The Union and Confederate Lawyers Duke It Out in Court
Posted on 09/30/2011 6:48:51 PM PDT by chuckee
Sources to NBC News are reporting Samir Khan, editor of Inspire Magazine, is another American citizen that was killed in the air strike in Yemen, along with Anwar al-Awlaki. NBC's Bob Windrem reports.
By Pete Williams, NBC News justice correspondent
Is it legal for the federal government to kill a U.S. citizen overseas, someone who has never been charged or convicted of a crime? Civil liberties groups are condemning the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, but many legal scholars say it is justified.
No U.S. court has ever weighed in on the question, because judges consider these sorts of issues exclusively matters for the president.
Anwar al-Awlaki's father, Nasser, with the help of the ACLU, sued President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and CIA Director Leon Panetta a year ago, when it became clear that the U.S. was targeting the younger al-Awlaki. But U.S. District Judge John Bates threw the case out, ruling that federal courts were in no position to evaluate whether someone was a terrorist whose activities threatened national security and against whom the use of deadly force could be justified...
(Excerpt) Read more at openchannel.msnbc.msn.com ...
The basis for the question is incorrect.
This dude was not engaged in simple acts of criminal nature. If he was, then he was certainly owed due process and a trial.
He was actively engaged in acts of war against the United States. The only thing owed here was elimination.
If it is a battlefield/conflict situation and that citizen is on the other side, yes, yes they can. BTW, our Constitution does not apply in foreign lands that would be colonialism and the ACLU-leftists usually oppose that.... most of the time.
If you, by direct combat action or non-combat planning and support, wage war against the U.S., you are an enemy combatant and can be legally killed.
Next question.
So, the Vichy French forces could legally kill the Free French forces, and vice versa, for the same reason?
Yes. Next question.
So, the Union forces could legally kill the Confederate forces, and vice versa, for the same reason?
Yes. Next question.
Sez who?
The President, when waging war, is free to attack any enemy abroad. If Congress thinks that he has waged war against American citizens without cause, it can impeach him. I'm sure Ron Paul is willing to introduce articles of impeachment, against B.O. for killing this guy. Perhaps Dennis Kucinich will support the resolution. The House can vote on it, and it will lose 433-2. That is due process.
What a stupid thing to arghue over.
This man needed killing.
Now get Muckie.
The key word in the question was “legally”. ColdSteelTalon has the correct answer to that question. Should the question have had the word “justified” in place of legally, then the answer would have been no.
The key word in the question was “legally”. ColdSteelTalon has the correct answer to that question. Should the question have had the word “justified” in place of legally, then the answer would have been yes.
The Union and Confederate Lawyers Duke It Out in Court
Legally or not, he’s sho nuff dead
Yes, if the target declares he is at war with the U.S. and commits acts of war against the U.S. This is not complicated.
That’s the best way in my opinion!
Even a citizen can’t attempt acts of war against America and expect criminal due process. The Constitution is not a suicide pact.
We at at war.
In war the goal is to kill the enemy.
The man was the enemy.
He was killed.
Sounds good to me.............
Bingo! That is the remedy. Thus, it would probably take a heinous due process violation, or a series of them, in order for the Chief Executive to ever be held accountable.
It doesn't mean that this practice is the best idea though. I, for one, have some pretty serious misgivings about such policy, and the potential undesirable consequences of its broad application against more sympathetic rebellious elements of society. As Americans, we should never be too dismissive of the assertion that Constitutional due process may have been violated...
Obama can do anything he wants to do, no one cares, nobody tries to stop him. All media is in the tank including Fox News for the chosen one. Congress is worthless the GOP is weak. The only one standing up gets blasted by both sides.
The USA are not in a state of war with any country on this planet.
The problem here is that if this reasoning stands then the President can order *anyone* killed at any time for any reason. All he needs to do is "determine" that John Q. Public is an agent of AQ. The reasons will be forever secret. That's exactly how Stalin's NKVD operated.
All bad ideas are sneaked in this way. You find a case that nobody can support (CP, for example) and make a new law. There are bad people in the country that "need killing" but that doesn't allow a vigilante or an LEO to hunt them down and terminate. We arrest them and put them on trial. If they are found guilty they get their punishment.
In this particular case an LEO hunted a person down and killed him without a trial. Again, that particular person may have been a bad guy and ultimately should have been removed from the society, one way or another. However he haven't had his day in court. Tomorrow another US citizen, an innocent one, will be similarly killed because of a mistake. If he had a trial he'd show his innocence. But there was no trial. This is a troubling precedent. If this stands, all I can say is "Welcome to GULAG, US style." We will be all one signature away from execution.
If you join a foreign army at war with the USA, you can expect to die like a member of a foreign army at war with the USA.
So, let's say a bunch of German Americans in 1939 went to Germany and become Nazi soldiers...should we shoot the hell out of 'em just like the rest of the Nazis?
Weird that anyone even has to ask the question.
Ask all the nazi americans
who went to fight for the fatherland in WWII.
The USA are not in a state of war with any country on this planet.
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Al Quada declared war on the USA. I do not recall a cease fire or a peace treaty. They are open season.
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