial were OPTIONS, but not easily done options, and in fact were far riskier than hitting him with a Viper Strike.
JFKY on January 17, 2013 at 4:00 PM
Amendment 5 – Trial and Punishment, Compensation for Takings
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb ; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
The Rogue Tomato on January 17, 2013 at 4:17 PM
Amendment IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Amendment V
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
You pretty much sum up my statement. Ignorant America hating moron.
astonerii on January 17, 2013 at 4:18 PM
I meant to emphasize “nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law” also.
The Rogue Tomato on January 17, 2013 at 4:18 PM
The irony here is that Obama and Holder made a big stink about giving non-citizens due process in order to demonstrate what a wonderful country we are. And now they’re killing American citizens without due process.
The Rogue Tomato on January 17, 2013 at 4:20 PM
I get it, he was a horrible reprehensible human being. If he would have opened his trap within ear shot of me and my family and started riling up the masses to attack us, I would have shot him dead on the spot. I am not the government. The government is there to ensure that I do not have to resort to these kinds of things. Then again, as a citizen of this nation, I AM DUE PROPER PROCESS OF LAW, and I will be damned if I am going to give it up in order to make it easy on the government to kill him.
Those who will give up their liberty for a small short lived amount of comfort deserve neither their life nor their liberty. You fit well into that.
astonerii on January 17, 2013 at 4:21 PM
STFU, hypocrite.
Solaratov on January 17, 2013 at 4:22 PM
I am not hypocritical at all on this. There is a difference between immediate threat and personal self defense and the use of government power over a citizen to deny them due process of law. If we have no right to due process of law, then none of us are safe from being executed by the government.
That being said, if the government chooses to kill another American without due process, I hope it is you or someone like you.
astonerii on January 17, 2013 at 4:31 PM
I’d like to see you make him, Sunny.
MelonCollie on January 17, 2013 at 5:24 PM