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Obama Killed Four Americans with Drones Since Nobel Peace Prize
Attorney General Eric Holder told Congress that U.S. drone strikes since 2009 have killed four Americans — three of whom were “not specifically targeted.”As Dangeroom reports, for all the effort that Obama has gone to in asserting that its drones only kill the people that the administration selects to kill, Holder wrote in a letter to Senator Patrick Leahy that Samir Khan, 16-year-old Abdulrahman Awlaki and Jude Kenan Mohammad were “not specifically targeted by the United States.” The fourth American to die in a drone strike since 2009 was Abdulrahman’s father Anwar Awlaki, an al Qaeda propagandist who never fired a shot in anger, but whom the U.S. killed in Yemen in 2011.
I have re-read the Constitution and it says nothing about the Bill of Rights not applying to Americans who join terror groups. The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution guarantees “no person shall be deprived of life without due process of law” and include no exceptions for war, terrorism, or being a really bad human being.
I don’t like terrorists, but I do love our Rights as Citizens. If you support rights such as the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms for example, you gotta also take the rest. It is not a menu.
Well, some say, the police shoot criminals who pose an imminent threat without due process all the time. True enough, but the police shootings are often unjustified, but when they are the event happens spontaneously and the cop has to make a life-or-death decision in a split second. The drone killings are planned and well-thought out– premeditated murder.
Drones are surgical strikes, precision smiting of only America’s worst enemies? Then how come the White House admits that three of the four Americans it killed were “not specifically targeted.” In other words, fatal mistakes, collateral damage. Same dead Citizens.
The actual acknowledged death count of Americans killed by their own government is five. Prior to the Obama administration, Kamal Derwish died in a strike launched in Yemen in 2002 under George W. Bush.
We have survived as a nation a very long time without having to resort to this. Why now? Are terror groups so uniquely and specially dangerous? No, of course not. What has happened is that a technology– drones– has morphed into a policy. Obama falsely thinks the drones are clean and of little risk. By stepping off the edge and throwing out the Constitutional protections we have enjoyed for so many years, and for which so many have fought and died, he is doing more damage to America than some bomb. The arguments are old, but I guess we need to roll them out once more: once you unleash the authority to kill you do not know where it will stop. Once you start killing to prevent the possibility of a future act, where will it stop? Once you start creating unconstitutional exceptions to the Constitution, where will it stop? Blasting away a slug like Awlaki is not worth this.
Can’t happen here? FBI Director Mueller, appearing before a House subcommittee, said that he simply did not know whether he could order an assassination of his own against an American here in the U.S. “I have to go back. Uh, I’m not certain whether that was addressed or not” and added “I’m going to defer that to others in the Department of Justice.”
The Constitution was drafted to protect especially citizens whose actions were disfavored by the majority. We cannot let terrorism change the very fabric of America. We must stop now and see past the anger and fear to the bigger picture. This is the government assassinating U.S. citizens without even an indictment–much less a trial. We should all be concerned.
And afraid. I don’t like that as an American I must live in fear.
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Rich Bauer said...
1Obama should read this guy’s obit; he believed in “death from the skies” too: http://www.economist.com/blogs/americasview/2013/05/jorge-rafael-videla
05/23/13 1:08 PM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
2quote:”The drone killings are planned and well-thought out– premeditated murder.”unquote
Well well well…it’s about goddamn time people start calling this abomination exactly what it is. MURDER. The USG can use all the euphemisms it wants, but by any definition..it is still murder..plain and simple. This is WHY, they still haven’t provided the so called “legal underpinnings” to the public, because they know that if they did..there’d be a cacophonous wave of raucous gut splitting laughter coast to coast, would open the door to possible International and domestic War Crime investigations and possible indictments..which for all intents and purposes..there SHOULD BE. After all..everyone connected to the drone program is a co-conspirator to war crimes. This is also why they will do anything in their power to shroud this murder program in a blanket of “national security”, whereby they can keep any and all parties seeking Judicial review and remedy at bay.
Sure, they gave some of them to some schmucks in Congress a few pages and some perhaps the whole deal, but we know who they are..pond scum Feinstein notwithstanding, and you know what they are about, right? Right.
However, as the Murderer in Chief just publicly admitted 4 American citizens have been murdered by virtue of this program, and considering his DOJ have declined time and time again to acknowledge the Drone program in a Court of Law, due to its stature, I’d submit Obomination just broke the law by using his office to “leak” classified information…no different than Bradley Manning. So, when is Holder going to indict Oblabla..hmmmmmmmmm? I won’t hold my breath, but this is EXACTLY why these criminals get away with murder. Holder isn’t about to indict ANYONE who is part of the “administration”…that is..unless they are a “whistle blower”.
Until the ‘merican people and congress recognizes the simple fact that these bastards are MURDERERS..nothing will change.
05/23/13 5:46 PM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
3ps. Collateral Damage notwithstanding, Oblivion has NOT provided any justification for murdering 16-year-old American citizen Abdulrahman al-Awlaki. He did say this boy was NOT “targeted”, along with 2 other American citizens. However, without providing details..we only have his “word”, which you know as well as I, his word isn’t worth fucking diddley squat. He is a bonafide, certifiable and provable liar of biblical proportions. This is why SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE, MUST, at some point in time, bring this murdering asshole to justice. And I don’t mean the DOJ type either, as the DOJ is a laughing stock when it comes to prosecuting those who are on the high tier of the 2 tiered in-justice system. In other words…BANKERS, FBI, ATF, DHS or any other people who are “too connected” to the agenda of the Corporatacracy. Personally, if the citizens of this country don’t start dealing with this bullshit..they’re sunk.
