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Execution by Secret WH Committee
Here is what the Democratic President has created and implemented, and what many party loyalists explicitly endorse (when there’s a Democrat in the White House) — from Reuters:
[...]
So a panel operating out of the White House — that meets in total secrecy, with no known law or rules governing what it can do or how it operates — is empowered to place American citizens on a list to be killed by the CIA, which (by some process nobody knows) eventually makes its way to the President, who is the final Decider. It is difficult to describe the level of warped authoritarianism necessary to cause someone to lend their support to a twisted Star Chamber like that; I genuinely wonder whether the Good Democrats doing so actually first convince themselves that if this were the Bush White House’s hit list, or if it becomes Rick Perry’s, they would be supportive just the same. Seriously: if you’re willing to endorse having White House functionaries meet in secret — with no known guidelines, no oversight, no transparency — and compile lists of American citizens to be killed by the CIA without due process, what aren’t you willing to support?
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28 Comments so far
Show AllThe only safe American citizen is the citizen that the Supreme Court gave birth to. That young man will be given all the benefits of the Constitution. The rest of us will have to made do on our own. WE the People - RIP
Hoa binh
Peace, renewable energy, free medical, transit, higher education, gaurenteed income, clean air, water, and earth, animal personhood, or at least not supported enough to be implemented.
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
When reflecting on the succession from Bush II to Obama, it's almost like comparing the Roman emperor Commodus (who one historian described as "more savage than Domitian, more foul than Nero") to another emperor, Caracalla (who another historian characterized as "the common enemy of mankind").
Obama now has six front burner wars and JSOC hunter/kidnapper/killer forces operating clandestinely in 120 nations--up from three or four (depending on how you count them) front burners and 60 nations being black-op'd under Shrublette. Even the most imperialist of Roman emperors could never make that boast.
Jonathan Turley in a recent LA Times article titled, "Obama: A Disaster for Civil Liberties," says Obama "may prove the most disastrous president in our history in terms of civil liberties." In fact, Obomberhoover blew by that signpost the instant he confirmed almost all of Bush II's illegal precedents within months of taking office.
[Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-turley-civil-liberties-20110929,0,7542436.story]
But Obysmal couldn't have gotten there with out his poisonous White House counsels and his co-traitor to the the Constitution, Bill of Rights, Geneva Conventions, international war crimes laws and legacy of MLK Jr.: The quietly subservient (slithery in my opinion) amoral-to-immoral thug Attorney General, Eric Holder--who is every bit as criminal as John Ashcroft or Alberto "Quaint" Gonzalez.
Obama should be impeached for establishing the murder of U.S. citizens without due process as routine policy to the degree that he has carried out such murders and ordered the compilation of murder lists of U.S. citizens to be assassinated without due process. Had Bush II dared to publicly assert and try to legalistically defend such tyrannical power, let alone carry out such murders or had his underlings admit the existence of hit lists of Americans to be killed without due process, then Democratic politicians and Democratic voters would've loudly blasted him to this day. The silence (except to praise it) of Amurka's "Democrats," Republicans and Tea Partiers on Obama's murderous tyranny is deafening.
Those who think this nakedly tyrannical "State Secret"-unjustifed policy drift won't eventually drift inside the U.S. to become routine policy here are ignorant of human history, especially the history of the worst Roman dictators, whose downward path into darkness we are well on.
The system is broken. If it was a crime when Bush/Cheney and their criminal sycophants did it., it is a crime when Obama and his criminal sycophants do it... if not more so.
Come join an occupy together movement near you. I'm in D.C. at october2011.org and it is great to see so many people doing the right thing for the right reasons.
When there's a (real) occupation and shutdown of the Pentagon and/or Capital Hill, then you can count me in. Otherwise...
Only four steps remaining until assassinating US citizens occurs:
1. Arm the unmanned aircraft already in use over the US.
2. Find targeted citizen coordinates by illegally surveilling his/her cellphone location
3. Lock and Load
4. Fire
They already have assassinated a US citizen -- well, they had many times, of course. But they already had assassinated a US citizen in this manner and by these orders, and also openly. Obama announced it well in advance, and announced when it had been done --- so far with even political impunity, apparently.
Killer Drones, Coming soon to a city near you. When those on then left reelect Mr Obama you will have bloodied your hands, just like the warmongering rednecks on the right. Then together, with a common will USA Americans can create the greatest empire the world has ever known. Everyone on the planet will tremble in fear when they hear our mighty killer drones overhead, and they will measure our greatness by the depths of their own fear! Long Live the Homeland, and God Bless America!
Both Republican and Democratic administrations have abandoned the Constitution as well as 900 years of common law. Instead they have been operating through hidden decisions outside the legal system that imprison and murder people by fiat. In this, they have operated in the manner of the Politburo of Stalin or the Brown Shirts of the Facists and Nazis. Indeed, this is how a Sicilian mafia family operates when a hit man is sent out by the boss and his consiglieres. We no longer have a basis for claiming we are a democracy, much less a society of laws. We are a society run by gangsters and thugs who speak about a mythological democracy to provide a false veneer of decency.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/oct2011/cour-o04.shtml
The above link is to an article on the World Socialist Web Site on more ways Obomber is ripping up the Bill of Rights.
Shame on you Mr Obama Shame Shame Shame. You sicken us. We the people are not murders, Do Not Murder in our name!
Why does American Exceptionalism reminds me so of German Exceptionalism?
Political Assassination, Death Squads, Secret Prisons, Military Tribunals, Generals as Pundits, Goebbels Propaganda= all right out of the Third Reich's Playbook. Think outside the box people!
All we've added is robotic "Hit machines" (our Brave Drones) with MSM and FIX News spewing the "Big Lie" 24/7. Our only real "advance" toward a uniquely American Facism is Electronic Voting Machines with secret software and no paper trail; still that is EXCEPTIONAL !! USA, USA, USA !
----Why does American Exceptionalism reminds me so of German Exceptionalism?----
Best Answer: because your mind is defective and you have no sense of proportion.
All you are and all you stand for is COWARDICE: The cowardice of massive "collateral" death of innocent civilians by remote video game attack drones, illegal unprovoked invasion and resultant mass murder of innocent civilians, and anti-Constitutional assassination of U.S. citizens without charges or evidence presented in either a military or civilian court.
The Pentagon itself admitted the civilian-to-terrorist "kill ratio" of its drone strikes was 6-to-1. Several estimates place it much higher because of the sheer number of drone attacks with new drone bases under construction. That's just one of the many reasons why all our wars are FLAILING QUAGMIRES.
You are an ignorant illiterate fool to side with presidential assassinations of U.S. citizens relying on a secret Executive committee using "State secret" criterion to write up hit lists of Americans. You are obviously far too stupid to imagine how tempting and easy that tyrannical power is for any president to abuse outside the U.S. or inside it. The precedent set for it by Bush II and Obama will go down in infamy.
-----The Pentagon itself admitted the civilian-to-terrorist "kill ratio" of its drone strikes was 6-to-1.---
How about you showing us the statement admitting that, please.
Show that the Pentagon says that that is anything like accurate for drone strikes in the last two years.
I think that you're again badly mistaken.
The Department of Defense COULDN'T have said that
--------------
but anyway, in case you care for a sorta real estimate...
New America Foundation ........
....................."The New America Foundation is another organization that has attempted to quantify the civilian casualties of U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan, compiling data and information since 2004 from sources such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, the Associated Press and the BBC and English-language newspapers and media in Pakistan, such as The Daily Times, Dawn, The Express Tribune and Geo TV.
Thus far, NAF has found that the 233 reported drone strikes in northwest Pakistan — including 20 in 2011 – have killed between 1,411 and 2,247 people, of whom about 1,134 to 1,810 have been described as militants. According to the organization: “The true non-militant fatality rate since 2004 according to our analysis is approximately 21 percent. In 2010, it was more like six percent.” "
-------------
AND one more thing,,,(and this one is really gonna be tough for you to understand )
----"You are an ignorant illiterate fool to side with presidential assassinations of U.S. citizens relying on a secret Executive committee using "State secret" criterion to write up hit lists of Americans."---
I DIDN'T 'side with' the practice. I've been saying that the Awlaki killing was likely authorized by Congress on Sept 18, 2001 when congress issued a declaration of war and told the president that he should determine who attacked the US and also determine who was aiding or harboring the nations, organizations, or persons involved in the attacks and use force against any or all such nations, organizations, or persons.
I DID NOT say that I personally endorsed the Awlaki bombing. I did say that unless the president has information that Awlaki is DOING things that are intended to physically harm Americans ...then, while killing him was legal, it wasn't wise or all necessary ethical.
I do recognize that there are dangers arising from giving the executive authorization to make war, but I think that the real danger isn't that it gives him scope to kill citizens. there is nothing different in killing citizens from killing non-citizens if they're taking part in using lethal force to fight against the United States,
The danger here is that the congressional grant was very broad and defining the enemy as it did leaves likely that the president is going to have that authorization for long years.
I would suggest that the AUMF be revisited and amended...a lot.
So Congress issued a Declaration of War. My god - you right-wingers will say anything.
and idiots will be surprised by reading facts, GG.
you could get someone adult and competent to try to explain that a joint resolution authorizing the use of military force and declaring that
...."....the Congress declares that this section is intended to constitute specific statutory authorization within the meaning of section 5(b) of the War Powers Resolution."
is sorta kinda just like a Declaration of War
Under AUMF
if the president determines that Awlaki is part of an organization that bears some responsibility for the 9/11 attacks, (and I suspect that linking Awlaki to al Qaeda would suffice), and determines that Awlaki was involved in subsequent terrorist attacks or even plots for future attacks.....killing the guy isn't a murder, it's an authorized use of military force.
http://news.findlaw.com/wp/docs/terrorism/sjres23.es.html
You are so wrong in so many ways. First of all, you refer to the al Qaeda that allegedly carried out the 9/11 attacks (and Osama bin Laden was never put on the FBI's official list of terrorists because he was never charged because the FBI had no hard evidence on him besides videotapes that could've been doctored) and the al Qaeda that Al Awlaki lectured for as one and the same entity. In fact there are thousands of "al Qaeda" copycat movements and splinter cells that are not part of the cell that Osama bin Laden was said to be at the center of with respect to 9/11.
Where is the EVIDENCE that Awlaki was linked to an al Qaeda organization that bears some responsibility for the 9/11 attacks? Sure is a bitch when you have to justify executing an American citizen with hard evidence instead of fascistically making things up as you go along.
Oh, and SURPRISE! - verbally advocating violence against Americas or America or its interests is not against U.S. law. So unless there is hard evidence that Awlaki had (1) participated in terrorist acts against the U.S. (which would still require a trial with charges and evidence presented against him because he was a U.S. citizen) or (2) that he posed an imminent threat to the U.S. your faux argument fails there as well.
[Information source citing related case law: The DOJ's Escalating Criminalization of Speech: http://politics.salon.com/2011/09/04/speech_23/]
If the CIA carries out such an assassination of a U.S. citizen without due process, then how is that an "authorized used of military force" when the CIA is a CIVILIAN AGENCY? Fascist regimes love to blur and then negate those dividing lines in law as well. Now we've got an incompetent self-seeking general running the increasingly militarized "civilian" CIA as further indication of the outright fascist slide.
What this IS is premeditated murder of American citizens without evidence or charges presented before a civilian or military court and it is un-Constitutional legalistic sophistry in the service of barbarism.
It is based on the so-called "Unitary Theory of Unlimited Executive Wartime Power" which has no basis in law and for which George W. Bush was twice rebuked by the Supreme Court for engaging in related legal abuses. The Constitution makes no wartime exceptions precluding due process for American citizens under any circumstances.
"Secret findings" written up to assassinate U.S. citizens using secret presidential or secret Executive committee criterion doesn't cut it and will most certainly lead to offshore and, inevitably, domestic abuse of such tyrannical power. This legalistic abomination being wallowed in by our entire craven political class (and unquestioned by our corporatist, militarist mass media class) is the most direct, blatant and full tilt assault on the Constitution and Bill of Rights with respect to the most basic fundamental right of every American citizen in U.S. history.
metal, if you're crazy enough to think that bin Laden not being indicted for the 9/11 attacks somehow means that al Qaeda wasn't responsible for them, please send my condolences to whomever was responsible for seeing to your education.
bin Laden had years before been indicted for crimes against the Unites States involving terror and years before 9/11 was placed by the FBI on it's Ten Most Wanted list.
