Assassinating American Citizens

Dear Friends,

I have been absent for a few days, in part because I have been traveling but also in part because I have been paralyzed by the number of things that I should be writing about.  But today I decided that I must write again.

It has been reported for months that President Obama has authorized the assassination of Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen who is Muslim cleric believed to be in hiding in Yemen and who "sources" say is a proven threat to the United States.  Here is an early report from Reuters on April 6th.


Eventually The New York Times decided to report on this story (here).  How is it possible that President Obama can even consider permitting this assassination order to exist?  Here are a couple of paragraphs from that article:

Administration officials take the view that no legal or constitutional rights can protect Mr. Awlaki, a charismatic preacher who has said it is a religious duty to attack the United States and who the C.I.A. believes is actively plotting violence. The attempted bombing of Times Square on May 1 is the latest of more than a dozen terrorist plots in the West that investigators believe were inspired in part by Mr. Awlaki’s rhetoric.
“American citizenship doesn’t give you carte blanche to wage war against your own country,” said a counterterrorism official who discussed the classified program on condition of anonymity. “If you cast your lot with its enemies, you may well share their fate.”

In my high school education and my college education and my law school education, I was taught that a person is innocent of a crime until that person is proven guilty and that requires due process of law.  The official says that "the C.I.A. believes is actively plotting violence" and "that investigators believe" that terrorists plots were inspired by Mr. Awlaki.  So if some investigators believe that I have cast my lot with the enemy whatever that means and that they believe that I may be inciting violence or plotting violence that they can just order government employees to kill me.  Where are my rights?  Where is due process?

Here are two more paragraphs from The New York Times article that illustrate the absurdity of President Obama's position.

To eavesdrop on the terrorism suspect who was added to the target list, the American-born radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who is hiding in Yemen, intelligence agencies would have to get a court warrant. But designating him for death, as C.I.A. officials did early this year with the National Security Council’s approval, required no judicial review.
“Congress has protected Awlaki’s cellphone calls,” said Vicki Divoll, a former C.I.A. lawyer who now teaches at the United States Naval Academy. “But it has not provided any protections for his life. That makes no sense.”

Please write to President Obama and let him know that his extra-Constitution assassinations are not the change and hope that we voted for.  Contact him here.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal