Targeted Killing and President Obama

Dear Friends,

The fourth topic addressed in the American Civil Liberties Union report entitled "Establishing a New Normal: National Security, Civil Liberties, and Human Rights Under the Obama Administration" (here) is targeted killing.  I have to say that while all of the topics in the ACLU report make me cringe, the idea of targeted killing by my government is probably the scariest.  Here is the first paragraph of the section on targeted killing from the ACLU report:

Of all of the national security policies introduced by the Obama administration, none raises human rights concerns as grave as those raised by the so-called “targeted killing” program. According to news reports, President Obama has authorized a program that contemplates the killing of suspected terrorists—including U.S. citizens —located far away from zones of actual armed conflict. If accurately described, this program violates international law and, at least insofar as it affects U.S. citizens, it is also unconstitutional.

I first wrote about President Obama's assassination program on April 7th.  Here is that post.

Worse than President Bush

Dear Friends,
I have in the past chastised President Obama for continuing some of President George W. Bush's policies and/or defending them in legal actions that are ongoing.  President Obama has now gone beyond what President Bush did with respect to ignoring the Constitution, and we must make him reverse this policy.  Please write him here.  

The New York Times this morning reported that President Obama has authorized the killing of an American citizen.  (here)

The Obama administration has taken the extraordinary step of authorizing the targeted killing of an American citizen, the radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who is believed to have shifted from encouraging attacks on the United States to directly participating in them, intelligence and counterterrorism officials said Tuesday.

Anwar al-Awlaki has not been convicted of any crime or provided with anything that approaches due process.  I do not claim to be a Constitutional scholar, but I have studied Constitutional law, and there is no reasonable argument that can be made that the President of the United States has the power to order the targeted killing of an American citizen because the President of the United States thinks that the targeted individual has committed a crime or is a terrorist.  Even if Anwar al-Awlaki is in fact a terrorist and even if he has committed a crime, the President of the United States does not have the right to kill him.  The accused is entitled to a fair trial with due process and the courts decide the penalty if the person is found guilty.  If Anwar al-Awlaki is on a battlefield, he may be killed as a participant in a battle in accordance with International law.  If Anwar al-Awlaki is in hiding in Yemen, it would be a violation of US law, International law, the US Constitution and probably the laws of Yemen.

But beyond the illegality and unconstitutionality of ordering the killing of an American not on an active battlefield who has not had any of his Constitutional rights observed, it is just plain wrong.  We will never be safer, and we will never win a war against terrorists by acting like terrorists ourselves.  This type of targeted killing is antithetical to everything that America should stand for.  In taking his oath of office the President pledges to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic. President Obama is failing to uphold his oath of office.

On May 19th, I wrote again about targeted killing (here).  In that post, I quoted an article in The New York Times (here) as follows:

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.”

The illegality, immorality and stupidity of my government assassinating its citizens because the President of the United States says we should is so obvious that there is nothing more that I can say, except please contact President Obama (here) and let him know that we will not stand for assassinating people just because he thinks we should.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal