SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
To donate by check, phone, or other method, see our More Ways to Give page.
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
There is one important passage from yesterday's big New York Times article on President Obama's personal issuance of secret, due-process-free death sentences that I failed to highlight despite
That record, and Mr. Awlaki's calls for more attacks, presented Mr. Obama with an urgent question: Could he order the targeted killing of an American citizen, in a country with which the United States was not at war, in secret and without the benefit of a trial?
The Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel prepared a lengthy memo justifying that extraordinary step, asserting that while the Fifth Amendment's guarantee of due process applied, it could be satisfied by internal deliberations in the executive branch.
Mr. Obama gave his approval, and Mr. Awlaki was killed in September 2011, along with a fellow propagandist, Samir Khan, an American citizen who was not on the target list but was traveling with him.
Here we have the Obama administration asserting what I genuinely believe, without hyperbole, is the most extremist government interpretation of the Bill of Rights I've heard in my lifetime -- that the Fifth Amendment's guarantee that the State cannot deprive you of your life without "due process of law" is fulfilled by completely secret, oversight-free "internal deliberations by the executive branch" -- and it's now barely something anyone (including me) even notices when The New York Times reports it.
Please just re-read that bolded part. This is something that we already knew. The New York Times' Charlie Savage had previously reported that Obama OLC lawyers David Barron and Marty Lederman had authored a "secret document" that "provided the justification for acting despite an executive order banning assassinations, a federal law against murder, protections in the Bill of Rights and various strictures of the international laws of war" ("The memo concluded that what was reasonable, and the process that was due, was different for Mr. Awlaki than for an ordinary criminal"). Attorney General Eric Holder then publicly claimed: "'Due process' and 'judicial process' are not one and the same, particularly when it comes to national security. The Constitution guarantees due process, not judicial process." Both of those episodes sparked controversy, because of how radical of a claim it is (Stephen Colbert brutally mocked Holder's speech: "Due Process just means: there's a process that you do").
But that's the point: once something is repeated enough by government officials, we become numb to its extremism. Even in the immediate wake of 9/11 -- when national fear and hysteria were intense -- things like the Patriot Act, military commissions, and indefinite detention were viewed as radical departures from American political tradition; now, they just endure and are constantly renewed without notice, because they've just become normalized fixtures of American political life. Here we have the Obama administration asserting what I genuinely believe, without hyperbole, is the most extremist government interpretation of the Bill of Rights I've heard in my lifetime -- that the Fifth Amendment's guarantee that the State cannot deprive you of your life without "due process of law" is fulfilled by completely secret, oversight-free "internal deliberations by the executive branch" -- and it's now barely something anyone (including me) even notices when The New York Times reports it (as the ACLU's Jameel Jaffer asked yesterday: "These Dems who think executive process is due process: Where were they when Bush needed help with warrantless wiretapping?" -- or his indefinite detention scheme?)
Read the full article with updates at Salon.com
Dear Common Dreams reader, The U.S. is on a fast track to authoritarianism like nothing I've ever seen. Meanwhile, corporate news outlets are utterly capitulating to Trump, twisting their coverage to avoid drawing his ire while lining up to stuff cash in his pockets. That's why I believe that Common Dreams is doing the best and most consequential reporting that we've ever done. Our small but mighty team is a progressive reporting powerhouse, covering the news every day that the corporate media never will. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. And to ignite change for the common good. Now here's the key piece that I want all our readers to understand: None of this would be possible without your financial support. That's not just some fundraising cliche. It's the absolute and literal truth. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. Will you donate now to help power the nonprofit, independent reporting of Common Dreams? Thank you for being a vital member of our community. Together, we can keep independent journalism alive when it’s needed most. - Craig Brown, Co-founder |
That record, and Mr. Awlaki's calls for more attacks, presented Mr. Obama with an urgent question: Could he order the targeted killing of an American citizen, in a country with which the United States was not at war, in secret and without the benefit of a trial?
The Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel prepared a lengthy memo justifying that extraordinary step, asserting that while the Fifth Amendment's guarantee of due process applied, it could be satisfied by internal deliberations in the executive branch.
Mr. Obama gave his approval, and Mr. Awlaki was killed in September 2011, along with a fellow propagandist, Samir Khan, an American citizen who was not on the target list but was traveling with him.
Here we have the Obama administration asserting what I genuinely believe, without hyperbole, is the most extremist government interpretation of the Bill of Rights I've heard in my lifetime -- that the Fifth Amendment's guarantee that the State cannot deprive you of your life without "due process of law" is fulfilled by completely secret, oversight-free "internal deliberations by the executive branch" -- and it's now barely something anyone (including me) even notices when The New York Times reports it.
Please just re-read that bolded part. This is something that we already knew. The New York Times' Charlie Savage had previously reported that Obama OLC lawyers David Barron and Marty Lederman had authored a "secret document" that "provided the justification for acting despite an executive order banning assassinations, a federal law against murder, protections in the Bill of Rights and various strictures of the international laws of war" ("The memo concluded that what was reasonable, and the process that was due, was different for Mr. Awlaki than for an ordinary criminal"). Attorney General Eric Holder then publicly claimed: "'Due process' and 'judicial process' are not one and the same, particularly when it comes to national security. The Constitution guarantees due process, not judicial process." Both of those episodes sparked controversy, because of how radical of a claim it is (Stephen Colbert brutally mocked Holder's speech: "Due Process just means: there's a process that you do").
But that's the point: once something is repeated enough by government officials, we become numb to its extremism. Even in the immediate wake of 9/11 -- when national fear and hysteria were intense -- things like the Patriot Act, military commissions, and indefinite detention were viewed as radical departures from American political tradition; now, they just endure and are constantly renewed without notice, because they've just become normalized fixtures of American political life. Here we have the Obama administration asserting what I genuinely believe, without hyperbole, is the most extremist government interpretation of the Bill of Rights I've heard in my lifetime -- that the Fifth Amendment's guarantee that the State cannot deprive you of your life without "due process of law" is fulfilled by completely secret, oversight-free "internal deliberations by the executive branch" -- and it's now barely something anyone (including me) even notices when The New York Times reports it (as the ACLU's Jameel Jaffer asked yesterday: "These Dems who think executive process is due process: Where were they when Bush needed help with warrantless wiretapping?" -- or his indefinite detention scheme?)
Read the full article with updates at Salon.com
That record, and Mr. Awlaki's calls for more attacks, presented Mr. Obama with an urgent question: Could he order the targeted killing of an American citizen, in a country with which the United States was not at war, in secret and without the benefit of a trial?
The Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel prepared a lengthy memo justifying that extraordinary step, asserting that while the Fifth Amendment's guarantee of due process applied, it could be satisfied by internal deliberations in the executive branch.
Mr. Obama gave his approval, and Mr. Awlaki was killed in September 2011, along with a fellow propagandist, Samir Khan, an American citizen who was not on the target list but was traveling with him.
Here we have the Obama administration asserting what I genuinely believe, without hyperbole, is the most extremist government interpretation of the Bill of Rights I've heard in my lifetime -- that the Fifth Amendment's guarantee that the State cannot deprive you of your life without "due process of law" is fulfilled by completely secret, oversight-free "internal deliberations by the executive branch" -- and it's now barely something anyone (including me) even notices when The New York Times reports it.
Please just re-read that bolded part. This is something that we already knew. The New York Times' Charlie Savage had previously reported that Obama OLC lawyers David Barron and Marty Lederman had authored a "secret document" that "provided the justification for acting despite an executive order banning assassinations, a federal law against murder, protections in the Bill of Rights and various strictures of the international laws of war" ("The memo concluded that what was reasonable, and the process that was due, was different for Mr. Awlaki than for an ordinary criminal"). Attorney General Eric Holder then publicly claimed: "'Due process' and 'judicial process' are not one and the same, particularly when it comes to national security. The Constitution guarantees due process, not judicial process." Both of those episodes sparked controversy, because of how radical of a claim it is (Stephen Colbert brutally mocked Holder's speech: "Due Process just means: there's a process that you do").
But that's the point: once something is repeated enough by government officials, we become numb to its extremism. Even in the immediate wake of 9/11 -- when national fear and hysteria were intense -- things like the Patriot Act, military commissions, and indefinite detention were viewed as radical departures from American political tradition; now, they just endure and are constantly renewed without notice, because they've just become normalized fixtures of American political life. Here we have the Obama administration asserting what I genuinely believe, without hyperbole, is the most extremist government interpretation of the Bill of Rights I've heard in my lifetime -- that the Fifth Amendment's guarantee that the State cannot deprive you of your life without "due process of law" is fulfilled by completely secret, oversight-free "internal deliberations by the executive branch" -- and it's now barely something anyone (including me) even notices when The New York Times reports it (as the ACLU's Jameel Jaffer asked yesterday: "These Dems who think executive process is due process: Where were they when Bush needed help with warrantless wiretapping?" -- or his indefinite detention scheme?)
Read the full article with updates at Salon.com