05/23/13 5:59 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
4OB’s idea of “due process” is just another “Death Star Chamber.” Anyone who would trust the word of our “intelligence” agencies after they were fooled by Curveball must be a Slam Dunce.
05/23/13 9:11 PM | Comment Link
Michael Murry said...
5I guess President Obama could say in his defense that he only kills three times as many Americans as he actually means to. His manslaughter-to-murder ratio among Muslims, after all, far exceeds a paltry 300%. Americans should feel lucky, if not truly blessed and fawningly grateful, that their Nobel Peace Prize president exercises such admirable restraint in his Star Chamber killings of suspected persons, both foreign and domestic.
05/23/13 10:17 PM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
6ya know, by the tone of our Murderer in Chief’s speech yesterday, it appears he’s getting a little nervous. He should be. After that report came out declaring the USG’s “enhanced interrogation” euphemism is really torture, and the UN has also declared the vaporization of innocent civilians “war crimes”, I’d submit Obombardiar oughta be getting REAL nervous. After all, given the Guantanamo abscess is draining legal puss all over the “rule of law” AND ‘merican “exceptionalism”, the stench of Holders various secret “memo’s and “legal underpinning” bullshit regarding the Executive’s “right” to murder American citizens without so much as a charge, let alone a trial..well, I’d submit these dumb ass’s have stretched “legitimacy” to the breaking point..and Obama KNOWS IT. This is EXACTLY why he’s trying to cover his ass now. Unfortunately…he can’t give back those lives he has taken. He is a war criminal and now faces the prospect of accountability..one way or another. Their whole charade is falling apart, given the various so called “scandals”, which now, are showing the true colors of this administration. Even the IRS thing has now evolved to show Obama’s election campaign “legal” team were the asshat’s that called the DOJ in 2008 requesting they investigate various “conservative” campaign organization’s and donors…
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324659404578501411510635312.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
I’d submit this is the reason that IRS gal claimed the 5th. Ya can’t make this stuff up, and Obama knows it. Outrage indeed. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
This whole nation should be OUTRAGED!! To the point of dragging this motherfucker outta that White House and hanging his ass. Of course..I’d RATHER see him go down…legally..via Rule of Law and all that jazz. And THEN hung.
05/24/13 2:47 PM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
7ps. hmmmmmm, it appears lot’s of other people are thinking pretty much the same thing I just said…
http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2013/05/23/obamas-drone-speech-despite-pr-spin-america-not-shifting-away-from-treating-world-as-a-battlefield/#comments
If anything, I believe IMPEACHMENT just might be in the making. Hope springs eternal.
05/24/13 3:00 PM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
8ps..goddammit Arthur…you hit the ball outta the park this time.
http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/
05/24/13 3:52 PM | Comment Link
Kyzl Orda said...
9After the Supreme Court struck down the campaign finance law, who’d a thunk the IRS would take up the mantle?? The Post reported that liberal groups were supposedly also targeted but as of yet havent seen groups specified. Frankly if groups get audited like the Koch Brothers and deep pocket Tea Party interests, including people who get government contracts while being ‘incorporated’ overseas, then the IRS should go for that and leave regular civilians alone who are innocent.
I’m guessing though this has more to do with incompetence than seeing a light, especially if this issue predates the Obama admin. Alot of the appointees from the prior admin were allowed to keep their jobs and are still in decision making positions, they should be removed from. A lot of whistleblowers, including people sent to jail, blew the whistle on actions propogated by people who came in with the prior administration and have no conscience or sense of justice, and managed to hold onto their jobs.
Just about every major scandal so far, including the drone problem and Guantanomo, stems from failed policies STILL being promoted. You lay down with dogs, you are lucky you are gonna get up. There needs to be serious reform in the upper echelons and how decisions are made, and needs to be a real effort to inject ethics into decision making. If not, the leadership deserves to be embarassed or raked over blazing coals when malarkey hits the fan, if they didnt fix things on their watch
05/24/13 8:31 PM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
10quote:”… and needs to be a real effort to inject ethics into decision making.”unquote
With all due respect Kyzl..but../
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Ethics. right.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
yer killen me. They don’t know the meaning. Hell, they don’t even know the word exists. Ethics? WTF is that?
🙂
05/24/13 9:07 PM | Comment Link
Kyzl Orda said...
11Found a definition or two on what ethics means. The first struck me per the IRS scandal theme, thanks to a spiritual mentor for the neocons:
“The time has come for all evangelists to practice full financial disclosure. The world is watching how we walk and how we talk. We must have the highest standards of morality, ethics and integrity if we are to continue to have influence.
Billy Graham ”
What ethics is not:
“Too many people get credit for being good, when they are only being passive. They are too often praised for being broadminded when they are so broadminded they can never make up their minds about anything.”
― Fulton J. Sheen
“Right is right, and wrong is wrong, and a body ain’t got no business doing wrong when he ain’t ignorant and knows better.”
― Mark Twain
Senator Snowe was interviewed by Jon Stewart recently and mentioned how important it was for people to call their representatives and tell them when they are not happy with something. There is no reason that these guys should be let off the hook from doing their jobs. None
05/24/13 10:39 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
12Bauer- a compelling film -THE OFFICIAL STORY – dealt with the junta’s time in power with collusion from the church. It is definitely worth checking out. It would take a ten hour miniseries to cover America’s “junta” days-when and if they ever end.
05/25/13 12:58 PM | Comment Link
Artiewhitefox said...
13No one should rationalize the death of anyone. Have Obama do this without repenting should of his own volition step down as president of his own accord. Killing is evil. Rationalizing the death of whoever is a religious thing to do.
07/11/13 12:31 AM | Comment Link