-----Where is the EVIDENCE that Awlaki was linked to an al Qaeda organization that bears some responsibility for the 9/11 attacks? Sure is a bitch when you have to justify executing an American citizen with hard evidence....-----
The evidence is in Washington DC as well as other places.
And the bitch of it is ....is that the US Congress passed a law saying that ....that's good enough for dealing with al Qaeda members.....
-------Oh, and SURPRISE! - verbally advocating violence against Americas or America or its interests is not against U.S. law.-----
well, maybe you need to reconsider that just a bit. might be that advocating killing Americans while you're living with enemies of the US who declared war and killed Americans subsequent to that declaration actually IS A CRIME!!!!!!!!
golly, like a real serious one.....
maybe if whomever was responsible to seeing to your education hadn't failed quite so abjectly, you might have been told about the Constitution of the United States of America ....and been shown how to read it...and been told that if you look at Article III Section 3.....you can find the only crime that the Constitution defines.
Wow... your rant speaks for itself.
When the usual colonial predatory suspects came up with their routine lies, songs and dances about why Libya needed to be invaded for humanitarian reasons, I found the doyens if the western Left's response truly bizarre, yet not surprised.
Glen Greenwald, Amy Goodman, Chris Hedges and other entertainers of the left will routinely begin by saying something to the effect that..."while Gadhafi is a monster, dictator......., I disagree with the invasion or the invasion is needed because …….. ". Such players. For starters , what is the number one industrial export of the United States?
Until these leftist jokers paraphrase the statements about leaders of the western capitalist states, ( who by the way have been more responsible for more deaths, thievery, pestilence and mass economic bondage of 3rd world states than any dictator or combination of dictators), in their daily writings and commentary I for one will consider these folk farces, tentative and unreliable. They are different faces of the same imperial coin, the colonial missionary old has undergone an upgrade.
FWIW, wechuge, your comment has a lot in common with one I made to "US Drone Killing of Anwar al-Awlaki Reinforces Terrorists" by Maajid Nawaz, published here recently.
I was bothered by the lines, "Awlaki was an evil man who preached against humanity. As a counter-extremism adviser, I dedicate all my energies to discrediting his ilk." I commented, in part:
______________________
Unfortunately, it's all too common for moderate anti-war, anti-violence, anti-imperialism, etc. advocates to make their pronouncements top-heavy with such rhetorical disclaimers.
Thus, one often runs across annoying phrases like, "While I'm no pacifist..." or "While [insert Villain du jour here, e.g. Saddam, Gaddafi, bin Laden] deserved his fate", or "deserves no sympathy" and so forth.
It's a habit favored by weak or effete thinkers, presumably intended to establish one's bona fides with a general audience. It brings to mind the moral at the end of James Thurber's fabulous "The Bear Who Let It Alone": "You might as well fall flat on your face as lean over too far backward."
You have to give up on Amy Goodman when it comes for foreign policy; she's a closet Zionist, that's why she was allowed to be interviewed on the MSM.
When Congress passed their ridiculous bill refusing to even *consider* the Goldstone report on Israel's Gaza massacre, I wrote my Congressman Chris Van Hollen and told him he had lost my vote forever because if the Palestinians are stymied at every turn by the US and it's UN sock-puppets, the advocates of violence win. "See? They will never negotiate in good faith." Just days later, Major Nidal, a Palestinian American, went on his Fort Hood killing spree. Our surveillance agencies report that they found he had corresponded with al-Awlaki. This became part of the justification for killing al-Awlaki. Email can be deadly, you know. And of course Congresses support of the Israeli war crimes in Gaza had NO influence. Don't try to draw me into thoughtcrime, here.
It's outright murder and we need to call it that. Those making the decisions AND those actually executing the decision are all murderers under international and national law and need arrested and jailed. Failing that, there is presedence for the execution of those individuals, under that very same justification they used to establish this death committee. Their logic can be applied to them and the drone operators who perform the murders.
WTF would you know about applying logic?
or law?
which national law was broken?