Posted on 10/01/2011 4:13:28 PM PDT by americanophile
Here are two facts: (1) Anwar al-Awlaki is an American citizen and an al-Qaeda propagandist. (2) Pres. Barack Obama proposes to assassinate him. Between the first fact and the second falls the shadow.
The Awlaki case has led many conservatives into dangerous error, as has the War on Terror more generally. That conservatives are for the most part either offering mute consent or cheering as the Obama administration draws up a list of U.S. citizens to be assassinated suggests not only that have we gone awry in our thinking about national security, limitations on state power, and the role of the president in our republic, but also that we still do not understand all of the implications of our country’s confrontation with Islamic radicalism. The trauma of 9/11 has deposited far too much emotional residue upon our thinking, and the Awlaki case provides occasion for a necessary scouring. Contra present conservative dogma, the Constitution has relatively little to say about the role of the president in matters of what we now call national security, which is not synonymous with combat operations. What the Constitution says is this: “The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States.” That is all. Upon this sandy foundation, conservative security and legal thinkers have constructed a fortress of a presidency that is nearly unlimited or actually unlimited in its power to define and pursue national-security objectives. But a commander-in-chief is not a freelance warlord, and his titular powers do not extend over everything that touches upon national security.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
Yep. This is a total violation of the Constitution. Too bad so many conservatives are all onboard because they like the results.
I’m onboard with it. Collaborate with Al Qaeda, and I want you shot on the spot. This is war.
“This is a total violation of the Constitution.”
Perhaps, but no one will bother to pursue impeachment and there would be no support for such a move.
We have killed a lot of innocent people in the wars. This guy wasn’t innocent and I’m glad he’s dust.
If we are truly at war with terrorism, then “war is hell”. Get er done.
First, I would suggest you read the entire article. Then I would suggest that you consider who determines whether someone has in fact ‘collaborated’ with anyone before they are summarily executed by a secret, non-reviewable order of his majesty the president.
He made war against ME, if not YOU (and we might ask why that was eh?) AND because he did so the President had a job to do as CIC to destroy him and his companions UTTERLY and TERMINALLY.
Real Conservatives understand that. Only mind-numbed, knee-jerk, robot-like Leftwingtards can possibly hold to a different position.
“Yep. This is a total violation of the Constitution. Too bad so many conservatives are all onboard because they like the results.”
The connections between that vermin (Awlaki, not Obama) between AQ and operatives here are undeniable. He was an un-uniformed enemy combatant and traitor. Period.
You fail to mention the whole “protect from enemies foreign or domestic” thingy, too. This asshole was both. He should have been shot on sight.
As distasteful as it is for me to approve of any Obamaism, our armed forces were both correct and fulfilling their oaths. End of story.
Thanks A_perfect_lady, ilovesarah2012, and liege. The thing that’s bad about these UAVs is that it kills people too dead. They have that in common with the Neutron Bomb and other nuclear weapons. /s
Only mind-numbed, knee-jerk, robot-like Leftwingtards can possibly hold to a different position.”
You left out “mind-numbed, knee-jerk, robot-like Paultards”...
I don't care if I know you, went to school with you, worked with you........
Sign up with the enemy and you need to take a dirt nap.
Awlaki took up arms with a foreign army that has declared war on us and conducted attacks against us.
He was killed overseas in a military strike.
This one is a no-brainer, it’s not even close.
One could think of hypothetical situations that are close to the line, but this is not one of them.
The UAV left so little of this puke behind there was hardly enough to pound a stake in it.
“We are at war with Eastasia. We have always been at war with Eastasia.”
“The thing that’s bad about these UAVs is that it kills people too dead.”
Insert Monty Python’s Parrot Shop sketch here....
They have suffered a final detachment from American reality.
The Obama admin was very concerned with the rights of the terrorists at GITMO...to the point of absurdity...
Then they go and completely abandon due process...
Who said al-Awlaki is either a Natural Born Citizen, or a Naturalized Citizen of the United States? Not Wiki, see below part of their history.
In June 2002, a Denver federal judge signed off on an arrest warrant for al-Awlaki for passport fraud.[84] On October 9, the Denver U.S. Attorney’s Office filed a motion to dismiss its complaint, and vacate the arrest warrant. It did so because prosecutors felt ultimately that they lacked evidence of a crime, according to U.S. Attorney Dave Gaouette, who authorized its withdrawal.[3] While al-Awlaki had falsely listed Yemen as his place of birth on his 1990 application for a U.S. Social Security number, which he then used to obtain a passport in 1993, he later changed his place of birth information to Las Cruces, New Mexico.[3][85] Prosecutors could not charge him, because a 10-year statute of limitations on lying to the Social Security Administration had expired.[86] The motion was approved by a magistrate judge on October 10, and filed on October 11.[8][24][87] As a result, agents were unable to arrest him when he arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport in the U.S. on October 10, 2002, the day the judge signed the order rescinding his warrant.[8][24][87]
ABC News reported that the decision to cancel the arrest warrant outraged members of a Joint Terrorism Task Force in San Diego who were monitoring al-Awlaki, and wanted to “look at him under a microscope”. But Gaouette said there had not been any objection to the warrant being rescinded during a meeting attended by Ray Fournier, the San Diego federal diplomatic security agent whose allegation had set in motion the effort to obtain a warrant.[3] Gaouette opined that if al-Awlaki had been convicted, he would have faced about 6 months in custody.[86] “The bizarre thing is if you put Yemen down (on the application), it would be harder to get a Social Security number than to say you are a native-born citizen of Las Cruces,” Gaouette said.[3] The New York Times noted, however, that al-Awlaki apparently did it so he could qualify for scholarship money given to foreign citizens.[44] U.S. Congressman Frank R. Wolf (R-VA) wrote in May 2010 that it was his understanding that by doing so al-Awlaki fraudulently obtained more than $20,000 in scholarship funds reserved for foreign students, for which he was not eligible.[88]
Naw, after about the 187th time an AlQaida puke got stopped trying to assassinate him or some poor shopper in a suburban mall I think Obama finally figured it out ~ that his advisors were just as stupid as he had been when it comes to AlQaida.
No oversight from congress?
HUH? Bush said “ we will get you no matter where you are...if you are a terrorist, or harbor terrorists...”
Doesn’t sound too secret to me.
Also, how do you explain the Civil War ending up with a whole lot of American citizens dead...at the “orders” of the President sending out the Union Army? The confederate soldiers ( and any non-uniformed Confederates ) also disavowed allegiance to the Union.
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